Oslo, Hackney

DHP Family, which operates four live music venues in the city, has expanded into London with the opening of the £1m Oslo

IT started life as a railway station but the two-storey Victorian building in Hackney is now home to the first Nottingham-owned live music venue in London.

Oslo, which sits next to Hackney Railway Station, is the sixth venue owned and operated by DHP Family, the city centre company that is best known for Rock City.

It also owns Rescue Rooms, The Bodega and Stealth, and a venue in Bristol called Thekla, promotes national tours for the likes of New Order, James Blunt, Nick Cave and Ed Sheeran, runs its own ticket agency, and manages artists.

The focus of the business, started with the opening of Rock City more than 30 years ago, has always been in Nottingham, where they also run the annual Splendour music festival.

Oslo, which opened at the weekend, marks their first venture in the capital.

“We had a storming opening night, the place was packed downstairs in the bar and upstairs,” says DHP Family chairman George Akins.

“We’ve brought something new to this part of London; great music, great food and great drink all in one place – and it’s gone down really well.”

The name is a dedication to George’s mum, who was born in Oslo.

“There’s a bit of family heritage in there, which we like; family has always been important to us.

“And she loves it. It’s the only venue of ours that she wants to come and see. She’s been telling all of our Norweigian family about it.

“Hackney is now twinned with Oslo, which was a complete coincidence.”

They opened an office nearby last year as part of the tour promotion side of the business.

“We book a lot of bands into London already so it made sense for us to have an office there. This is taking the next step and doing what we do in Nottingham so well, in London.”

The 600-capacity Oslo will operate as a live music venue, nightclub, bar and eaterie.

“It’s like the Rescue Rooms... but with food,” he says.

“Hackney is an up and coming area. It’s very cool, it attracts a lot of fashion businesses... and we saw a good opportunity there.”

Bands booked to play in the next few weeks include Dry the River, Chrome Hoof, Long Eaton’s Indiana and an NME show.

“We’re confident we can keep the momentum going and make Oslo one of the hottest venues in London.”

DHP Family is now handling tours for Ed Sheeran, James Blunt and Flaming Lips and recently won Live Promoter of the Year for the second year running.

“We’re putting on more gigs than ever before and they’re bigger shows. We’re putting Jake Bugg, You Me At Six and Frank Turner in to the Capital FM Arena.”

Among the festivals they organise is Splendour. So who do we have headlining this year?

“We’re still working on it but we’ll be announcing a few names for Dot to Dot next week.”

For more about Oslo go to facebook.com/oslohackney, on Twitter @oslohackney and oslohackney.com.

Future Sound of Nottingham Final 2013

June 7 2013

Winners: The Gorgeous Chans with Nusic's Mark Del (PHOTO: RIOT PHOTOGRAPHY)

THE Gorgeous Chans will open the main stage at Splendour after winning the Future Sound of Nottingham competition at Rock City.

The nine-piece band will be lining up alongside fellow Notts artists Jake Bugg, Dog Is Dead and Indiana, plus Squeeze, Maximo Park and KT Tunstall, at the festival in Wollaton Park on Saturday, July 20.

“We still can’t believe it,” says 19-year-old saxophone player Liam Webber. “It’s not quite sunk in that we just played Rock City, let alone that in 12 days we’ll be playing Splendour.”

The band beat the Loophole Project, Tasha Dean, Frankie Rudolf, Huskies and Sam Jones at the Talbot Street venue on Sunday night, by winning the most points from a combination of votes from a panel of judges and crowd reaction.

Along with myself were Jake Bugg’s manager Jason Hart, rising Notts music star Harleighblu, BBC arts reporter Geeta Pendse, Confetti boss Craig Chettle, Left Lion editor Jared Wilson and Anton Lockwood from DHP, which runs Splendour.

Although the judges voted North Notts acoustic rocker Sam Jones the winner, with the GorGorgeous Chans in second place, the noise level reached by the crowd when asked to cheer for their favourite act, combined to give them first place.

“Our fans are just the best,” says Liam of the band’s large following who had turned out to see them.

The band also features Brandon Hill, Oscar Price, Olli Wilson-Smith, Ephraim Staton and Daniel Potts. For the Rock City show they were joined by Elliot Labbate, Rob Upton and Tom Bond.

“We’re all students,” says Liam.

“Brandon’s just finished secondary school, Ephraim’s going into his third year at university and Rob is halfway through a PhD or something!”

They met at school and would jam together until forming The Gorgeous Chans about a year ago.

“Vampire Weekend are a big influence, as is Paul Simon’s Graceland album,” says Liam.

