Town centre Improvements
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Posts
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[quote quote=166394]And a decent live music venue (or one at all other that a little stage in a pub somewhere).
[/quote]It’s called the William Aston Hall – ever heard of it? 1,200 venue capacity.
Yes, they don’t put enough music events on (take it up with the organisers?), but there is a healthy number of comedians who come to the town.
There is literally nowhere to build a MASSIVE ARENA in Wrexham without pissing everyone off. People cry when a new drive through Costa might tip the Plas Coch traffic congestion glut into critical overdrive.
You’d also have to question why larger bands etc… can’t be attracted to mid-level towns/cities. Chester has Northgate Arena (about 1,000 capacity venue in sports hall) and it used to be used for gigs – no longer.
So that’s Wrexham, Chester, Warrington, Crewe, Shrewsbury, Telford, Stoke – all no large arena style venues that attract big artists.
It’s easier for them to just go to Liverpool, Manchester or Birmingham. I’d love an arena personally but it just ain’t going to happen. We don’t even have any decent night club venues here.
I’d like to see more summer concerts at the Racecourse though – no reason why they couldn’t expand the offering from 2 a year to 5+.
[quote quote=166402]
And a decent live music venue (or one at all other that a little stage in a pub somewhere).
It’s called the William Aston Hall – ever heard of it? 1,200 venue capacity.
Yes, they don’t put enough music events on (take it up with the organisers?), but there is a healthy number of comedians who come to the town.
There is literally nowhere to build a MASSIVE ARENA in Wrexham without pissing everyone off. People cry when a new drive through Costa might tip the Plas Coch traffic congestion glut into critical overdrive.
You’d also have to question why larger bands etc… can’t be attracted to mid-level towns/cities. Chester has Northgate Arena (about 1,000 capacity venue in sports hall) and it used to be used for gigs – no longer.
So that’s Wrexham, Chester, Warrington, Crewe, Shrewsbury, Telford, Stoke – all no large arena style venues that attract big artists.
It’s easier for them to just go to Liverpool, Manchester or Birmingham. I’d love an arena personally but it just ain’t going to happen. We don’t even have any decent night club venues here.
I’d like to see more summer concerts at the Racecourse though – no reason why they couldn’t expand the offering from 2 a year to 5+.[/quote]
I don’t think that would be possible, because the club would have to prepare the ground for the following season.Few points – William Aston Hall is a 850 seat venue – although at Glyndwr the whole management of the hall use has been passed to an external entertainment company – they are responsible for putting on entertainment programme and have the facility available for community events as fill in. Many of the top comedians that go to venues like William Aston do so to test out their show material before going to the large arenas.
As far as the racecourse goes with a very large investment the issue over pitch receiver could be deal with the same as Principality stadium in Cardiff were they could hold car/motorbike racing one week and rugby the next — with investment and thought a multi-use flexible space can be created.
A good start to improve the town centre would be getting rid of Parking Eye. They certainly put me off shopping in town since I got a £100 parking charge notice. Would I really risk my reputation for none payment of a £1 parking ticket? They are a disgrace. There is a large thread about it on Facebook. 10 of those in a day is £1,000 – £7,000 per week. Surely that should be enough to fix the lifts & employ a cleaner.
[quote quote=166419]Few points – William Aston Hall is a 850 seat venue – although at Glyndwr the whole management of the hall use has been passed to an external entertainment company – they are responsible for putting on entertainment programme and have the facility available for community events as fill in. Many of the top comedians that go to venues like William Aston do so to test out their show material before going to the large arenas.
As far as the racecourse goes with a very large investment the issue over pitch receiver could be deal with the same as Principality stadium in Cardiff were they could hold car/motorbike racing one week and rugby the next — with investment and thought a multi-use flexible space can be created.[/quote]
My guess is the Aston’s higher quoted capacity is what it becomes when seating is removed which would be appropriate for live music. It sounds like the entertainment company are missing a trick by not attracting more up and coming bands to the venue. It’s of comparable size to Manchester Academy 2 which has historically featured a lot of national and international talent over the years. Granted Manchester has a significantly greater music scene but William Aston still has a strong student base which is where a high Level of the Manchester student union venues ticket sales come from.
As for the multiple-use flexible space that would be interesting. My guess is under the leasehold the club has on the ground they’d put on the events and raise revenue for the football club?
