Sometime during lock down I take a phone call from old friend, Roger Mortimer of Sound Knowledge in Marlborough. His luck of using Salisbury City Hall for scaling his in-store shows up had run out and was on the look out for another venue in the 900+ capacity in the rough area.
I happened to be loading out an event at Trowbridge Town Hall with local musician Charlie Gillman when I suggested using the Civic.
Trowbridge is the county town, has a big population, a large well presented venue with a good quality PA, and crucially a massive car park next door.
With his interest piqued, I arranged a meeting between Roger and Civic venue manager Paul. A few weeks later and Paul is talking the talk, bigging up the space and Roger is suitably impressed. Skip forward a few more weeks and the label representatives from Sony, Warners etc all come down to run their rule over the space too, and all agree it’s extremely useful.
This was 18 months ago. We’ve been playing a waiting game for some time, trying to get the right show to launch the initiative in Trowbridge. Rumours of Manic Street Preachers or Suede or even Christine & The Queens came and went. Getting a major pop act to take the risk is a big ask, and Trowbridge is unproven.
However, finally, we can announce that Roger has secured the services of Bristol BIMM alumni George Ezra. The #1 artist, who came through BBC Introducing In The West via Sam Bonham and Rich Pitt in 2011, will become the first Sound Knowledge instore in Trowbridge.
This is HUGE news. Not just because George Ezra is a famous musician, but because Sound Knowledge regularly host famous musicians, so if this goes well, we can look forward to more in the future.
Sound Knowledge have previously championed the likes Ed Sheeran, Everything Everything, Emily Barker, Declan McKenna, Ash, Raag & Bone Man, Izzy Bizu and many many more!
You can buy you album bundle deals via their website here; https://www.sound-knowledge.co.uk/ or by calling 01672 511106 from 10am tomorrow 20th May.
Note: Demand will be high, but Roger has purposefully chosen a larger venue to meet that demand, so I have no doubt you will be able to buy your album, and secure your place!
Remember, every album you buy will likely affect where George Ezra charts, so you can quite realistically help George score a #1 album!
If you like this, and you like what’s going on in Trowbridge, do visit the Live Music in Trowbridge page and be ahead of the game. Also remember there’s more where this came from with amazing live music at The Pump and Trowbridge Town Hall too!
I’ll see you at the show, probably handling merch of something.
Kieran.