Monday, August 23, 2004

The Trades Club at Hebden Bridge has announced its new management team - Dave Boardman and Drew Magiera.

Dave, 48, of Victoria Road, Hebden Bridge has been the President of the Trades Club for the last year and is a well known face at The Riverside Festival and TodFest. Dave was responsible for booking all the music at this year's Todfest early in July and has been involved in musical events on and off for many years, having starting booking bends for fund raising events during the miners strikes of the mid 1980s.

Dave has had a varied work career which has included managing community centres, being a tutor organiser in adult education and sports and music journalism - he wrote record and concert reviews for Melody Maker many years ago. Visitors and members of the Trades know Dave as m/c at the club.

He has been an event organiser at major events like the Socialist Conferences at Manchester and Chesterfield in the late 1980s and early 1990s and at Big Green Gatherings - an environmental activists festival in Wiltshire - where he organised the Red Green marquee, which hosted political debate and discussion, information sharing and music.

Drew Magiera, 53, of Bridge Lanes, has a wealth of experience as a sound and lighting engineer and also of the licensing trade. Drew has been Head Lighting Technician at the Square Chapel Centre for the Arts in Halifax since 2000. He has also been the centre's licensee.

Drew worked from 1990-7 for Sport For Television as a sound engineer on many of their outside broadcasts as well as being on tour with bands as engineer. Drew was sound engineer to a rock band named "CRY" in 1974/76 followed by short periods as a pub and club DJ.

After moving to Hebden Bridge in the early 1980s he worked for a time as stage lighting technician at the Trades Club. He was employed by The Northern Production Company in 1988 as Lighting and Sound Director and worked on their production of "Screamers" at the Edinburgh Festival.

Drew, who also works behind the bar of the Fox and Goose in Heptonstall Road, has been a member of the Trades for 20 years and has, over that period, been sound and lighting engineer, worked behind the bar and carried out building maintenance.

"We are both a part of the club and its history," said Drew, "but we want this to be seen as a development of the club not a status quo. Our job will be to encourage members to get more involved, come up with ideas and make this club even better".

In 1991 Drew went to Romania as a volunteer renovating orphanages. In 1994 he went to St Petersburg in Russia to work on the refurbishment of a children's hospital.

Dave and Drew will work as a "job share." Dave will be mainly responsible for entertainment and bookings while Drew will oversee the bar and the technical side of the entertainment set up at the Trades.

Both see the need to open up the club to new ideas. "This valley is full of talent and imaginative ideas, and we want to tap into that," said Dave. "The club is not in a good situation financially, but we feel the way out of this is to make use of the resources we have - the building, its reputation and its membership, existing and new." Making greater use of the concert room during the day time and non gig evenings is one way to do this and the club will be hoping to develop training opportunities and maybe recording facilities.

"We don't want to lose any of the good things we have here," said club Vice President Peter Lazenby. "But we do want to develop new things, and we want to hear from members and supporters about what they want, whether it's comedy nights, afternoon events, more support for local bands, different kinds of music."

Dave and Drew will head the Trades' existing team of staff, including newly-promoted bar manager Joey Howells. The club is also changing its gig starting times, so gigs will begin at 9pm rather than 9.30pm. This will mean people can get trains and buses back to Todmorden, Sowerby Bridge and Halifax without missing the end of a gig.

Volunteers

Dave has told the Hebden Bridge Web, "We want to involve all members in helping run this club. So, if you'd like to help out by staffing doors, decorating etc please get in touch with me or Drew in the Office or any staff or committee member. We especially want to know if there's anyone who can either provide accommodation for bands / musicians or if you have access to washing machines large enough to wash / dye the 'white' curtains in the concert room."

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