Little venue is forging a big reputation and is the jewel in town’s crown
MELBOURNE’S ASSEMBLY ROOMS IS PRAISED BY COMEDIANS, MUSICIANS AND THEATRE GROUPS AS ONE OF THE AREA’S BEST PERFORMANCE SPACES
THE Assembly Rooms is going from strength to strength. It’s not a sentence you would read about Derby’s forlorn, out-of-action events building, eight years after it was closed by a fire.
But it is the case at the area’s “other” Assembly Rooms, in Melbourne, which not only serves its community in myriad ways but has a growing reputation as one of the region’s best small entertainment venues.
It is now 10 years since the village’s former school, an imposing building dating from 1897 was taken on by a group of five locals, who secured funding from South Derbyshire District Council and set about revitalising the premises.
Soon, they are set to sign a new 30-year lease and a new round of building work has commenced around the Grade II listed building.
One of the original five, Blase Lambert, remains on an elected board of 10 people running the venue and he serves as financial director.
While funding continues to come from the district council, the hope is to move to a fully-sustainable future.
Also coming up to 10 years involved with the project is Andy Heafield, Melbourneborn, who returned to the area after 25 years away to take on the role of manager.
“I saw the job advertised and I had just moved back from London, where I had been working for the London
Marathon,” says Andy.
“I had gone there on a year’s contract and stayed for 25 years in various sports development roles.”
It was not difficult to see room for improvement in the Assembly
Rooms, which was in use as a community building, hosting various local groups, but lacked direction.
“There were classes in the week and they were trying to market it is a leisure centre – with one badminton court,” says Andy.
“It was a tired-looking building, no energy in it and nothing ever happened at weekends.”
A decade later, the transformation has been remarkable. Renovation work already completed highlights the attractive original features of a building which also houses the village library.
Hi-tech work on acoustics of the main hall has created a performance space widely praised by the comedians, musicians and theatre groups who have trod the boards.
Weekly or fortnightly, 52 local clubs and groups meet at and use the venue. There are cinema nights and quizzes, and a weekly outdoor market in the car park on Thursdays has notably increased the footfall in the village.
The growth of the concert programme is a particular source of pride for Andy Heafield as he pulls off small coups, such as getting members of Steeleye Span to perform or – next month – Richard and Linda Thompson’s highlyacclaimed singer-songwriter son, Teddy Thompson, to take in the venue on a tour of only three British dates.
Touring American artists are a regular feature, along with leading tribute acts, in a hall that can hold an audience of around 140.
“We’ve topped 50,000 attendances in a year and, for a small place like Melbourne, that’s quite something,” says Andy.
“The last five shows have been 100 per cent sell-outs and perhaps twothirds of the audience travel from outside the village.”
They do not necessarily have to come far, of course, given Melbourne’s location, but a group of Australians who delighted in telling friends back home that they were “in Melbourne” to see a Bruce Springsteen tribute, were an amusing highlight.
Andy, one of life’s ideas people, and currently hobbling around after snapping his Achilles tendon, is unlikely to get carried away by all of this – keeping the venue fresh and relevant is a non-stop exercise.
He adds: “We can’t ever lose sight of the fact that it’s a community venue for locals, whatever they want to use it for.”
The Assembly Rooms is assuredly a jewel in Melbourne’s crown, though, and many people will wish their town or village had a venue to match it.
We’ve topped 50,000 attendances in a year... the last five shows have been 100 per cent sell-outs.
Andy Heafield