Promoters & labels

ART SCARE RECORDS
Email: artscarerecords@hotmail.co.uk, web: www.myspace.com/artscarerecords • Self-styled “DIY micro label’ that list indie imprints Domino and Dischord as influences, Art Scare’s forte is limited edition singles/EPs for weird and wonderful up-and-coming artists. Their ethics have paid early dividends too, recently named DIY label of the week on Huw Stephens’s Radio 1 show. First compilation Art Scare #1 is out now, featuring delights from bananas Bristol breakcore bods Vexkiddy to interestingly-handled electro-rap nutbar Psycho Fag!!!.

BLOOD RED SOUNDS
Email: parlourmusic@yahoo.com • Bristol independent, touting passionate, inventive, uncompromising and largely guitar-based fare. Released the debut Hunting Lodge album, plus ish from Big Joan, Male and others.

BLUEBLOOD RECORDS
21 Lower Keyford, Frome, Somerset, tel: 01373 455093, web: www.bluebloodrecords.com • Widely distributed independent blues and roots imprint that’s been around for over 10 years now. Started by bluesman Eddie Martin, their studio additionally offers both vintage analogue sounds (from a range of rare valve equipment) and digital editing/recording.

CHOKE
Web: www.ttyc.co.uk • Choke the magazine and musicians’ collective are sadly no longer, but their name spirit lives on at their www.ttyc.co.uk forum. It’s a significant virtual meeting point for Bristol and Bath’s musical types: find a new drummer for your band, check out the best in new music, see who’s playing where round town, or chew the fat on the issues of the day and potentially find yourself arguing with a local music-bound micro-celeb.

DB RECORDS
PO Box 19318, Bath, tel: 01225 782322, email: info@dbrecords.co.uk, web: www.dbrecords.co.uk • Eclectic Bath label established in 1998. Has released the likes of The Electric Soft Parade, Psychid and Tom McRae.

DECORUM
Web: www.myspace.com/decorumrecords • Independent label, DIY show promoters and general carries of the good fight, Decorum’s shows see some of the world’s greatest unsung acts ply their wares - previous exponents include The Wailingest Cats, Puttin On The Ritz and Hot Bone.

DENIM & LEATHER
Mob: 07732 475159, web: www.myspace.com/denimandleatherpromotions • Heavyweight providers of alternative and outsider noises including the finest live doom metal, drone, noise and psych for the blackened souls of Bristol. Recent gigs include Pelican, Torche, Wolves In The Throne Room and Emeralds.

DEATH$UCKER
Email: info@deathsucker.org, web: www.deathsucker.org • Purveyors of crazy ear-breaking experimental dancefloor sounds, the Death$ucker label’s associated artists include architect Parasite, plus Bong-Ra and DJ Floorclearer.

DHP CONCERTS BRISTOL
Web: www.myspace.com/dhpconcertsbristol • Bristolian arm of national concert promoters DHP, there’s a good chance that if you’ve seen a band of any size in the Thekla (which DHP owns) or various other venues of similar standing around the city, these folks were behind it.

EYES WIDE SHUT RECORDINGS
email: info@eyeswideshutrecordings.com, web: www.eyeswideshutrecordings.com • New label releasing DVDs, CDs and downloads. Forthcoming releases include a live double album from The Mission. Full release and PR campaigns for worldwide distribution. Part of Extreme Music Production (see also Managers).

FACT FANS
Email: factfans@yahoo.co.uk, web: www.myspace.co.uk/factfans • Experienced non-profit promoters. Unconstrained by purse strings and reinvigorated by a stint in radio, they select music that interests them, putting on regular gigs at venues across Bristol. They describe themselves as “genre-defying and taste-defining”.

GIMME SHELTER!
Web: www.myspace.com/gimmeshelterclubbristol • Eclectic live/club night crossover continuing to look for acts to play its sessions at The Hatchet, a self-proclaimed “club for people who don’t like clubs”.

GLAIVE CONCERTS
Email: matthew@glaiveconcerts.net, web: www.glaiveconcerts.net • Independent promoter of alternative sounds. Past shows include The Death Set, Holy Fuck, No Age, British Sea Power and Black Lips.

GO APE!
Email: garethgoape@yahoo.co.uk • Former Moles club promoter now occasionally behind gigs at Bristol venues like The Cooler (including Frank Sidebottom and former Pipettes singer Rose Eleanor Dougall) and DJ nights at the Hatchet and Thekla.

ILLEGAL SEAGULL
Web: http://www.myspace.com/srslylol • Mad and messy, Illegal Seagull’s extravaganzas share more with rave spirit than arms-folded gig etiquette, yet have put on a bunch of bands that definitely bring the rock - from Lovvers to Hunting Lodge - go figure. Or don’t and get down instead.

INGUE RECORDS
Email: info@inguerecords.com, web: www.myspace.com/inguerecords • Bristol indie with a discog including Theo, The Jelas, bIRdbATh, Cowman and Delbert Grady, also responsible for sporadic live shows. The name, in case you were wondering, is pronounced ‘ang’.

INVADA RECORDS
Mob: 07732 475159, email: fatpaul@blueyonder.co.uk, web: www.invada.co.uk • Bristol imprint behind product from The Heads, Lucky Luke, Gonga, Fuzz Against Junk, Amusement Parks On Fire, Atavist, Blood Island Raiders, Brain Donor and Withered Man. Releases for 2009 feature Crippled Black Phoenix, Julian Cope’s Black Sheep, Thought Forms and Team Brick. New online store at www.invadarecords.bigcartel.com.

