Andy Rossiter promotes gigs with the Love Thy Neighbour collective, whose label has released music by Abi Wade and Us Baby Bear Bones. Having worked at the Freebutt before its closure, he’s now events booker at The Hope and Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar.
When did you start Love Thy Neighbour?
When the Freebutt got shut down in 2010, I instantly had zero income, so I went off and drove Esben And The Witch on tour around America. I was considering giving up promoting completely but then I got offered this band, Rural Alberta Advantage from Canada. I thought, yeah I’ll put them on and it started from there. Booking-wise, the Freebutt was essentially me and Alex from One Inch Badge. I used my contacts from back then for Love Thy Neighbour, then you pick up on new bands and music you really like and want to get involved in.
Who else is involved?
There’s just two of us really. For the label it’s myself and Dan from Esben And The Witch, then everything else on the management and promotions side is just me. Dan and I are both from Southampton originally so I’d actually known him for about 10 years. We’d always said we wanted to start a label, then we’ve discovered Abi Wade and thought this is the act we’ll set one up with. I think Love Thy Neighbour is mainly a grass roots, EP label. We see it as a stepping stone to try and get acts onto labels who’ve got more power and money to release their albums.
What does your work at The Hope and Sticky Mike’s entail?
There’s me and a guy called Chris, who used to be in Echo Rain, and we book both venues. Most of the shows are hired so it’s a case of weeding out the rubbish and trying to get the good stuff in there. They both sit differently in the Brighton music scene: The Hope’s more the place where a lot of touring bands play their first Brighton show and Sticky Mike’s seems to have carved a niche for local bands and late night rock shows. Having said that, Sticky Mike’s is getting more and more touring bands as their reputation gets better, so it’s going really well.
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