Author: exchange

Thanks to funding from Arts Council England, we have been running our series of relaxed performances for a few months now.  

Research done by one of our project partners, Attitude is Everything has shown, many people have been feeling apprehensive about returning to busy venues. Go Gentle shows have been a popular way for both audience and artists to connect and gain confidence.

Go Gentle has so far featured touring bands and local performers, acoustic and spoken word. The shows are cosy, with reduced capacity, and a variety of furniture, to make them inclusive to everyone, of any age.

What changes are made to a Relaxed Performance?

• We make slight changes to the sound, lowering the volume and reducing any loud effects.
• We slow down any flashing/strobe lighting effects.
• The lights will always be on at a low level in the auditorium.
• The show will have a slightly extended interval (break in the middle of the show), to allow for toilet visits.
• People are encouraged to express themselves however they like.  If you want to move around, or be noisy… you are welcome!
• Lots of space so you can spread out or lie down if you choose.
• Staff are on hand to help with whatever you need.

As part of Go Gentle we are also developing our use of captioning for streaming and video.

We will announce future shows soon! For more information on listings, equipment, or bookings, email iwan@exchangebristol.com

Exchange was successful in our application to the Low Carbon Challenge Fund and West of England Green Business Grant.   Thanks to the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) we have obtained £4,860.00 towards the cost of solar panels for the roof.

The Solar PV will be a 10KW system and the grant will cover about half of the cost, with funds raised from our 2018 Community Share Offer covering the remainder.  We also plan to put in a MVHR (Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery) system which we hope to get a grant contribution for as well.   MVHR provides fresh filtered air into a building whilst retaining most of the energy that has already been used in heating the building.  It is energy efficient and ensures ventilation (more important now than ever).

The project install will start in August 2022, and will complete in 2023.

The solar panels and MVHR combined mean our estimated greenhouse gas saving will be 9.3 tons of Co2 a year.  This is a great boost to our ongoing efforts to increase sustainability, and in these uncertain times around energy, the grant couldn’t have come at a better time.

Improvements like these have enabled Exchange to join Bristol Green Capital Partnership.  Bristol Green Capital Partnership Community Interest Company (CIC) was founded in 2007 and is a partnership of over 1,000+ member organisations who have committed to working towards Bristol becoming “a sustainable city with a high-quality of life for all.”

Other environmental improvements we have made since lockdown include:

• No disposable plastics (we now operate a reusable deposit scheme – pictures below)
• Selling more from local suppliers including Moor Beer, Blind Owl Coffee & Barleywood Cider
• Encouraging people to bring in their own cups for coffee
• Hand towel in toilets
• Compostable drinks stuff and food packaging
• Upgrading all our fittings for LED lights
• Making the full bar / cafe menu fully vegan

In July 2021, we happily reopened the venue after the lockdowns.  As well as using the time we were shut for extensive building renovations, Exchange Bristol also became one of the first music venues in the South West to start paying the Living Wage. In November 2021 we officially became an accredited Living Wage Employer. 

“As a community owned, not for profit grassroots music venue, we have an amazing team of invested staff members who really care about our organisation.  It was a no-brainer to repay this investment by becoming a Living Wage employer as soon as we were able to.”

-Matthew Otridge, Finance Manager and Director, Exchange

It was important to the venue to give something back to staff who had stuck with us throughout the pandemic, and help them meet the cost of living.  

As inflation hits the highest levels seen in decades, new research by the Living Wage Foundation shows that the National Living Wage still leaves the UK’s lowest paid workers hundreds of pounds away from a wage that meets the cost of living. 

The real Living Wage is the only UK wage rate that is voluntarily paid by almost 10,000 UK businesses who believe their staff deserve a wage which meets everyday needs – like the weekly shop, or a surprise trip to the dentist.   As a Living Wage employer, we will continue to increase our wages in line with the network.  

Across the UK, almost 300,000 employees have received a pay rise as a result of the Living Wage campaign, from small Community Benefit Societies like Exchange, to big corporations.  All the main political parties support it.   For Exchange, it was important not only to give back to our staff, but also to further our commitment to making sure that the music industry compensates those who work within it fairly, and recognises the value of hardwork in a financial way.   We actively discourage a culture that can arise within music venues of people working for free, and we want to create a sustainable working environment for our staff, members, and the wider community.

It’s easy to join, just visit the Living Wage Foundation Information for Employers

Exchange became a Community Benefit Society in 2018, after the highly successful #SaveExchange campaign.  Thanks to our 500 members, and support from other venues such as Le Pub, Komedia and The Bell, as well as national organisations such as the Music Venues Trust, the share issue for Exchange was successful in raising £300,000, making it Bristol’s first community owned Live Music Venue. 

A Community Benefit Society is a not-for-profit business structure that is owned and democratically controlled by the community it serves.  Since becoming a CBS, we have followed and supported numerous local coops, community run businesses and collectives. Covid has created an even tougher environment for small venues, so it’s vital to build in as much support, diversity and resilience among our networks as possible.   With this in mind, we invested £500 into the Sister Midnight share campaign to secure the Ravensbourne Arms in Lewisham.

