COOL AS LEICESTER

Follow the success of the first events, Half Drunk Club WILL be returning. For Ska and Reggae lovers, this needs to be on your radar. We caught up with organiser, Matty Williamson, to find out more.

What is Half Drunk Club for anyone who isn’t familiar?

Half Drunk Club, is a festival—for the most part booking ska, punk and reggae bands. I guess there’s an opportunity in the future to branch outside of that but, with it being a scene we’re really familiar with, it works for us. 

How good is Leicester’s ska and punk scene? Which bands should we be listening to?

There aren’t too many of us around these days, but our good friends in The Social Ignition are well worth checking out. 

What made you put the festival together?

So, my band (Last Edition) hosted a 10 year anniversary gig at Dryden Street Social in 2018. We booked 6 or 7 bands I think that night. We took real pride in putting it all together and the feedback we had gave us the confidence that we could do something much bigger. 

Unfortunately, the pandemic somewhat halted our original plans, but—as we’ve found at the gigs we’ve played since, the appetite for live music hasn’t dwindled. We look at festivals like Handmade, and Level Up Festival (which is hosted at New Cross Inn in London) and take inspiration from what they’re doing. We thought it’d really give the ska punk scene in the midlands a boost to have a yearly event to showcase what the UK ska punk scene is up to.

Plus, we perhaps only play with our friends in other bands once a year or so, so it gives us an excuse to get all of our “band friends” into Leicester to hang out. 

What’s your favourite thing about Leicester’s music scene?

Our experience of the Leicester music scene is that bands, venues and promoters all have a really healthy/collaborative relationship. 

How did you first get involved in the city’s music scene?

I’ve been playing in bands since I was 16 so, a relatively large slice of my life (over half!) has been dedicated to watching, playing or hosting gigs. 

It’s testament to Leicester’s venues really that so many of those in bands go on to host gigs. All of the venues we’ve worked with in Leicester have always made the process so easy.

I especially want to mention Matt and Katharine at Firebug, for always entertaining my stupid ideas haha. They really helped with putting on Half Drunk Club 2021, and have really given me confidence that this year can surpass last years success. 

Do you plan for this to be an annual event?

Yep! This is actually the second year. Last year, we hosted The JB Conspiracy, Last Edition, The Social Ignition, Codename Colin, Eat The Evidence, Lead Shot Hazard, Slackrr, 3DBs Down, Fighting Evil Is Cool!, Filthy Militia, Better Off Dead and Those Fine Strangers. 

We plan to at some point to host “Half Drunk Club presents” events that will be one-off gigs when an opportunity arises that excites us.

How can people get involved?

We’ve just released our line-up with Spunge headlining, which is incredible. Tickets are also on sale now. Anybody interested in what we are doing can either head to our website halfdrunkclub.co.uk, or find us on whatever social media platform they prefer. Just search Half Drunk Club

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