The new owner of UK venue SWX is to work with local and national promoters to bring more live music to what it calls “the best 1,100-capacity room in Bristol”.
Electric Group, which also runs London’s 1,700-cap. Electric Brixton (formerly the Fridge) completed a deal for SWX last month after being impressed with its atmosphere, production and sightlines.
Backed by box-office and marketing support from TicketWeb, Electric Group will manage the SWX live diary from Brixton under its head of music, Mike Weller.
Dominic Madden, Electric Group co-founder, comments: “We operate with an independent mindset, shaping an easy and collaborative culture for promoters to embrace SWX with as few financial strings attached as possible.
“Having invested substantially to make the venue production complete, we are focused on providing a perfect platform for shows so we can help promoters smash ticket sales.”
DHP Family and local promoter MJR have put several profile acts into SWX this year, including Thee Oh Sees, Ride and Django Django, with Aldous Harding, Saint Etienne and Beans on Toast and Skinny Lister coming up over the next few weeks.
SWX, on Nelson Street, is the latest incarnation of a music venue that started life as a Top Rank ballroom, hosting performances by luminaries including the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Cream and The Beach Boys. As well as live shows, it also hosts DJ nights (upcoming sets include Clean Bandit, Sigma and Sigala) and club nights, the latter of which attract more than a quarter of a million Bristol students to the venue annually.
“A venue’s success depends on the people that work there,” concludes Electric Group, a joint venture between Dominic Madden and River Island owners the Lewis family. “Electric Group is picking a team to underpin the live element of the business and support the fantastic staff already in place, led by a GM who has been at SWX for eight years.”
This story was originally posted on 17 November 2017 at IQ magazine. Read the full article here.
Early this week, we also spoke to Electric Group co-founder Dominic Madden and he added, “I’m delighted to announce our new partnership with our longstanding friends at TicketWeb. I have full confidence that our new exclusive box office agreement with TW, delivering marketing support for our new venue and investment in the latest technology and systems, will accelerate the organic development of SWX into a major music venue. I look forward to working with TicketWeb national and regional promoters to smash ticket sales”.
