The Sheffield Scenester

Having seen, interviewed and reviewed many bands around Sheffield, we’ve developed quite a reasonable understanding of how they get together, write and perform, but how do the people behind the gigs, namely the promoters, fit in and where does it go from there for any up-coming band? With these questions in mind we went down to The Attic studios to meet up with Paul Scanlon, the founder of Purple Dot Records and Promotions.

Paul is only 19 years old but with an undying love of the music industry, he has in his spare time, while studying a degree at University, set up a promotions company that is gradually building quite a name for itself, this is what he had to say for himself;

Scenester; What exactly is Purple Dot Records and Promotions?

Paul; We began at the start of 2010, I got introduced to some bands that were not only good but had great talent, I then hooked up with The Stockroom and we all kinda got together and pushed in the same direction with the idea of starting this promotions team or community that all just worked together to help each other out and scratch each others back. We had graphic designers, bands, venues all getting involved with each other, a couple of weeks down the line from that point we had more bands involved, I was introduced to The Attic and then it kinda developed further and split down the middle into Purple Dot Promotions and Purple Dot Records. The promotions side have showcases all around Sheffield working with West Street Live, The Washington and The Stockroom, whilst the record label works with the more successful bands, it takes them onto recording studies and things like that and that’s how it came about, that’s the stage where we’re at right now.

Scenester; So essentially does one feed the other?

Paul; Right now, one feeds the other because all the money that’s made from the showcases gets pumped back into Purple Dot whether its into the showcases by buying big banners or whether its invested in the recording... All the bands are happy to have the money pumped back into it...that’s were things stand at the minute. To start with The Stockroom provided the venue free of charge and so we didn’t have any expenses and it was just £2 on the door which we retained towards room hire for other venues. So it all started at nothing and just grew and it all just keeps getting pumped back into it, the little things like the website, I’ve just paid for myself!

Scenester; If any band ends up getting a good response at a gig, do they get pushed into the recording side of the business?

Paul; There’s about 25 bands we have at the moment so its not so much about a good response, because we work with bands that are more experienced and more developed than others, we’re happy to keep them rotating until we feel they’re ready to come and begin recording or they’ve played enough showcases. We just kinda build them up and shift them across. So we’re like a promotions team and we take it that bit further with the more developed, mature, experienced bands, that’s how it works. I managed to get down to one of my showcases and saw the bands swapping demos, its such a good feeling to know the bands are becoming part of a community if that makes sense.

Scenester; You’re not the first promoter or band to talk about ‘community’ as such…….

Paul; They were swapping demos and numbers, saying things like we’ll gig with you in the future, and it was a really good feeling to know that this sort of thing had been created, sort of like a musical family if you will.
The ball was rolling but then it really got moving when we hooked up with The Attic and then we could really provide that extra support and then that’s when everything and everyone got involved and it started to be taken seriously.

Scenester; Have you had any actual bad experiences?

Paul; I’ve only had one so far and that was when a promoter wanted to work with the record label, then it wasn’t Purple Dot Promotions having the night, it was Purple Dot records providing the bands for a promoter to have the night, if that makes sense. The promoter didn’t turn up and so there was a back up promoter, he wasn’t getting in many people and so put the bands on really late, I couldn’t get down there myself. My last band was on at 12.30 when the venue was shut, so it was really horrible for the bands, I won’t work with that promoter again, that’s my worst experience so far. It was like I’d really let people down even though it was out of my control, to be fair the promoter was inexperienced, it was one of his first shows, it was a horrible situation to be in cos I gave him the bands and said he’d look after you. It really was bad night and I really don’t want to be associated with that night, but what can you do but live and learn.

Scenester; So how do actually find the bands?

Paul; In some of the venues we have some posters asking are you serious about being in a band, or are you looking to get that bit further, we’ve got our MySpace and word of mouth from other bands. When you meet a band you kind of find that they know quite a few other people in bands so you know they spread the word, that’s how we got our first foundation of bands from posters, The Stockroom provided a few bands as well, this place (The Attic), they have bands coming in and out everyday, Paul just mentions it to them. There’s many ways in which bands come on board but we try not to take in too many in one go, because if in one week we tried to take in about ten bands, we just couldn’t cope with it, so we just try and keep it down to a slow trickle

Scenester; How many people are there working with Purple Dot?

Paul; There’s myself and a guy called Mark, and these guys at Attic who help out a lot, we have weekly meetings and go over new ideas. We’ve got loads of projects in the pipeline, yeah the guy, Aaron from The Stockroom helped out until it closed down, so at the moment it’s just the three guys at The Attic and me. Yeah, myself, Mark Shead, Paul and Matt, both from The Attic and that’s the team!

Scenester; Going way back before Purple Dot, existed what actually made you want to do this?

Paul; I’m from Coventry, and so when I came to Sheffield to study a degree in Business and Marketing, I was surprised how much of a musical city it was, there’s always a live band on in the city centre, you can guarantee it. In my first year at Uni I lived on Leadmill road, I’m only 19, so living that close to The Stockroom I would hear bands all the time and I kinda got sucked in. I had no musical talent whatsoever, once I could play the guitar when I was about six and play the recorder when I was about ten, but otherwise no, I wish I had but all the same I wanted to be a part of it. I’ve got a few friends back in Coventry who are in bands and I’ve always wanted to be a part of it. I love going to gigs, I love getting involved with bands, without being a groupie, so for me this was the only way to get involved.

Scenester ; Its still a big step from going to gigs, meeting bands after the show and chatting away to actually moving up and promoting them….

Paul; I’ve seen a couple of bands get rejected from record labels which is obviously a common thing so I don’t know, really it kinda started back in Coventry when one of my friends, JJ Thompson, was in a band and he said I wanna have a night to myself, so I said I’ll throw this night and I did it at a place called The Limetree. He got really good positive feedback from that and from then I always enjoyed doing it and it just developed, that’s how it came about

Scenester; Moving onto your showcase at The Boardwalk with Tarka Dawn, are you looking forward to that?

Paul; Yeah it’s on July 22nd, I’m so excited about this, its gonna be our biggest thing to date, Joolz Vernon (local promoter) has helped me out such a lot, he’s invested in a light engineer and helped pay for the posters, tickets and everything. I really wanted to give him money but he’s like “No it’s my night as well!” So far Purple Dot have kept it at smaller venues such as The Stockroom and The Washington, so the Boardwalk is a step up and these bands have some great talent. I’m really confident its going to be a great night cos he’s booked a late bar and guest DJ, he mentioned Russ (from Tivoli) or Iain Hodgson, that are really good. I was quite scared really because in that line up we’ve got two maybe three headline bands…..when you do that they can kind of compete but the nights coming together quite nicely, they all know each other so it should be good. I mean I’ve put all my small gigs on hold to concentrate on this it’s that important. I get nervous sometimes but just shrug it off cos I’m just that excited.

It may sound simple enough but it takes a lot of time and a lot of leg work to pull something like this together, and you certainly need to be passionate about the music industry to invest in it that whole heartedly! On a parting note Paul did say “We’re always looking to get introduced to new bands, if there are any out there who are interested then get hold of me through MySpace, my email is in there.” We’d like to thank Paul for his time, and The Attic for the use of their facilities, and finally Purple Dot as mentioned above are showcasing a night at The Boardwalk with five of their bands on Thursday July 22nd, it promises to be a good ‘un!