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Have you ever said ‘I saw them before they were big, supporting The ****** in a small venue back of the town hall/sheds/community centre’? Those precious memories came courtesy of the small independent music venues and promoters who are the lifeblood of live music.Tomorrow there is a gig at The Roundhouse in London organised by the Music Venue Trust, it’s a benefit gig to raise funds to help support and protect small venues around the UK threatened with closure. ‘Fightback’ has a quality bill that includes Everything Everything, Public Service Broadcasting and Ed Harcourt amongst others.Venues all around the country are being closed due to rising costs, property developers and local council panicking over noise and behaviour complaints. Did you see Jimi Hendrix at The Marquee? The Pogues at The Mean Fiddler? New Order at The Hacienda? In the early 80’s I was living in Manchester and I saw The Fall and Bronski Beat at The Hacienda, The Smiths at...

Thick Richard has been pedaling his potty-mouthed poems at festivals and clubs up and down the land for the last 16 years. His cynical, lyrical, jet-black humour, intelligent wordplay, well-crafted verse, and occasionally acerbic, well-targeted comic attacks have earned him much respect from artists and audiences from Edinburgh to Glastonbury. Occasional support for Kate Tempest, Thick Richard was also presenter of BBC 6 Music's Beat of the Day. A regular headliner of Hammer and Tongue nationwide poetry tours and is usually to be found performing a wide variety of live music and cabaret venues.Thick or Wholemeal to his friends will be supported by local hipster folk-popsters Flatland and the Garage Flowers.Not only Flowers and Poets but pies too...yes we're hosting the event in the Birds Nest Cafe' where your ticket admission will include a meal deal. ...

Like buses...buses v beasts not a good combination I grant you. Chairhouse Presents would like to support and recommend another great event. Two in a week - bullseye.  Robyn Hitchcock is one of England's most enduring contemporary singer/songwriters and live performers. A surrealist poet, talented guitarist, cult artist and musician's musician, Hitchcock is among alternative rock's father figures and is the closest thing the genre has to a Bob Dylan (not coincidentally his biggest musical inspiration). Since founding the art-rock band The Soft Boys in 1976, Robyn has recorded more than 20 albums as well as starred in Storefront Hitchcock an in-concert film recorded in New York and directed by Jonathan Demme. Blending folk and psychedelia with a wry British nihilism, Robyn describes his songs as ‘paintings you can listen to.’ His most recent album The Man Upstairs is a bittersweet love letter to a vanishing world. Produced by legendary folk-rock svengali Joe Boyd (Pink Floyd, Nick Drake) the album was critically acclaimed by...

The chairhousepresnts would like to support and recommend to you all in spirit of good Salopian collective support and ‘we-know-what-it-takes-to-put-on-a-gig…god do we know’ “an event next Saturday 24th September. Beth Prior in Shrewsbury as the finale to her UK album launch tour. We're taking over Flaxivity skate park (Flaxmill Maltings). The afternoon is showcasing local talent, especially focusing on the young - we have two acts with performers as young as 13! Some more established acts, like Flatlands and Garage Flowers. We're running this in conjunction with The Big Busk to help raise funds for Shrewsbury Ark. The evening has 4 support acts, Zara Sykes, Alex Davies and Dai Robs, with Beth Prior and her 7 piece reggae/dub/ska collective concluding the live performances. DJ Buzzword will bring the evening to a close” – @GiselleLouRyan. Check out the Facebook event for details:   It promises to be a great day/evening with some of our pals, old and new playing a part. DJ Buzzword, Flatlands and...

"Can't thank @chairhousepres enough for an amazing evening in Shrewsbury. Great people, great venue, great audience. Thank you"...

7:30 The Beasts will open the stable door (tunage from the lovely and cuddly Mr @HaydenTGoApe)8:30 Mr Louis Gordon  (wearing the yellow and green silks)9:30 The Hanging Stars AKA 'The Snow Leopard Hunters of Cymru' (wearning various summer silks)Available from the Bar - Fine ales...craft beers (american IPA's)..reds..whites..juices..perhaps even a peanut too!Thanks to @HaydenTGoApe, @leftfordead records (Andy) and the Coach and Horses (Deano aka 'Monkey man') for assisting with bringing this event to fruition..we couldnt have done it without you lovely little cuddly beasts.   ...

The Hanging Stars gig is of extra significance to one of the band, Mark Phillips, known affectionately as Horse as it’s a homecoming. Horse who played in various bands in Shropshire is now with his ‘new’ band The Hanging Stars who are receiving praise and support all around, BBC radio 6music have been giving them plenty of airplay and the album has had 4 star reviews in the national papers. Horse is excited about showing off his new project to his home town. The rest of the band have great expectations “We're mainly coming Shrewsbury way to investigate the rumours of tigers in Snowdonia. So it shall be a swift exit straight after the show to set up camp and Horse being the local he is, shall guide us with the help of a lit up cider bottle”.Mark Riley caused a spike in sales last night after a mention for the Chairhouse crew and this gig. Recommendation is book early...

I’ve been giving the old ‘Over the Silvery Lake’ a right bashing on the turntable recently and Les Etoiles Suspendues sound like a incense stick burning slowly in a teenage bedroom while in the garden below the runner beans are ready to be harvested.The days are ticking, the hours flying by, the minutes and seconds are already in the past, Shrewsbury, Wem , Whixall and Welshhampton get yourselves along to the Wightman theatre a week on Saturday, the 10th September, The Hanging Stars will be captured in a gothic tableaux, starring like constellations on a chart plotted by Sir Patrick Moore.The Roman god of wine and agriculture Bacchus often carried a pinecone-topped staff, and his followers were goat-footed Satyrs and Maenads, wild women who danced energetically during his festivals, he bought a ticket, have you?See you satyrs and maenads there, I’ll be the naked bloke at the front with a pinecone and a pint of Lemon Dream.Bison...