Music venues The Black Prince and The Lab to host Independent Venue Week gigs this week

The acts who are playing Independent Venue Week at The Black Prince.

Independent Venue Week returns this week with The Black Prince and The Lab set to host gigs as part of the annual event which aims to champion the UK’s grassroots music venues.

This year, Skinny Living, Hotel Lux, Empyre, Ten Tonnes, TVAM and Steve Mason will all play headline gigs at The Black Prince with The Lab hosting a headline gig by Nerissa Simmone, a Restoration Sound System night and metal all-dayer, All Day Racket.

Independent Venue Week (IVW) is the UK’s annual seven-day celebration of independent music and arts venues and the people that own, run and work in them. It returns from Monday, January 29, to Sunday, February 4.

Talking about IVW and the importance of it to the Abington Square venue in Northampton, promotions manager Phil Moore said: “It’s basically a week-long festival now, six nights of music in one location in a town that usually doesn't offer such a thing.

“Having a nationally-profiled initiative available to us is a fantastic resource.

“It really does highlight the work we do week in week out at the grassroots level in pushing live music to the local populace.

“Being a ‘tertiary market’, a ‘regional’ place, let’s face it an ‘unfashionable place’, it is often a slog to get attention on what we do. IVW does really cut through that by placing us front and centre in the UK music world.”

Skinny Living will headline The Black Prince on Tuesday, January 30, followed by Hotel Lux on Wednesday, January 31, and Empyre on Thursday, February 1.

Ten Tonnes will play on Friday, February 2, TVAM on Saturday, February 3 and Steve Mason on Sunday, February 4.

Talking about this year’s line-up, Mr Moore said: “Skinny Living are a vocal harmony trio who have recently supported Gabrielle on tour.

“Hotel Lux on the Wednesday are a south London post-punk sextet with a beautifully skewed worldview and excellent live show.

“Thursday is local hard rock heroes Empyre returning to hopefully once again sell out the room.

“Friday is Ten Tonnes, the indie-pop songwriter par excellence looking to build on his debut top 40 album performance.

“TVAM on the Saturday will be boundary-pushing excitement, as they mix electronica and psychedelica to stunning effect.

“Then, on the Sunday it’s the ‘legends’ slot, as Beta Band founder Steve Mason brings his exploratory indie-tronica to our place for what will surely be a memorable finale.”

Last year, The Black Prince has hosted more than 100 gigs, club nights, comedy nights and book launches.

Nerissa Simmone will be headlining with her new band The Vibe at The Lab on Friday, February 2. Support is by AFLO The Poet and Afreine. Tickets cost £5. 7pm.

The following night, Peace & Dub returns with the Restoration Sound System. Admission is free.

Finally, the Charles Street venue in Northampton will host All Day Racket on Sunday, February 4, from 3pm with sets by Tummyache, Hypothetics, Kickboy, Midframe, Austen Showers and Skumgutta. Tickets cost £7.20.

In 2023, IVW celebrated its 10th anniversary with more than 1,000 shows over the week by artists including Philip Selway, beabadoobee, Young Fathers, Suede, Pip Blom, The Bug Club and many others.

More than one million tickets have been sold to IVW shows since 2014, providing independent venues with a positive start to the year.

Tickets for all gigs at The Black Prince are available via https://www.skiddle.com/whats-on/Northampton/The-Black-Prince and for The Lab via https://thelabnorthampton.club.

For more information about Independent Venue Week, visit https://independentvenueweek.com/uk