The inside scoop on the Green Door Store

Credit: The Green Door Store

HOW DO YOU RUN A GRASSROOTS VENUE?

THE INSIDE SCOOP ON THE GREEN DOOR STORE

A deep dive behind the scenes of Brighton’s beloved Green Door Store with Programming and Production manager, Megan Thompson. Words by Charley Murfitt

Outside the Green Door Store, one of Brighton’s most beloved venues, in the warm winter sun, I sat down with Megan Thompson. As the programming and production manager of both the Green Door Store and the Rossi Bar, Megan boasts the power to change and evolve Brighton’s music scene. Exjournalist Thompson is accustomed to interviewing bands - not being interviewed herself - but was a natural, as a chatty and warm personality graces this feature. Working in-house at Green Door Store, Thompson helps to curate all the shows, spending her daytime working with promoters to book local bands and looking after the artists who frequent her venues. By night, she spends her time amongst the artists at venues like the Hope and Ruin.

As we discussed her passion for the venue, Thompson highlighted the importance of Brighton’s creative scene. “It’s so important when you look at Brighton in terms of a city. You’re always so close to a venue and they’re all so compact.” She continues; “[There’s] so many wonderful local bands and local promoters. A genuinely amazing creative scene. It’s so important to be able to have these venues here who help our local bands get to the point where they are touring outside of the city. It’s really nice to be able to nurture our creative scene. We’re so lucky to be able to create such a safe space for music in Brighton” We moved onto logistics - how do you even book Green Door Store? “Either a promoter of a band will contact me. Most of the in-house shows that we put on tend to be free entry shows for local bands to give them the opportunity, especially bands who are just starting out. Otherwise, what tends to happen is that a new promoter or a current promoter that we work with will contact me about booking a date and then it’s just the case of looking at the calendar and seeing what we have available.” Thompson not only gave tips, but offered her reasoning behind Green Door Store’s line up. “It’s also a similar process at Rossi Bar. We like to support promoters who are just starting out and maybe don’t want to take the risk of booking Green Door Store - the Rossi bar is perfect for that. They can put on an event and learn from the process on a smaller, safer scale instead of throwing themselves in at the deep end.”

Thompson started her career in journalism - specifically, she used to run an hour long radio show consisting of curating new music and new bands, as well as interviewing and doing a little TV presenting on the side. “The challenge that I’d set myself is I’d never play the same song twice.” Megan moves on to how this led to Green Door Store; “I think I got the job because, first of all, I made this ridiculous CV because I thought ‘I’ve got no experience in events,

“THERE’S NO FORMULA TO WHAT SUCCESS IS. FOR EVERY BAND IT’S PROBABLY DIFFERENT... IT IS IMPORTANT TO SEE IT AS A COLLECTIVE, CREATIVE GROUP OF PEOPLE”

how am I going to get them to notice me?’ It was just so ridiculous and obnoxious that they couldn’t not notice me. I edited a picture of myself and made it like a 90s club night poster; and put all the bands I’d worked with.” Thompson speculates: “From that I think they could see how much I cared and that’s how I got my foot in the door.”

We went on to discuss the breadth of variety of the bands that visit Green Door Store. “There are so many different varied genres and so many talented people who are playing loads of different genres. I think it’s important to be inclusive with that. I think people tie us a lot to punk which we love but we also have quite a few Hip Hop shows which are always fun.” Thompson pondered her past favourites and how much she feels a part of the eclectic scene. “It’s always great to see bands come up. The first band I ever booked was SNAYX’s headline shows at the Rossi Bar and now they are headlining Green Door Store, playing shows with Destroy Boys and doing really great things. It’s nice to feel like you’re a part of that.”

Community’s always a big part of grassroots music scenes, something highlighted by both the hardships and the new levels of support these spaces experienced during the pandemic. “This is what’s important,” Meg tells me. “This is what Brighton is. We’re lucky that we’ve created such a good pool of local bands that we work with. They were all so supportive and understanding. I think it’s fostered a good attitude and level of support.”

As a local tastemaker, Meg’s views on the best bands she’s seen during her time at Green Door Store had to be asked after. “The CLT DRP show last week - oh my god they are one of the most amazing bands I’ve seen, they’re incredible. They just blew my mind.” She also mentions “the Lambrini Girls at 234 Festival. The bar set was just iconic. I could sit here forever and talk about all the amazing bands in Brighton.” This discussion of Thompson’s favourite acts concluded with these words of wisdom: “There’s no formula to what success is. For every band it’s probably different. Most bands might see success as being able to live comfortably off tour money and others might see success as being a local hero so I think success is personal. And I don’t want to pigeonhole bands like this band because of XYZ. It is important to see it as a collective, creative group of people.”

As the interview concluded, Thompson offered advice to those coming up: just get out there. “Go to the venues: you’d be surprised about the amount of people who come to the Green Door Store regularly and get to know all the staff. All of a sudden it’s like ‘Oh! I’m in a band’ and, because of the already good relationship they have with us, everyone is so up for it and get them to contact me. Be a part of the scene as well. It’s so important. As people see you supporting them it works vice versa. I think the people who are the most supportive in the scene tend to be very popular like bands like SNAYX. They’re always at gigs supporting the local punk scene. You can see that in the way that they are now selling out because they’re putting the effort in nurturing the scene.”

For more information, please visit: https://thegreendoorstore.co.uk/ @ greendoorstore on instagram

WHATS ON IN BRIGHTON

WEAKENED FRIENDS AT THE PRINCE ALBERT, 14TH APRIL

TEENAGE FANCLUB AT CHALK, 16TH APRIL

BASTILLE AT THE BRIGHTON CENTRE, 18TH APRIL

LARKINS AT CHALK, 19TH APRIL

BOWLING FOR SOUP AT DE LA WARR PAVILION, 21ST APRIL

FOALS AT THE BRIGHTON CENTRE, 27TH APRIL

BLONDIE AT THE BRIGHTON CENTRE, 28TH APRIL

THE DIVINE COMEDY AT BRIGHTON DOME, 29TH APRIL

STONE BROKEN AT CHALK, 4TH MAY

THE GREAT ESCAPE, 11TH-15TH MAY

BYRAN ADAMS AT THE BRIGHTON CENTRE, 13TH MAY

PEACH PIT AT CONCORDE 2, 17TH MAY

YEARS AND YEARS AT THE BRIGHTON CENTRE, 19TH MAY

KATE NASH AT CHALK, 23RD MAY

THE SCRIPT AT THE BRIGHTON CENTRE, 30TH MAY

SKYND AT CONCORDE 2, 8TH JUNE

CHECK OUT THE MUSIC FEATURED IN THIS EDITION ON OUR SPOTIFY!