They missed the Andy Murray Wimbledon win as they were setting up for the show during the afternoon.

“Ephraim was gutted,” says Liam. “We were soundchecking when Murray won, and whispers of it just sort of buzzed around the stage.”

The night included an appearance by Saint Raymond, the 18-year-old from Bramcote who has toured with Gabrielle Aplin and reached No. 25 in the iTunes chart.

After the show The Gorgeous Chans celebrated with a burger.

“And then we went home... we were absolutely shattered,” says Liam.

This week the band released their debut EP, Jaguar Club as a free download through their Bandcamp and Soundcloud websites. They’ll be working hard to perfect their set for Splendour, he says.

“It’s going to be amazing and hopefully we’ll get to meet KT Tunstall. We’re all hoping that Jools Holland will be playing with Squeeze as that would be pretty cool. It’ll also be great to see Georgie Rose and Harleighblu play.”

The band have only been to Splendour as music fans in the past and highlights for them included Madness in 2009 and Paolo Nutini at the first festival in 2008. He adds: “We just can’t wait to be on that stage.”

Competition organiser Mark Del from Nusic says: “‘The Gorgeous Chans nailed it. Their performance was absolutely epic; full of fun, vibrancy and just the right amount of sonic chaos.

“Just like The Afterdark Movement last year they’ll bring the necessary energy to get people off their bums and dancing early doors.”

He adds: “Winning the public vote and coming second in the judges’ vote is the very definition of being a worthy winner. To win over both the public and the experts shows you’re doing something very, very right.”

The annual competition to put a local artist on the Splendour main stage is run by Nusic with the help of Confetti and the Julie Cotton Foundation.

“We are proud to be a part of it and support what Nusic are doing,” says Mark Cotton, who set up the foundation as a tribute to his wife, who died of cancer in 2001.

“It gives us a chance to create and develop opportunities for local youngsters to work on and experience a professional live event in terms of production.”

Mark Del, who set up the competition five years ago, adds: “To see six Nottingham acts living the dream for that one night, getting inspired to push on and pursue their musicals dreams, and all in front of hundreds of enthusiastic local new music lovers... that’s why we do what we do. It’s job done for another year, roll on Splendour.”

Splendour is at Wollaton Park on Saturday, July 20. Tickets are £37.50, but city residents pay £27.50, under-17s from the city just £15, under-17s from the county £27.50 and under-11s go free. For full details go to www.splendourfestival.com. 

Dog Is Dead

October 2012

A SUMMER of major festival appearances behind them, a Radio 1 session just this week, a debut album about to launch... and yet Dog Is Dead haven’t quite got over failing to win the Rushcliffe School 2007 Battle of The Bands.

“We still haven’t let that go,” admits frontman Rob Milton.

“The band that won it were rubbish. I’d say that the judging was inadequate.

“It’s because we were from a rival school, I’m sure of it. Being from West Bridgford School was an obvious disadvantage.”

He adds: “We fell out with battles of the bands after that and decided that music wasn’t a competition.”

The 21-year-old singer, songwriter and bassist is, of course, joking because next week the band release their long-awaited debut album, All Our Favourite Stories, for Atlantic, the label they signed to last year.

Over the past 18 months they’ve been all over national radio, played all the major festivals, toured with Bombay Bicycle Club, appeared at Milan Fashion Week and more recently Vogue’s Fashion Night Out in London, and this week did a session for Huw Stephens on Radio 1. Dog Is Dead also played a show at London’s The Social to mark the fifth anniversary at the DJ’s club night there.

Says Rob: “That was really cool. It was a sweaty little gig, packed with people.”

The gig was part of a busy week of promoting the album which is released on Monday with a launch party at the Boat Club by Trent Bridge.

“We wanted to do something special in Nottingham,” says Rob.

“We were aware that we had done Rock City in December which was amazing but we didn’t want to do the same thing.

“And The Boat Club is just a few minutes from our houses...”

So that was the sole motivation?

“That’s it,” he laughs.

“We can all cycle there.”

He adds: “We used to play gigs there before we were in Dog Is Dead, from the age of 13 to 16. And we had the most amazing time. Teenagers used to come to our shows, probably because there wasn’t much else to do at the time.

“So we wanted to go back to that with the album release show with our mates and families there.”

Tickets sold out within minutes of going on sale.

“We’ll be playing the album in its entirety and in order, so it will be a bit of challenge because there are some songs we haven’t played live before.”

