DHP Family are very proud to have won two major prizes at the Live Music Business Awards held last night (Thursday 16 October) at a Gala Ceremony in London’s West End.
At the Radisson Blu hotel on Portman Square and in front of a full-house of industry heavyweights, Venues Director Bart Easter collected awards for two of our iconic venues: Thekla in Bristol and Rock City in Nottingham.
The venues won the Best Teamwork award, which recognises the best in-house teams working on live music events at clubs, in two size categories. Bristol’s Thekla collected the award for venues with a capacity of below 800 while Nottingham’s Rock City won the award for venues with a capacity of above 800.
“To win two major awards like this is a fantastic tribute to the hard work and dedication the DHP team has put into Thekla and Rock City. Both venues have had major upgrades and investment over the past year and its great to see that recognised by the live music industry,” said Bart Easter.
Following a £500,000 refurbishment and 13 weeks in dry dock, the Thekla reopened in Bristol’s East Mud Dock on September 18. Work included a complete paint job outside; reconfiguration of the dance floor to improve circulation; the addition of new toilets; soundproofing; new outside seating and a new entrance to improve the traffic flow.
The internationally renowned Rock City has benefited from a £250,000 upgrade to its sound system and facilities over the last 12 months. As the first DHP-owned music and club venue it has seen some of the biggest names in the world perform on its stage over the past 30 years including David Bowie, Nirvana and Ed Sheeran.
Last night’s two new awards underline DHP Family’s growing influence on live music in the UK. At the Live Music Business Awards in 2012 and in 2013 we won National Promoter of the Year but were unable to enter the category this year due to a ‘two successive wins’ rule.
Earlier in the day two of our senior managers joined the Live Music summit of the industry’s biggest players including AEG Live and Ticketmaster. Promotions Director Anton Lockwood and Head of Marketing Mark Dennis took leading roles in addressing issues such as the latest developments in live entertainment, the impact of social media and what makes a successful live venue.
Now in its fifth year, the Live Music Business awards recognise the business people who drive the country’s contemporary live music industry. The Awards were created by the publisher of LIVE UK – the only magazine dedicated to the companies and individuals working in this sector of the creative industries – and winners are voted for by the magazine’s readers.
The awards continue a great year for us, during which we havee promoted more than 1200 live performances across the country by artists from Lana del Rey to Ed Sheeran and New Order, repeated our success with Thekla and Rock City by opening Oslo in Hackney to rave reviews and launched the 10,000 plus capacity ‘No Tomorrow’ with headliners London Grammar to add to our roster of successful festivals including Splendour, Hit the Deck, Dot to Dot, Gathering and Everywhere.