“When we decided to become a Community Benefit Society we were really grateful for all the help, support and advice that we got from other venues such as Komedia and The Bell, and we were equally as grateful to receive investment from other GMVs across the UK. When we heard about Sister Midnight’s plans it felt good to be able to pass that goodwill forward and we were very happy to be able to invest and become a part of their effort to open a community owned venue in Lewisham. We wish them all the best!”

-Matt Otridge, Finance Manager and Director of Exchange 

All investments are important when becoming a CBS.  The Ravensbourne Arms have reached their target of £260,000.  But they are still accepting share investments! Get in touch at info@sistermidnight.org

During lock-down we became the only the only grassroots venue in the South West to have the Attitude is Everything Silver award on our Grassroots Charter of Best Practice.

The new accessible toilet means the whole first floor of Exchange, including the bar and main gig space are now fully accessible.

Exchange’s full access info can be found here.

We are now working towards the gold award, as part of our commitment to being as accessible and welcoming as possible to all.

As well as the toilet, we also developed our policies and staff training around accessibility, and invested in a portable hearing loop for the box office.

Mystery Shopping

We also got ‘Mystery Shopped’ by Attitude is Everything, and received really positive feedback: 9/10 on accessibility, and 10/10 for enjoyment of the venue… the Mystery Shopper said:

“It was very relaxed atmosphere and everyone was friendly… It’s a safe place to go and very well managed.”

Beyond the Music

As part of our commitment to making all aspects of live music accessible, we also helped with the launch of the Beyond the Music network.  We worked with promoters and a film crew to organise an event in the venue, and a promotional campaign film… more information on that soon!

Streaming Services

We have been developing our streaming services and captioning service.  The use of filming at Exchange was an important part of our programme and accessibility during lock down, and we encourage people to take advantage of this when making a booking to continue to make shows accessible.  Our Gig Buddies Bristol launch was streamed by over 22,000 so it shows how popular it can be!  

We hope to see you in the venue soon, and if you have any queries about accessibility, email iwan@exchangebristol.com for more information.

In order to ensure the safety of our staff, artists and customers we have put the following measures in place:

1. If you are experiencing COVID symptoms or are in close contact with someone who has COVID please do not come to a venue. If you miss an event that you already have a ticket for then we will refund you.

2. We will be asking our staff to wear masks, please wear a mask if you are able to. Spare masks will be available if you forget to bring one.

3. We have installed ‘Viruskiller’ UVC air filtration units throughout the venue. We will also be opening doors when possible to increase airflow. We have installed a large awning so people can sit comfortably outside when not watching bands providing shelter when needed.

4. We will be carrying out a deep clean regime that focuses on touch points between events. We will have additional staff carrying out cleaning on the evenings alongside hand sanitiser stations for your use.

5. Our staff will be regularly testing and we encourage customers to carry out lateral flow tests before attending an event at Exchange. As a venue we will not be adopting a passport system, but occasionally external promoters hiring the venue may choose to for their events. Please check event details for requirements.

6. Where possible we will be streaming events online for those who still feel uncomfortable attending events.

Please respect our staff and performers and be kind to them and one another. 

Just before the lockdown we were lucky enough to be awarded a £39,750 project grant from the Arts Council England ‘Supporting Grassroots Live Music Fund’. Although the pandemic prevented us from carrying out some of the planned activity, the fund (alongside investment from our community share raise) allowed us to install new PA equipment in both rooms, a new stage, and buy new house backline.

The A-series L’Acoustics PA for our main room, (supplied by Bristol company King Sound Reinforcement) has been put to good use since we reopened, and very popular.  The PA is put through its paces on a regular basis… from jazz to punk, house to grime… it’s powered it all!  Our new stage has created more space in the main room for the crowd to enjoy it, and our new digital desks (Behringer X32 and Midas M32) have enabled us to test the PA to its full potential.  

It’s been a tough time for music venues, and being able to reopen with so many improvements, and lots of bass (thanks to our new subs, L’Acoustics KS21i ), has given Exchange a much needed boost. Our new stage is also bigger, and as part of our building work we changed the interior of the main room, to create more space for the crowd to enjoy the new sound! Our neighbours need not worry, as internal sound dampening alongside heavy duty soundproofed door installation has ensured that we won’t become a nuisance.

We combined the PA install with a year long programme Fertile Ground which was really important in supporting our project partners, artists and Exchange staff during lockdown.

Come down to the venue and hear it for yourself!

For any queries on tech spec email info@exchangebristol.com

Exchange is delighted to announce the launch of Gig Buddies Bristol, a a befriending project that enables and empowers people with learning disabilities and/or autistic people to enjoy all the great events going on in Bristol by pairing them up with new friends with similar interests to attend events with.

