It’s a practically sold out show on Sunday night at the White Elephant Enclosure, where the audience are due to spend a couple of hours squirming in their uncomfortable seats listening to the sad and sorry inside story of how thousands of people were affected by the decision to squander hundreds of thousands of pounds on something that was unfit for purpose.
Pity poor pianist Pritchard Pennox who has swapped his usual packed out performances at St Genesius Church to play a gig at the White Elephant Enclosure on Saturday night. With only 34 tickets sold it’s going to be another incredibly intimate show, with fewer audience members than the number of punters in Witherspoons on a Wednesday night.
The reasons for such poor ticket sales are unclear, could it be down to a lack of marketing by the Smalltown Culture and Arts Media Promotions Individual, May Tricks, who firmly believes that marketing involves scheduling AceCrook posts once a week and then putting her feet up, or is it because no one wants to spend time on those uncomfortable seats?
Either way, 34 tickets will garner an income of £445.94. It is to be hoped that Pritchard booked the venue on a 70/30 split, rather than a hire, because otherwise it’s going to cost him more to perform than he will make.
Perhaps Pritchard and the WEE could heed the advice from the South West’s Premier Music Venue owner, Singing Landlord, Tom Portman, who this week has issued an impassioned plea for music fans to purchase tickets in advance for performances.
Mr Portman said “Ever wondered why gigs get cancelled at the last minute? It’s due to poor advanced ticket sales. Musical acts, promoters and pub landlords need punters to purchase in advance so that they know they’ll be making money.
It costs money to bring bands to the stage and if you love music then you need to buy your tickets and not expect to buy them on the door on the night, because without that initial support the chances are the gig will get cancelled.
No one wants to play to a small audience of 34 people.”
No need to worry about pre-purchasing tickets for this weekend’s acts at the Old Jetty – both Friday and Saturday night’s entertainment are free entry.