B-Town: Tim Senna Gives Us a Behind The Scenes Look At Promoting A Live Show
For some reason, I usually wake up way too early on the day I’m promoting a gig night. We’ve been doing B-Town technically for just over a year but it became regular in March, the sheer fear of organising something that could fail spectacularly has faded but the adrenaline is still there relentlessly.
This time it’s 5 am & in fairness, it’s because I have a podcast edit to do for my day job that I’ve decided to leave til the ultimate last minute. Since late-night uni essay bingeing I feel like I’m incapable of doing anything until that cliff edge of disaster where it’s like someone is standing over you hunched over your keyboard, pointing a gun to your head that they’ll fire if you stop working. It’s a novel concept, I think a lot of people would pay someone to do that to help them be productive but it would likely stretch the bounds of UK law. The point is pressure helps you focus. And when you’re under pressure last minute, things seem to come together. That’s the B-Town philosophy whether I intended it to be or not.
It’s 11 am, I’ve chugged coffee, procrastinated watching YouTube videos & finished the podcast edit so now the gig night is the only thing in my life I care about. The routine before I head down to the Rainbow is always last-minute checks to make sure by the time I’m at the venue we have everything we need. I’ve made a checklist of things that need to be covered before I get on that 50 bus, it’s grown through my failure to prepare from previous B-Towns that have left us in the lurch on occasion. One time it was not bringing a bucket to put change in for the door, then it was not bringing any change to put in the bucket for people who want to buy on the door, then it was a sharpie to mark people’s hands who aren’t old enough to drink so the bartender knows not to serve them. It’s safe to say a lot more goes into planning a gig night than you’d ever imagine going into it. The current checklist I have is 16 points long, I think that says it all. This time one of the more fun points is glowsticks to use as wristbands for the first few people who come in to add atmosphere. Ever since I saw Coldplay use LED wristbands at their gigs I thought ‘What’s the most budget way of recreating this?’ & then Poundland came in as my saviour with 80p packs of 15 glowsticks. I go out onto my high street and buy some, along with a pack of balloons because you can’t have a good gig without at least some balloons.
There’s a mild existential crisis that washes over me as I’m picking up these items on a random Thursday morning when almost everyone my age is probably doing a serious professional job. I very much picked my path which involved doing what I wanted to & found fun over what might provide the most stability but there’s always those moments of almost hilarity where you’re like “I’m 29, what the hell am I doing man?”. It passes quickly & I then head to my local printer shop to get set times & some of our special event posters, which we spread across the venue, printed out. This time it’s a couple of Charli XCX brat-themed offerings with the blurry text ‘b-town’ emblazoned in front of that iconic fluorescent green & a photoshopped picture of Ozzy Osbourne in a crown with the caption ‘God Save The King’ I hope from everything I’ve been saying about balloons, glowsticks & bizarre posters the philosophy of this monthly gig night is coming through. We don’t & won’t take ourselves seriously. I almost have a phobia of it at this point from how many indie bands I’ve seen in double denim who have no sense of humour about themselves. In every gig space, you see these very bland-looking gig posters that are great graphic design but they have no sense of fun. When we made B-Town I wanted our posters to stand out and look like a party and they do. We’re the weird kid at school who doesn’t fit in but has become a beacon for every type of person who feels like an outsider to come and enjoy themselves. An ‘anti-clique’ if you like.
With all the prep sorted and my bag crammed full of every item I could need, I hop onto the bus and arrive at the venue at around 4 pm. The Rainbow is such a beautiful and welcoming place. Lisa Travers who works doing something important for the venue has always been so supportive of us & friendly; it feels like everyone else follows suit. Luke on the bar welcomes me as I come in and offers me in a coffee. Never underrate the value of a good bartender at an indie gig- he brings the energy up a good 10%. Weronika on sound is already downstairs getting everything ready- she’s awesome and blasting out metal from the moment I head in. It’s always so nice because nothing feels weirder than a pin-drop quiet gig venue before soundcheck.