JELLI RECORDS
Web: www.myspace.com/jellirecords • Independent label from Bristol formed by Steve Parkhouse, host of the Bristol Music Show on BCFM Radio, promoting upcoming folk and acoustic artists. Promotions and artist management are also part of their repertoire.

LET THE BASTARDS, GRIND!
Web: www.myspace.com/letthebastardsgrind • Purveyors of gloriously discordant gigs fit to scare your neighbours/gran/passers-by, LTB,G! have played host to DJ Scotch Egg, Duracell, Cutting Pink With Knives, Fuck Buttons, Team Brick, Racebannon and a whole bunch more tinnitus-inducing acts.

LITTLETHINK
Email: info@littlethink.co.uk, web: www.myspace.com/littlethink • LittleThink put on quality line-ups of local and national talent. All sorts of music tastes catered for, with a slight erring towards jangly indie pop.

LOCAL KID
PO Box 2543, Bristol, email: localkidgang@yahoo.co.uk, web: www.localkid.co.uk • Fiercely DIY/leftwing promotional collective organising shows as well as putting out records. They’ve previously put on Le Tigre, Electrelane and Kimya Dawson in the fair city of Bristol.

LOFI HIFI
Email: tre_bailey@hotmail.com, web: www.myspace.com/lofihifi • Independent live music promotion in the South West since 2003. Responsible for shows by the following in the last 12 months: Melt-Banana, Frank Turner, Sons & Daughters, The Sunshine Underground, The Aliens, Late of The Pier.

METROPOLIS MUSIC
Email: conal@metropolismusic.com • National concert promoters and artist management dealing with performers touring smaller venues right up to stadium level. Their portfolio of current artists includes, as promoters, Coldplay, Kings of Leon, Oasis and Snow Patrol, and, as managers, Amy Winehouse, Goldie Lookin’ Chain, Sam Sparro and The New York Fund. They’ve also developed artists from the beginning of their careers, such as The White Stripes, Razorlight and Bloc Party. They’re responsible for over 600 gigs a year across the UK, including shows at a lot of venues in Bristol.

MEME MUSIC
Unit 13, The Coach House, 2 Upper York St, Bristol, tel: 07989 323465, web: www.musemusic.co.uk • Meme Music is an exclusive agency focused on talent development and event production and promotion. They are an international crew of promoters, producers, agents and managers who have been involved in the music industry for ages. Meme also take bookings for all events at Trinity.

PLUG 58
Email: info@58records.co.uk, web: www.58records.co.uk • Record label and regular event run by local musicians Rasha Shaheen (soloist and The Liftmen) and Jonathan Heath, aiming to ‘make the eclectic a norm’.

PULL THE STRINGS
Web: www.myspace.com/pullthestringsplaytime •Taking cues from DIY promoters around the UK, PTS have been around in various guises since 1996, when they began life as Oh Deary!. Marginally less active nowadays, the quality of their shows hasn’t diminished, with Zomes, Boduf Songs and Bilge Pump on their agenda in the past few months.

PURR
Email: info@purr.org.uk, web: www.purr.org.uk • Bath-based guitar label. Purr’s output has included The A-Lines, The Fog Band, The Hot Puppies, Intentions Of An Asteroid, Ivory Springer, Manic Cough and Piney Gir And The Age Of Reason. Currently also promoting in Bath, but ask, not unreasonably, to avoid getting in touch if you are ‘a funk-metal band, blues duo or Led Zep tribute’.

QU JUNKTIONS
Web: www.qujunktions.com • Providers of magical music to the good folk of Bristol and beyond, this is the DIY promotional and tour booking outfit that in recent times has brought you dubstep explorer Bass Clef, A Hawk And A Hacksaw, Chris Corsano, Murcof, and Zun Zun Egui, among many, many others.

SHEER MUSIC
Web: www.myspace.com/sheermusic • Promotions company based in Devizes, Wiltshire. Trying to liven up nights out in the South West with fresh underground indie-rock bands without focusing on one single genre. Responsible for regular shows in Devizes, but have also promoted in Bath (Moles and O’Neill’s) and at the Vic in Swindon.

SINK & STOVE
Email: info@sinkandstove.co.uk, web: www.sinkandstove.co.uk • Long-established influential Bristol imprint responsible for the early output of Chikinki, the initial release of Gravenhurst’s ‘Flashlight Seasons’, the ‘Hospital Radio Request List’ compilations and currently home to You & The Atom Bomb, You Say Party! We Say Die!, Leave Land For Water, The Playwrights, People Of Water, Aerosols and Secret Lake.

STITCH STITCH
Email: hello@stitchstitchrecords.co.uk, web: www.stitchstitchrecords.co.uk • Bristol DIY label releasing records, animation DVDs and small zines by the likes of Frànçois & The Atlas Mountains, Ray Rumours, The Lonely Ponies and I Know I Have No Collar, with the emphasis firmly placed on offering beautifully packaged delights.

SUGAR SHACK
Email: mike@sugarshackrecords.co.uk, web: www.sugarshackrecords.co.uk • A veteran of the local scene, Sugar Shack focuses on guitar music from Bristol and beyond, their roster including acts like Pitchblend and Left Side Brain.

SUPERFI
Email: superfirecords@gmail.com, web: www.superfirecords.co.uk • Prolific label dealing with the rockier, noisier side of things. Recent and past releases include Geisha, The Death Of Her Money, Taint, Hunting Lodge Tractor, Trencher, Line, Army Of Flying Robots and Art Of Burning Water.

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