Guest blog by @georgiahalston
Vice magazine describe themselves as ‘The Definitive Guide to Enlightening Information’. From small beginnings, in Montreal, Canada in 1996, the company has since become a global brand with a readership of about 900,000 worldwide and 80,000 in the UK alone. Their immersionist journalistic style of reporting is presented in a free magazine covering independent arts, cultural issues and current affairs distributed across 27 countries. Vice UK celebrates each new issue with a nationwide release party.
In Leeds, Vice Magazine picked our very own loveable indie haunt Nation Of Shopkeepers for their monthly party, most recently in January, so as an avid Vice Magazine fan I thought I should head out to see what all the fuss was about.
Stepping into the warm, inviting, cheery atmosphere of Nation of Shopkeepers we were met by the mid set sounds of Manchester band The Louche FC. Their indie, post punk sumptuous sounds seemed to penetrate most of the audience, even the solemn backbenchers.
After the set we stumbled with the herd to the bar for a pint of strawberry beer and met up with Vice Events Worker Camella Agabelyan to really get to the bottom of Vice Release Parties:
Georgia: So Camella, how are things at Vice?
Camella: It’s really expanding, which is why we’re doing so many more cities now. When we first started we were in a really old office but now we’re in a proper office and have hired loads more people, we’re doing so much more content online and everything’s booming and growing.
G: Sounds really exciting! So how long have you been doing the release parties in Leeds?
C: We always did issue launches at The Old Blue Blast, the Vice pub in London and they’re really successful. So we thought last year it would be really good if we started doing them in other regions. We started talking about it in December 2010 and had it all signed off by January 2011 starting off last May with Leeds and Brighton.
G: Why did you pick Leeds?
C: We have a lot of distribution partners that stock Vice in Leeds and we had already worked with promoters and venues before so we’ve generated good relationships with them. We just knew that both Leeds and Brighton would be really successful because they have the right vibe.
G: So, what do you think of the culture in Leeds?
C: I’ve been here countless times but still not as much as I would like to! Just because I’m always working when I’m here and have to dash off quite quickly. But one of the girls I work with used to go to Uni here, both her and Ash (Nation Of Shopkeepers) have taught me about the whole culture of the city and I really love it. It seems like everybody’s really into music and everybody’s really nice and laid back and there have been so many awesome bands that have come out of Leeds. I think it’s a really exciting city.
G: Do you think that Leeds as a city fits in with the Vice culture?
C: Oh definitely. The skateboarding scene, everybody seems to be into tattoos and piercing and there’s a big alternative music scene. Out of all the cities Leeds, and Brighton, are the ones that fit most with the Vice culture.
G: Why choose Nation Of Shopkeepers?
C: Ash, who runs the venue, is a really good friend of ours he had already done some events with us. Have you heard of some of the Dr. Martin parties?
G: ?
C: They were held in a warehouse here in Leeds and featured really cool local bands such as Pulled Apart By Horses. He also helped us years ago with our Stag and Dagger parties in Leeds. We had a really good relationship with him through this and we just knew that he should be our partner in Leeds and this venue was really good anyway! The release parties have worked out really well here and we’ve been doing them every month. We launched another three cities in October, Manchester Nottingham and Bristol, they’ve also been really good! And in April were launching another three cities Glasgow, Newcastle and Birmingham and then in September Liverpool, Cardiff and Portsmouth.
G: Sounds like you’re going to be really busy! It’s good to hear a London based magazine is really looking after its Northern readership!
The sound of a nicely warmed up crowd beckoned us back to the stage area to be confronted with headlining band Weird Dreams. The hard-core fans flailed at the stage front while newbies, like me, were relegated to the middle ranks. It was a really mellow atmosphere as the band eased us through their set. The melodious foursome gave us tones reminiscent of 80’s style indie such as The Cure as the vocals suggested 90’s Brit pop. Their single ‘Holding Nails’, has recently been released and is available for a listen here.
I caught up with Camella again to talk about the music choices for their events.
G: How are the bands booked for the release parties?
C: We’ll book the headliners; we usually have two, who are the same for each party but in each city we like to mix it up with local bands. We like to promote a local ethos, we don’t want people to think we’re saying “Vice is coming to town!” more like “Vice is doing an event in your town and we’re showcasing some really cool local bands!”
G: So, if I was in a band in Leeds how would I go about getting myself on the bill?
C: It would depend on the size of the band. For example, if you wanted to be a headliner and go on tour with us for the release parties it would probably go through me. The bands we usually pick are those with something to promote, so it makes sense for them to come on tour with us. If you were in a local band and wanted to play at a release party I would say to go through Ash (contact details for Nation of Shopkeepers below). But at the end of the day Ash and I always swap ideas and are in close contact most of the time.
The next Vice party at Nation Of Shopkeepers is on 22nd February and monthly after that. It’s a free event to reflect the philosophy of Vice magazine and is well worth checking out as a mid week stress buster.
See you there!