Unless there’s another pre-Christmas show announced at the last minute, it will be the only time Dog Is Dead will play Nottingham until next year. The UK tour starts in Manchester on October 23 and ends in London next month.

Rob, Lawrence ‘Trev’ Cole and Joss Van Wilder met at school and formed Dog Is Dead in their final year. Guitarist Paul Roberts knew Trev from youth theatre, while drummer Daniel Harvey joined just last year, replacing their original drummer who left to study drama at university.

The rest of them gave up on the idea of university soon after finishing their A-levels but not because of the band so much a realisation, Rob says, that “we’re not very clever”.

Although Rob is the main man, it’s Trev who is the most identifiable, hence the “Trev Stamp” T-shirt for sale on their website.

“I think he’s turning in to this huge role model for all ages,” laughs Rob, about the lanky sax player with the distinctive curly ginger mop.

They could all be role models: Dog Is Dead are five nice young men from south of the river.

“None of us is Waitrose or Marks and Spencer’s,” he protests.

“Actually we’re thinking of striking up a deal with Asda West Bridgford to see what we can get. It would probably be smarter than Smart Price.”

He adds: “I actually miss Asda when we go on tour. We’re very loyal to Asda.”

All Our Favourite Stories features the new single, Talk Through The Night, which has been playlisted at Radio 1, and Heal It, produced by Trevor Horn. After topping the chart in 1979 with The Buggles’ single Video Killed the Radio Star, Horn went on to become one of the most successful music producers of the 80s, working with Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Pet Shop Boys.

Says Rob: “He came to one of our shows and said: ‘I love your band, I really want to record you.’

“It’s a huge-sounding track. I don’t really let people mess with my songs normally but he got his mitts on it. I listened to what he had to say and he gave it a little tweak. It’s quite different from the rest of the album.”

The distinctive sleeve is his own design.

“I wanted to make something really striking but not too modern. We’re really into the album covers of Pink Floyd and bands like that so I took it to a graphic designer and told them what I wanted.

“I get really excited by CD booklets. From growing up I always liked the lyrics and the artwork.”

Getting to this stage has been five years of hard work.

“We played everywhere in Nottingham and we must have played a million shows in London over the past four years, in front of just ten people to start with.”

He adds: “You don’t sit and wait for it to happen, you just work really hard and do stuff for yourself, like we did with the first three singles.”

He adds: “It’s been a gradual build. This album is a big stepping stone for us but it is another stepping stone. Whether it goes ‘bang!’ straight off and gets to No. 1 or just floats about for a bit and people talk about it... it is another stepping stone towards us having a long career of making music.

“As long as we are progressing and people are enjoying what we do... that is ultimately the point.

“We’re really proud of it. And it’s been really cool seeing how we’ve all reacted to the album.

“We’ve known each other so long now. It sounds really cheesy but it’s like the album has refreshed our friendship.”

All Our Favourite Stories is out on Monday. There’s also a deluxe edition featuring six extra tracks. The Boat Club show on Monday is sold out but the band will be at Fopp in Queen Street on Sunday from 4pm for a short performance and signing session. For more about them go to www.dogisdead.co.uk.

2007: @Runners-up in the Rushcliffe School Battle of the Bands.

2008: @After playing The Bodega, DHP, owners of Rock City, the Rescue Rooms, Stealth and The Bodega, sign them to a management deal. That summer they play the Courtyard Stage at Splendour, while Ocean Colour Scene were on the main stage. The Post reported: “Teen band Dog Is Dead were a revelation, a choppy art-rock inspired four piece who pulled off some tricky harmonies.”

2009: @Appear on the Post’s online music showcase This Is Live performing Clockwork. Dot to Dot follows in May and then Splendour in June, headlined by Madness.

2010: @Self-release singles Glockenspiel Song and Young, pick up airplay on Radio 1, 6Music and XFM, and play Glastonbury.

2011: @River Jordan, the third single in the Your Childhood trilogy is released. More Radio 1 airplay, appeared on Channel 4 teen drama Skins, feature in the NME, sign to Atlantic Records. Major festival appearances at Latitude, Bestival and Leeds/Reading and a UK tour supporting Bombay Bicycle Club. Hands Down, their debut single for Atlantic, is released. Close the year with a main stage show at Rock City, the biggest by a Nottingham band in the venue’s 30-year history.

2012: @Singles Two Devils and the re-recorded Glockenspiel Song are released, more Radio 1 support with airplay, playlists and sessions. 25 festival appearances, a million YouTube hits. Fourth single Talk Through The Night is released. Debut album, All Our Favourite Stories launched with sell-out show at the Boat Club.