Nice quote from Gareth from Los Campesinos in this piece
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Yes, obviously, itâs a basic accessibility issue.
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I get venues, especially small ones throwing on 3-4 acts a night, wanting to get bigger crowds for the earlier acts, and I think thatâs fine so long as theyâre easy to contact and responsive for people that really do need the times.
I got tickets yesterday to toso toso at Arleneâs Grocery next month and asked the band what time they went on on their insta; I was a bit surprised that they responded in DM but I hadnât considered that venues discourage making that public. I think it makes sense.
I did appreciate the venue hosting a rolling playlist of all upcoming acts, support included, so I could give a listen and decide whether I wanted to show up earlier.
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Yip. Itâs useful for people who want to see the support act. And it reduces the number of folk who donât want to see the support act who end up talking through it.
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Yes, 100%. And if you have worries about people choosing to use the info to skip the support, why not offer them an incentive such as this cool one I found out about today (at YES, MCR)
Sounds like a great plan to me, much better then just trying to trick audiences by not providing reasonable info
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Seem to be in a minority but no - I think having a band playing at the same time across two (or more) venues is going to be incredibly impractical, if not impossible
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I think it should become the accepted norm that doors are at 7pm, headliner at 9pm, curfew at 11pm unless otherwise stated. Itâs basically what happens anyway, but a nationwide advertising campaign putting it into black & white would be helpful.
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Shows finishing at 11pm means missing last trains and in a lot of cities the end of public transport
We need city planning to change to ensure people can get home after a show
As mentioned in the piece, The Anchoress announced sheâd be off stage by 10pm as we found fans couldnât get home from shows so didnât get a ticket but did when we made this change
I also think finishing at 11pm on a Friday and Saturday is so different to Sun-Thurs when people need to get up for work - itâs about 2 hours journey home for me from most gigs nowadays due to not being able to afford to live in a major city and some east London gigs have headliner on at 10:30 and I have to leave by 11 to get my 11:55 train home from Marylebone 
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Many smaller artist gigs will have headliners from 21:50 to 22:30, and 4+ bands, though. Itâs not that clean cut
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Should be illegal
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Those are otherwise stated then, the venues should alert the customers because otherwise theyâll be showing up at 9pm because theyâve seen my poster campaign.
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I donât think having fixed times works with some venues having club nights etc.
Publishing the timings though is just common courtesy and should be a given. Especially the case when an artist announces a âUK tourâ that calls at London, Manc and Glasgow, meaning that fans will be travelling from far and wide to get there, and then having to rely on useless public transport to get home.
Always try to get in early enough to see the supports and often feel bad for them playing to a half full venue. But if youâre not going to publicise when they come on what do you expect.
And put the times on the venue website ffs, some of us donât use facebook, instagram etc.
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Definitely. For years I was used to a fairly consistent 11pm curfew, but in Glasgow there are a random assortment of venues that seem to finish up at about 10pm. This is great if you know in advance, but Iâve been caught out a couple of times, turning up about 8:30 thinking Iâll catch most of all of the support act, only to find that the main act has already started and Iâve missed some of it.
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Reminded me of this from Islington Assembly Hall that i received a while ago.
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I like to know when the artist I want to see will go on, yes. Itâs not just about skipping the opening acts, but knowing approximately when I can expect to leave or get home and if itâs worth my time and money to go. And being there on time, so people arenât just shuffling in for the first 15 minutes of an openerâs set.
I love the idea of incentivizing people to be present for opening acts, whether thatâs discounted drinks or something else.
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Should they even reveal whoâs playing before you get there, idk?
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Publishing stage times in advance makes me MORE likely to get there in time to see the support, not less.
Interstingly I have noticed a lot more variability in stage times in the last few years than the standard âmain band on at 9 or 9:30, finishing on the dot of 11pmâ. A lot of the gigs Iâve been to in the last year or two in London have finished around 10 or 10:30pm. Which is good, but the earlier start time means publishing stage times is all the more important.
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The venue or the promoter, yes. Obviously not everyone knows who the promoter for a gig is so good idea for the venue to share it too ideally.
The idea that the only way to get people to watch support bands is by tricking them into being there feels very silly to me.
If people want to see the support theyâll come early, if people want to miss the support, theyâll come late. If people donât want to see the support but theyâre tricked into being there for the support, they will probably talk all the way through it, and if itâs a support act that I really want to see then I would rather these people arenât there tbh.
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Went to see NewDad at XOYO in Birmingham the other week. Couldnât find any set times online but said 7 to 11pm on the venue website. Last bus home from the coach station across the road 10.30. Last train just after 11 but would take a while to walk there and get to platform. Didnât want to potentially miss out on almost half the set time so got a hotel and it ended up finishing just after 10.30 so could have got the bus and just missed a few songs. This is more a moan about shit public transport than the band/venue (specifically Birmingham back to Nottingham which should be better, donât mind places like Leeds/Manchester being hard to get home from after a gig as they are a lot further away).