[quote quote=166420]A good start to improve the town centre would be getting rid of Parking Eye. They certainly put me off shopping in town since I got a £100 parking charge notice. Would I really risk my reputation for none payment of a £1 parking ticket? They are a disgrace. There is a large thread about it on Facebook. 10 of those in a day is £1,000 – £7,000 per week. Surely that should be enough to fix the lifts & employ a cleaner.[/quote]
There does need to be an end to the type of car parks that has a business model where they profit more from issuing fines than they do from encouraging a car park full of paying customers. As you say the fines deter people from parking up in the town centre much the way that Kingdom used to put people off coming in on the off chance their shopping would be ruined by intimidating litter fine tactics.
The fact that people can be fined/bullied from parking up in certain free to use car parks and then moving to a different location or shop within town is pathetic. You can’t park up in Dunelm area then walk across to Island Green. You can’t park up in Aldi and cut across to Boots and Pets at Home. You can’t wait to pick up someone at Wrexham Central for the fear you’ll overstay 10 minutes & get an automatic ANPR fine. It all adds up to a hostile environment.
[quote quote=166404]
And a decent live music venue (or one at all other that a little stage in a pub somewhere).
It’s called the William Aston Hall – ever heard of it? 1,200 venue capacity.
Yes, they don’t put enough music events on (take it up with the organisers?), but there is a healthy number of comedians who come to the town.
There is literally nowhere to build a MASSIVE ARENA in Wrexham without pissing everyone off. People cry when a new drive through Costa might tip the Plas Coch traffic congestion glut into critical overdrive.
You’d also have to question why larger bands etc… can’t be attracted to mid-level towns/cities. Chester has Northgate Arena (about 1,000 capacity venue in sports hall) and it used to be used for gigs – no longer.
So that’s Wrexham, Chester, Warrington, Crewe, Shrewsbury, Telford, Stoke – all no large arena style venues that attract big artists.
It’s easier for them to just go to Liverpool, Manchester or Birmingham. I’d love an arena personally but it just ain’t going to happen. We don’t even have any decent night club venues here.
I’d like to see more summer concerts at the Racecourse though – no reason why they couldn’t expand the offering from 2 a year to 5+.
I don’t think that would be possible, because the club would have to prepare the ground for the following season.
[/quote]
Of course I know the William Aston Hall, it’s a weird all-seater venue, perfect for the Uni to hold meetings, Q & A sessions and put on comedy acts, which is what it is used for presently, along with various old fart gigs where people need to sit down, like Slade and ‘ABBA Mania’. I’m talking about a real venue, where you might get actual current bands. Yes, it’s easier for people to go to Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool, because they DON’T HAVE A CHOICE. No wonder people aren’t attracted to the mid-level towns and cities when they haven’t got the facilities. I’m saying that this could be done here in order to improve the facilities in the area.
And the Northgate Arena, seriously? Who wants to go and stand in a sports hall, with crap acoustics, squeaky floors and the waft of chlorine from the pool whilst they watch a band? It’s not the 70’s anymore, people want a decent bar and a proper sound system. I’m not saying it will be done, but it COULD be done. People moan when anything is built but Wrexham is a town surrounded by fields, room could be made somewhere.[quote quote=166474]
Of course I know the William Aston Hall, it’s a weird all-seater venue, perfect for the Uni to hold meetings, Q & A sessions and put on comedy acts, which is what it is used for presently, along with various old fart gigs where people need to sit down, like Slade and ‘ABBA Mania’. I’m talking about a real venue, where you might get actual current bands.[/quote]The seating downstairs in the William Aston can be removed to create the 1,200 standing capacity venue. As Derek said it’s 850 people with seating.
Neck Deep are playing there on 18th May and have completely sold out the venue – general admission standing gig. Granted its organised by Focus Wales but that just goes to show the organisers at William Aston need to pull their finger out to try and attract more actual current bands. There are a few other standing gigs there this year – Black Star Riders, Skindred, Bluetones.
I still think it would be a hard no on a new concert venue being built on green belt land and complaints from locals about prospective noise pollution and increased traffic etc… They are having a hard enough time getting housing developments approved and petrol stations without it being a fight to the death between local residents, the planning committee, the developers and the WAG.
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