This is the perfect point of the day where I know I’m on time with everything I need and can lose myself in putting posters up, posting Instagram stories promoting the night and telling people various FAQs/begging them to come without having to be confronted by how successful (or not) the event has been. Luckily since March, we’ve been on a hot streak of not losing money, one gig we even MADE a profit and straightaway gave it all to our bands & main videographer. B-Town isn’t a cash cow it’s a cultural fertiliser. We want the Birmingham indie scene to grow and thrive so both me and Nick, who organises the show with me, agree that the creatives getting paid is the most vital thing.
The serenity of putting up posters is always broken by one performer telling me they’re going to be late. I’ve been on tour with bands several times vlogging so I know the reality of long drives and traffic, I’ve built in a cushion to soundcheck timings but today we’re still cutting it VERY fine. Ear Candy our headliner arrives first (from Bournemouth what a legend) & he and his band soundcheck with an immaculate indie pop sound. Then there’s a big gap before the next of the 3 performers arrive. Poppy from the Rainbow’s digital marketing team is here making content with us and it was nice to have something to do instead of sitting around waiting and reflecting on how late we are. She hands me an iconic inflatable microphone and I riff off an interview with Jamie of Earcandy, shoutout Poppy, she’s a legend & it was a great moment which you can watch on the Rainbow’s socials.
Finally, the next act arrives, Me & Thee with violin in hand and all followed by my old friend Naomi Dawes & the soundcheck bursts into life- Naomi is a solo singer-songwriter so it’s really quick & Me & Thee are musical geniuses as far as I can tell so get everything sorted nicely. Finally, Rarity piled onto the stage and with only a 15-minute delay to doors soundcheck is sorted & we’re all good to go.
Probably the most anxious moment for any small promoter is when the second door opens. In that minute you’re faced with either an empty room at an event that’s technically started or people waiting filtering in from the point it starts. The last time was brutal where a good 5 minutes after doors opened the room was deserted. I was about to lose faith and then suddenly 20 people apparated out of nowhere, saving my blushes. This time it’s much less stressful with a decent number of people filing in from doors. I greet a few of them including Phil who always comes from Manchester for these nights because deep down he knows Birmingham is the better city (but he’ll deny this if you ask him).
I go into the smoking area to fetch Rarity who is on first- “is anyone there?” they nervously ask me. This was thanks to them selling well and it took all the pressure off the whole situation. There’s that point when you organise gigs when the first band is about to come on and you look anxiously backwards to see how many people are (& if anyone has) come. It’s a kind of horror movie dread sometimes but it has a flip side where if it’s decent you feel this massive sense of pride and can’t stop looking back and feeling it.
It’s a solid crowd especially for the first act so I sigh a massive breath of relief knowing that my part is largely done. You always feel a bit worried about a max exodus in case most of the crowd but we run b town with a clear community spirit and ask everyone in the crowd to stay for every band. It works a charm honestly and my opinion is it’s a top-down effect- if we show we care, people will match our energy and every performer over the night has a good crowd.
I also host which has become the most enjoyable part of the whole experience for me. I’ve waterboarded myself with enough public speaking that nerves don’t factor in and when you’ve got a room of people in front of you hanging on your every word it’s the most empowering feeling. I managed to get a Brazilian-inspired chant of olé olé olé olé b-town b-town going at the end and those moments are always sweet. To be honest from the first band coming on the event is a bit of a blissful blur for me. It’s nice to leave it to the performers to do their job and enjoy it as I would any other gig. As long as the room isn’t empty I’m able to do that and this show has gone great in that respect. Naomi Dawes in particular blew me away, I’ve known her for so many years but even still I was surprised by just how incredible her voice was- enrapturing the room like the sirens she named her EP after. I’ve never seen a bigger more still crowd but not a single one was bored. It was like they were under a spell. Me & Thee smashed their set as well with the most effortless comedy and chaotic musical genius I’ve seen since Black Country New Road, except as Nick wittily said in his intro for them these guys are actually FROM the black country.
At the end of the night, Ear Candy raised the roof with the most classic indie set of this Frankenstein indie night & it was the kind of quality you’d expect from the Radio 1 tent at Reading. I’m so proud of this gig, I’m so proud of these people and I’m so proud of what we’ve done together, to borrow a black country new road lyric. This is also just the beginning. Hand on heart I’d probably die for it- this is B-Town.