If you would like to get involved, or just find out more, you can read all about it here: www.gigbuddiesbristol.com

In July 2020 we received funding the Arts Council that allowed us to purchase the equipment and train our staff to run streamed events. Fertile Ground was a series of live streamed, multi cam events filmed in the venue, with a skeleton technical team. he series can all be viewed here

The series enabled us to give work to bands, creatives (to do decor and promotion) and skill up our staff to learn how to use a range of PTZ cameras, and a remote recording set up.  

Fertile Ground also enabled us to showcase our new PA and stage, even though the venue was shut due to lockdown.

The series featured a range of musical styles, from Exchange regulars such as Toodles and the Hectic Pity, through to electronica trio Jabu (part of Young Echo, who also put on a lot of events at Exchange).  Sets were also done by Langkamer, Grandma’s House and Oh, the Guilt among others. The biggest event in the series was the Arctangent Warm Up   which featured a wide range of bands connected to the festival.

The technical team refined their recording skills during Fertile Ground, and we have continued to use these skills in our ongoing work to make the venue more accessible.   We offer live streaming to performers, and our Exchange Online project has enabled us to try out different aspects of recording; from TV shows to podcasts!  As well as our successful series of Gig Buddies fundraisers.  These fundraisers also showed the potential to reach a much bigger crowd… our main room is 250 capacity, but the main benefit with Stewart Lee sold over 21,000 tickets thanks to Radiohead, Mogwai and Idles promoting it! 

Fertile Ground meant that Exchange continued to have exposure despite being shut, and this was vital in maintaining links with our 500 members, and the wider Exchange community.  Whilst many venues were forced to close down due to the pandemic, projects such as Fertile Ground meant that the profile and reputation of Exchange as a venue that pushes accessibility and sustainability has continued.  The technical equipment and skills we invested in with Fertile Ground mean that we can continue to showcase cutting edge music despite the ongoing uncertainties some people feel about attending a venue in person.

Music Venue Trust (MVT) has announced a new campaign #saveourvenues, in response to the continued economic threat to over 500 grassroots music venues throughout the UK. Following on from the launch of their Grassroots Music Venues (GMV) Crisis fund last month, #saveourvenues is aimed at artists, music fans and the wider music industry and aims to raise both money and awareness. 

Artists are being encouraged to choose a venue that is currently in crisis from an interactive map and dropdown menu,  which can be found on the campaign website at www.saveourvenues.co.uk. Those artists will then be given the tools and guidance to perform an ‘at home’ gig in support of that particular venue. Each venue will have their own crowd funding page with a clear target of the funds it needs to raise to stay afloat throughout this difficult period. Once a target is reached any excess revenue will go to the central #saveourvenues fund to help the wider grassroots music venue community. 

Unlike others, Exchange does not face closure because we ran a successful Community Ownership campaign in 2018. We felt it was important to be a part of the #saveourvenues campaign to show solidarity and support for other venues and the work that Music Venue Trust are doing. 

We encourage people to only give money to Exchange if you have enjoyed a set that an artist performs for us. Please consider supporting other venues first. Any donations made towards our small target will contribute towards paying members of our team who were not entitled to Government grants. 

Exchange is delighted to announced that we have been awarded a National Lottery Project Grant which will allow us to install new PA equipment in both rooms, buy new house backline and help us support projects being delivered by some of our favourite promoters.

The L’Acoustics PA for our main room, which will be supplied by Bristol company King Sound Reinforcement, will provide us with a highly spec’ed quality PA that will continue to support our eclectic programme of touring artists, whilst the other general improvements will allow us to do more to support the emerging artists in Bristol.

We are thrilled to receive this news at what has been a very difficult time for Exchange and music venues nationwide. We want to thank Chiz Williams for his help with the application, Gabby Chelmicka for her guidance, and to Music Venue Trust for their help throughout.

After a turbulent couple of weeks we have taken the difficult decision to temporarily close Exchange. Ultimately we have decided to follow the advice of the experts – medical officers and epidemiologists – who have advised that social distancing is now required for the good of society. We would have welcomed more decisive leadership from government and remain disappointed that a firm ban was not put in place.

As a starting point we have cancelled all events until the end of April. We are working our way through rescheduling events and processing refunds where this isn’t possible. This take time so we appreciate your patience.

We know a lot of people are worried about money at the moment and we can absolutely guarantee you will receive a refund, however in the case of rescheduled events we can only process them once the new date is set. Whilst we expect other gigs later in the year to be cancelled we will make a further announcement closer to the time.

We want to thank the Music Venue Trust whose support in times of crisis is invaluable. We also stand in solidarity with other music venues in Bristol and across the UK and support those who have taken a different decision at this difficult time.

During our down time we are working on ideas alongside our incredible staff on how we can support the wider community. We will keep you up to date with what we are up to, and for the time being we would encourage everyone to consider supporting their communities with mutual aid – please see www.bristolcv19.info for more info.

Please consider supporting Specialist Subject Records by purchasing records via their online store. Bands, please consider booking a recording session at Joe’s Garage.

Exchange is a not for profit, community owned venue, you can support us via the link.

We’ll see you all on the other side, take care of yourself and your families.