{"id":18516,"date":"2017-11-14T10:20:25","date_gmt":"2017-11-14T10:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/?p=18516"},"modified":"2017-11-14T10:20:25","modified_gmt":"2017-11-14T10:20:25","slug":"battle-off-small-vs-large-music-venues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/battle-off-small-vs-large-music-venues\/","title":{"rendered":"Battle Off: Small vs. large music venues"},"content":{"rendered":"<h6>Words, audio &amp; images: Bernadette Galbraith | Subbing: Joanne Clark<\/h6>\n<h3>Banquet Records in Kingston pride themselves on being \u2018more than your local record shop\u2019. I took a trip to the store to find out more about what they meant by this.<\/h3>\n<p>Having stumbled across <a href=\"https:\/\/www.banquetrecords.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Banquet Records<\/a> accidentally, it was a stroke of luck to discover they also arrange regular in-store gigs and various events. Many of the artists they collaborate with are well-established with already a desirable following. For example, folk singer-songwriter Frank Turner will be playing The Hippodrome with them Thursday night and yet, he\u2019s played at the O2 Arena in the past, to an audience of 20,000 people.<\/p>\n<p>It was the in-store gigs that really caught my attention though. While browsing for more information, an image came up alongside a description for them and it displayed a tiny stage with a crowd huddled round. Having experienced smaller gigs before, at Margate Winter Gardens for example, I was keen to visit Banquet Records to see how it would compare.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_18534\" style=\"width: 547px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2017\/11\/Julien-Baker.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18534\" class=\"wp-image-18534\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2017\/11\/Julien-Baker.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"537\" height=\"537\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-18534\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Julien Baker playing Banquet Records. Image: Bernadette Galbraith<\/p><\/div>\n<p>American singer and guitarist, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/julienrbaker\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Julien Baker<\/a> was the next artist lined up to play the Kingston store. Her music is a divulgence of her most inner thoughts and feelings. It\u2019s delicate and yet hard-hitting, commanding the room with just an utterance of her voice. As the crowd start to fill the room, which is no larger than the record store next door, a staff member asks us to move right up as far as we can.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Julien Baker - &quot;Appointments&quot; (Official Video)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MdBu21i9aEE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Baker is standing on stage with just a guitar in hand, watching us all pile in and then thanks us for joining her on this rainy, dreary day. With her standing merely two metres away, I can\u2019t help but think how nice it is for music fans to unite in such a way. It\u2019s 12:30 on a Saturday afternoon. The rain is incessantly pouring and with staff still setting up, gig-goers had no choice but to queue up outside.<\/p>\n<p>There are many other places that some people would rather be on a Saturday afternoon and yet, there is an element of devotion to standing here. Whether that be for the love of the music or rareness of seeing an artist in such a small venue.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Small vs. Large Music Venues by Bernadette Galbraith - Audio Module\" width=\"500\" height=\"400\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?visual=true&#038;url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F355295309&#038;show_artwork=true&#038;maxheight=750&#038;maxwidth=500\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Words, audio &amp; images: Bernadette Galbraith | Subbing: Joanne Clark Banquet Records in Kingston pride themselves on being \u2018more than your local record shop\u2019. I took a trip to the store to find out more&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":476,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,92],"tags":[452,692,2642,3410,4322,5166,5689,6722],"class_list":["post-18516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","category-music","tag-ambient","tag-banquet-records","tag-gigs","tag-julien-baker","tag-music","tag-records","tag-small-venues","tag-vinyl"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/476"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18516\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}