Golden Cabinet open their doors to Shipley

Golden Cabinet logo

Richard Claxton (@MaraidDesign) interviews the Golden Cabinet collective from Shipley

There is a new noise coming to Shipley. The market town that is most famous for its 1970s clock tower is now home to new collective called ‘Golden Cabinet’ who are organising gigs by experimental and avant-garde artists, and have already plans to showcase an eclectic range of bands such as Bird, Drunk in Hell and Pye Corner Audio. Whilst this scheme raises some questions about the size of the potential local audience for such a venture and the thinking behind their attempt to bring niche music to a small town, it’s worth stating that members of the collective have dozens of years of involvement in the music scenes of nearby Bradford and Leeds. According to their website all their concerts are taking place at the Kirkgate Centre, a community space which is already home to Shipley Film Club, The Sunday Slouch and The Record Club. This may suggest that there actually is more going on in Shipley then you think.

I managed to track down the people behind ‘Golden Cabinet’ to ask them a few questions. Here’s what they had to say for themselves.

First up, why Shipley?

We all live in or near Shipley, and all have some involvement in the Kirkgate Centre which is a great and thriving community centre that has a positive focus on developing local activities. In the past, we’ve all organised and promoted gigs over in Leeds and Bradford and we thought the idea of getting unexpected bands to come and perform in a small venue would be amusing. Shipley is hardly known for venues offering live music and we wanted to take advantage of that. Plus, from a selfish point of view we want to be able to go and see bands we like but still be able to walk home at the end of the night.

Bird Poster
Letterpress Poster designed and printed by Print Project (@gridula)

Do you think there are enough people in Shipley that are interested in experimental music?

Shipley does have a thriving counter-culture element that promotes a wide range of activity on a social and political level and this also radiates into the creative and radical art and music of people living in the area. There is a lot of interest in what we are doing and we hope this transfers into people coming through the doors at the gigs we’re promoting. We are also trying to encourage people to travel to our shows, hoping their curiosity will be a catalyst to see a gig like this in an unexpected location. Shipley is halfway between Leeds and Bradford and the train station is just down the road from the Kirkgate Centre which is a hub that has direct lines to Leeds, Bradford, Ilkley and Skipton.

Why do you have a picture of a horse urinating as your logo?

It’s taken from an Hans Baldung Grien etching dated 1534. We thought it had a striking beauty so wanted to try and use it somehow. After a little bit of experimentation we came up with our finished logo and quickly felt it worked for us. It seems to be quite a memorable image for people as we often hear the phrase “Ohh you’re the horse pissing people” or asking why we have a picture of a horse taking a piss to “What does ‘Golden Cabinet’ mean?”. Golden Horse Shower is just one of another of nicknames we’ve picked up so far. There is no grand or hidden meaning to either the name or the image, stirring curiosity to have people ask serves it’s purpose I guess.

Bird photo
Bird play Oct 5th, Kirkgate Centre, Shipley

The first of the ‘Golden Cabinet’ monthly gigs is on Saturday October 5th and features the Liverpool based band Bird who have just played at the Festival No.6. They play harmonic beautifully constructed songs, similar in style to Dead Can Dance.

Check out the website www.goldencabinet.co.uk for all the information on upcoming gigs and get yourselves along there.
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