What’s the magic secret to drawing a crowd? – An interview with the Gregson’s Young Promoter

Written by Archie Verhoest, Community Marketing Officer at the Gregson Centre

The Gregson is so many things to so many people. That’s what makes it great, because everyone has their ‘thing’, doubles down on it and builds a community around it.

One of these ‘things’ is gigs. For the past 8 months Jack Boynton has been the Gregson’s resident Young Promoter, thanks to funding from the Banks Lyon Memorial Trust. 

The Young Promoter Project was an opportunity for a young person under the age of 25 to have a budget, have a space, and programme a series of gigs at the Gregson. Mentored by practitioners from More Music and Gregson staff, this would be a professional development opportunity offering valuable hands-on experience within the music industry.

This project was important to the Gregson as it allowed our charity to facilitate an invaluable opportunity – a chance for a passionate and enthused young person to break into the music industry, and join our team in helping us reach younger audiences and expand our cultural offer for our community.

From the start of his time here, I was struck by Jack’s passion. Part of this passion came from his desire to make his gigs as accessible to as many people as possible – that seemed to be a huge driving force in his approach. His meetings with Dr Leighanne Higgins early on in the project helped inform a lot of this, including making his events neurodiverse-friendly.

Jack’s first gig here was an Indie Rock night in a packed Olive Bar. I was amazed to see the Olive Bar as busy as it was – and full with a completely different crowd to what I’d seen before at the Gregson. I think Jack’s greatest achievement with us was exactly that – introducing a different, young crowd to the centre who may not have come into our spaces otherwise.

From there, his gigs traversed genres and audiences and spaces in our building.

I sat down with Jack to reflect on his time here, and discuss what’s next for him.

Archie: What was your approach to programming like when you first started as Young Promoter?

Jack: Essentially when I first started it was looking for anyone who was willing to play. It was like a scramble to get anyone in who I thought was good – anyone with an audience or anyone I knew. The very first gig was quite funny – lots of genres.

A: So would you say your main approach was just to get people in the building?

J: Just get people on – exactly. The first gig was indie bands I knew had an audience. My initial plan was to get lots of young people into the building, so I thought a University band was the way forward.

It turns out, students and young people love Indie rock.

And of course, Rice played at the first gig – and they have a foothold at the Uni, and it was all local bands at that first gig.

A: Was that important that they were all local?

J: I just knew they were good and I knew they could play. And I sent someone out as a scout and I said ‘go and find me a University band’. I kept asking everyone I knew ‘does anyone know any bands’. And to be honest I still do that today, but the scope has changed.

A: So this was right at the start – how did this approach change as you went on?

J: Very quickly, it became about matchmaking. There’s certain combinations of bands which will totally fill a room. You want them to have overlapping genres but different audiences – which is quite a delicate mix to get right. But if you can do that with two bands you’ve suddenly got twice as many people in the room.

A: What challenges did you encounter that you didn’t expect?

J: The very first rookie mistake I made was I booked a band that I didn’t see a video of, and I didn’t see live. So beware. The essence of a live-show can’t come from an mp3 – you have to see it, and really you have to see it live.

The next thing I learnt is you’ve got to book ages in advance. Both for marketing, but also you’ll never believe how busy musicians are. And what I’ve learnt is it doesn’t matter how close to stardom they are – all musicians want to play. If they can they will – but you’ve just got to line up dates and get to them first.

A: What about challenges you saw coming – how did you anticipate and deal with them?

J: I knew I’d need a sound engineer. I got my friend in but they couldn’t make it. So then I had to run the biggest gig of my life without an engineer. So through this I’ve accidentally become a rookie sound engineer as well.

You’ve also got to time in your lunch breaks!

And the main one is getting people through the door – that is the main challenge. And I’m sorry to say I still haven’t worked out exactly what magic factor defines whether people come to a gig or not.

A: Believe me if I ever find out I’ll let you know.

I wondered if you could reflect on your favourite moment from the gigs ran at the Gregson?

J: I’ve got two.

The first was a gig where we got a film director in and we storyboarded a music video beforehand. We wrote a scene where me and my band – we were performing at that gig – we get torn down by an angry mob, and we shot that with a live audience. As they tore us down I crowd surfed away whilst screaming obscenities at my band mates – it was fantastic.

The second was – we got Nani Porenta and her band down from Edinburgh. During one of the final songs – the room was half empty at this point but everyone was up dancing at the front – and in this little semi circle was my mum giving it all the 1970 moves. Nani normally shouts someone out in the crowd – and she gave a big thanks to my Mum for dancing the way she does.

A: So going forward then, what are your plans and what difference do you want to make in the local music scene?

J: So…we all suffered the loss of the Yorkshire House. It was this untouchable place where there were bands just starting out and polished works going on tour.

And we’ve still got places in Lancaster – but they’re not the same capacity.

I can see a future where I can provide that place at the Gregson. A safe space to put music on for emerging bands and larger artists. A music scene is an ecosystem, and you have to support it from the bottom and the top.

There’s so many incredible small grassroots venues, but we need a place with a big enough capacity and we have that here. This place needs to be protected.

A: You mentioned about being a safe space. And I know you approached all the gigs by making them as accessible as possible. What inspired that approach?

J: Its the bottom line. When I say accessibility its that I want everyone and anyone to be able to come to these gigs without having fear that they might be discriminated against.

We can’t think of everything, and it might be that our facilities aren’t adequate for their needs, but I want to show that we will accommodate for absolutely anything as much as possible.

And when I say safe space – I don’t want to go into it too much, but gigs can be a hot spot for all sorts – be it thefts or anything else.

Music and art is for the community – and its a force for good. There are those out there who will take advantage of that, and we as venues have a responsibility to protect our community.

A: Is there anything else you’ve got coming up?

J: Our new mayor has asked our promotion – Baccy J n Folio Productions – to help promote gigs raising money for Citizens Advice. So that’s my immediate future.

Going forward, we’re hoping we’ll have a larger playground to stomp in – or stomping ground to play in. So keep an ear out for us!

I’m also excited to potentially programme more gigs at the Gregson – as I say its a great venue – so we will see!

I also just really want to say that I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the fact that I had places like More Music and like the Yorkshire House. These things come and go and as I say it’s an ecosystem. But I want to give back.

I’m here because someone put the effort in with me. And now, I think it’s my turn.