New Rock Band event in London, England: Rock Club - London

[Greebo_T_Cat]

Well... it's been a long time coming, but we're ready to go. Well, almost ready to go. Well, not quite... Well...

Oh heck, there's a lot to do before our first date which will be the 24th of September, right here in the heart of Londons West end.

Date: September 24th 2011
Time: 6:00pm until late
Location: The Royal George, 133 Charing Cross Road, London, United Kingdom (http://www.theroyalgeorgewc2.co.uk/)

Links:
We have both a Facebook event page (here), as well as a main Facebook page (here), and a website that I just brought up to launch speed this morning (here)

Some background:
A month or so back I had my birthday party in the basement of a Pub in London. We used their stage with my own Rock Band gear, Xbox 360, projector, etc and the party was pretty darned successful. So successful in fact that it attracted a number of very polite and well mannered gatecrashers from the main bar upstairs who wanted to know exactly what we were doing. Once they found out they wanted to know if they could join in. Thus was the seed planted, a landlord contacted, and a plan set in motion. So, fast forward a few weeks and 'Rock Club - London' was born. We're just starting out, but we have a buttload of enthusiasm, a good measure of gear, and hopefully... *hopefully* an ounce or two of luck.

In fact, the more that I think of it, the more I realize that all we really need right now are for people to turn up. We've already spread posters and flyers around the pub and some local surrounding businesses that attract the gamer/geek crowd... Now how to attract London based peoples attention to here. It's not like there are many UK based events so I wonder how many even look here. Oh well... baby steps. If we build it they will come... maybe.

[Greebo_T_Cat]

Well, the first event is rapidly approaching, and with 120 views it'd be nice to think that at least a few of those views are Brits, and of those few 1 or 2 will make it out.

The setup is almost complete. Tonight was the final setup timing and testing of our screen frame, the monitor mounts are tomorrow and all the cables are bundled up neatly ready to go next to two large rolls of duct tape to secure them. I have my target number to reach for the venue to want to continue this as an ongoing event. I think we'll hit it, but I have to think that... Or I get depressed :P

Onwards and upwards!

[Greebo_T_Cat]

Well night 1 has been and gone and now we're in recovery mode and looking to the next event. It was a lot of fun, we had a good turn out and word of mouth is already gathering us followers on twitter/facebook and contact via e-mail. Onwards to the soon to be announced Night 2.

Some pictures below, more on our facebook page and website.

http://www.rockclublondon.com/wp-con...1/img_0229.jpg

http://www.rockclublondon.com/wp-con...1/img_0235.jpg

http://www.rockclublondon.com/wp-con...1/img_0234.jpg

[Greebo_T_Cat]

http://www.rockclublondon.com/wp-con...rcl6forweb.jpg
Well we're still going strong with Night 6 due up February 25th (Facebook Event Page)

We've developed a small but dedicated following over the past 6 months, with people who are not only regulars but rapidly becoming friends. We've had a few rough patches, some people who did not understand the spirit in which the event is run but we endured and continue on. A few videos have gone up from the November Event and can be seen on our YouTube Channel here.

The stage equipment continues to be revised. Guitars have been replaced, upgraded, The Beatles Drum Kit has been replaced with an ION Drum Rocker that is not only more durable but decidedly easier to transport. And we're working on adding more lighting equipment and effects to the show.

Hopefully this will catch the eye of a few other London based gamers on the boards or if you know anyone that'd be interested point them to our FaceBook Page or twitter feed, where we regularly post updates about future events.

Cheers

[rkbdgurl]

Don't know if you wanted any comments here. I watched the utube feed, and have to say what a nice set-up you have. I would love to be there. Looks like you were all having a good time. I especially enjoyed watching the drummer girls expressions when she made a mistake occasionally. I also noticed the players using Squiers? Anyway...continued success..and thanks for sharing. ROCK ON!

[Greebo_T_Cat]

Comments here are good! Show's someones reading

She was great, she did a killer 'No One Knows' which we sadly didn't get decent video of. We have a few female regulars which is great, it breaks up the stacks of testosterone we otherwise get on stage. Need to work more at the next event on getting more videos of different songs. Expand the YouTube selection a bit.

Thanks for the compliments on the setup... we work hard to fit the best setup possible into what is essentially a small stage.

The disadvantage to the limited space is there's not always much room to move, the advantage is there's great atmosphere in the pub basement when you have a full band on stage and 40-50 people getting into the show.

I believe in this video the Guitars used were A Players Choice Fender Telecaster on the left, and on the Right was either a Gretsch or a Rickenbacker, depending on when in the night we were (batteries died at one point so we did a quick swap). Since then we've changed things around and now we have the Players Choice Telecaster, a RB2 Wireless Fender and a RB3 Wireless Fender, one of them is always kept with the strap ready to be used for Lefty Mode. Both of the Fenders are going to get the replacement strummer treatment in the future. Makes them more durable and the strum action less mushy. Also looking at stage lighting, something controllable maybe, depends on budget and such.

Once again, thanks for commenting, glad to know someone reads this

[rkbdgurl]

You're welcome. Seriously what a great "Pub" and I especially got a kick out of seeing the occasional flash of a waitress with a beer pass by the band.

I'm sure others are checking your posts out, but like me, probably just didn't know if you actually wanted any kind of feedback. Haha...especially since folks on these forums have an opinion on pretty much everything, and I mean that in the very kindest sense

[Greebo_T_Cat]

Yeah, the staff really like us. The Landlord has been down a few times to play through DragonForce 'Through the Fire and the Flames', and the two barmaids came down at one point to sing... something. I forget what it was now. But a good time was had by all. If we ever get too big for the pub It'd be a truly bittersweet moment. I love The George and they've been so good to us... I wouldn't want to move to a bigger venue! Oh well, cross that bridge when we come to it.

I like to receive feedback, and don't mind criticism when it's constructive and something we can use to build on.

[exup35]

Just checked out the facebook page and would love to be able to travel down to take part in one of these events. Now I know where to look I can make arrangements to get along to one (although can't make the end of Feb one due to other commitments . arghhhh)

[Greebo_T_Cat]

Hi, got your note on Facebook. Not sure posting details to our wall would really help you out as pretty much everyone who 'likes' our page are people who go to our event and are therefore firmly based in the South/London. If Reddit has a Leeds Social section you might have some good fortune posting about it there. A few people posted about our events on the LondonSocialClub section and we got some extra traffic/footfall as a result. Good luck with the event, it sounds like you've got a hell of a setup to get started with (lighting rig is something we're still working on but somewhat limited by the stage size for our 'home base') and I hope you'll post pictures or such from the event here.

As for future events for us, it's usually based around the last weekend of the month (ie, closest to payday ), Hope to see you at one some day, or we might be able to coach it up to Leeds for one of yours.