Your Shout
Michal Kaščák and his band VBPS found a very convenient venue in Trenčín
Where’s the weirdest place you’ve watched a gig?
TOP SHOUT Definitely from my drum chair at the first ever public concert of my punk band VBPS on the WC stage in the city of Trenčín’s House of the Army. As it is a barracks, they have some of the biggest toilets in Europe, and our “stage” was located in the area of the pissoirs (urinals) where there was enough space for the band, the audience, and also any “boys in need,” as the toilets were open as usual, which made it a real punk event. The gig was also streamed… to the main hall at the event. The promoter of the gig was Slovak underground hero Luboš Dzúrik, and the toilets were our only condition to play the show. It was a huge success, and since then we have played several ‘gutbuckets’ in Slovakia and also at Macedonia’s Taksirat festival where the promoter, Login the Great, launched a new format of show in Skopje, using the WC in the MKC venue. Last year, I saw two bands performing there during the PIN international music conference. Michal Kaščák | Pohoda Festival / VBPS
We were doing a lot of shows in a bunch of weird venues here in Kiev, including a helipad, an abandoned film studio, Hillsong Church, and the aviation museum. But the best venue I’ve been to was for a Björk show in Dalhalla – an open-air theatre in a former quarry in Sweden. Sergii Maletskyi | H2D
40
iq-mag.net
The weirdest gig location was for me back in 1994 when I organised Quart Festival in Kristiansand. We did a night event at an old military cannon location called Møvik Fort Batterie Vara. The venue was a bunker built to protect one of Europe’s largest cannons during World War 2. The fort was built to control Skagerrak between Norway and Denmark. Toffen Gunnufsen | Slottsfjell
The weirdest place has to be deep below Bond Street tube station. The standard of music was fantastic. About 20 people were entertained and everyone contributed. Ed Grossman | Brackman Chopra LLP Skipping a couple of my own (including playing on a truck at a demo in Amsterdam, and a riverboat deck in Moscow where the gear had to be winched precariously over a stretch of water), it’s got to be Pere Ubu at Chislehurst Caves in 1978. The band were at their ferocious best. We punters arrived by special coach. And the gig became an instant legend. I guess the record company picked up the tab. Good move. Nick Hobbs | Charmenko About 16 or 17 years ago, Kaizers Orchestra played Pulpit Rock high above a Norwegian fjord. It was a two-hour treck to get there and similar coming back – cold, icy, snowy, scary. But awesome. Martin Elbourne | The Great Escape Silent Disco made for some special locations. The weirdest one I co-produced with Greenwich Comedy Festival was Arthur Smith performing standing on the roof of the Old Royal Naval College, with his audience watching and listening through headphones from the grounds. Of course, any passers-by stopped to look up as well. Is it a bird..? Nope, just Arthur Smith. Sytske Kamstra | IPM Inside the caves of Gibraltar for Suzanne Vega. John Giddings | Solo I once saw Kasabian perform in the Cabinet War Rooms – Winston Churchill’s underground
