The good news is that the public has been asked to consider five possible designs for the long-awaited Bristol Arena. The bad news is that Mayor George Ferguson is one of the judges.
Given that the thing is supposed to be ready by 2017, I am not encouraged by the statement that building work is due to commence ‘sometime next year’. I am not all that bothered by what our arena will look like from the outside. As long as it looks good inside and has decent acoustics and decent facilities, I don’t really care if it looks like a gas holder. After all, we really need to be able to get our fix of ‘The X Factor Live’ and ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ in Bristol, rather than having to travel to the frozen north (Birmingham).
I am afraid that I remain firmly in the ‘I’ll believe it when I see it’ camp. Mayor Ferguson has already shown his hostility to the motorist and I have seen little in his plans that suggests there will be anywhere near sufficient parking spaces or additional roads to deal with them and the last trains out of Bristol Temple Meads are currently at such times that people would need to leave the auditorium some time before the main event appears to get home before dawn. Perhaps he expects us all to cycle, as long as it’s slower than 20 MPH?
A lot has been said about getting an arena for Bristol and there’s no doubt that it would certainly bring money to the city, as well as the type of musicians and singers we don’t normally get to see. Quite how often I will be going is open to question! I look at Birmingham’s NIA and see their forthcoming line up. Paloma Faith, Lionel Ritchie, McBusted and Mike Love’s Wilson-free Beach Boys tribute act to name but a few of the acts I would not cross the road to watch, never mind pay a lot of money. As you would expect, there is little in the way of cutting edge new music on show but I also know that all of the above would sell out at the Bristol Arena.
The Colston Hall, plus the odd trip to Brum or London has always sufficed for me since most of the bands I like come to Bristol’s small halls anyway. There are bands who I like and indeed possess all their music, like for example, The Eagles but even if they played the Bristol Arena at £100 a pop, I’d think twice before going along to see them trot out their greatest hits and nothing remotely new.
Music is definitely changing. Live music is where the money is these days and that’s why the behemoth acts of yesteryear are out there touring the arenas and stadia (I like stadium shows even less than arena shows), churning out the hits.
I do know that if the arena gets built, people will pack it out so that’s why it should be built. Whether old fashioned people like me who prefer lower division music will ever use it is another question altogether and not one that will bother Ticketmaster.
