Top rock band to play intimate Coventry show

CHART-TOPPING Rockpop band Bastille return to Coventry later this month to play a unique show at the Warwick Art Centre.

The four piece group, lead by frontman and songwriter Dan Smith, have previously played in the city at The Kasbah back in 2013, and supporting Muse at the Ricoh Arena the same year - and a recent interview with the bassist Will Farquarson revealed the band have a connection with the area.

He said: “I genuinely look forward to the Coventry gig because it’s kind of like coming home. I grew up near Coventry in Southam - was in bands from Leamington - Kelly’s pub, the Irish pub there is where I played my first ever gig, so the whole thing is going to be really cool.”

The band formed in 2010 and had a flurry of popular singles as well as two chart-topping albums. Their third album, Doom Days, reached number four in the UK album and came off the success of the wildly popular Happier, a collaboration with US music producer Marshmello, which reached number two both here and in the States.

Now the band are going back to basics and playing a sold out nationwide tour in smaller venues to be “right next to the audience”.

The tour will see the band supporting themselves with a DJ set to start, before returning to the stage to play latest album Doom Days in its entirety.

“We are doing a smaller tour shows to try and get that party atmosphere to make it feel more like a house party,” Will explained. “We often end up doing the same venues and everyone tours the same places so we decided we would do these smaller venues where people tend not to go as much in places that you may not expect bands to play - especially when they have reached a certain level of touring.”

But what should fans expect from these smaller Bastille shows?

“Well it should be fun,” Will enthused. “We’ve always tried to find time to do smaller venues even as we got bigger.

“In 2016 we headlined two nights at the 02 but just before we did that we pub gigged to 120 people in Shoreditch. I think it’s really nice.

“I love doing the pub shows and I love doing the festivals - we just did Glastonbury to 100,000 people which is just incredible but it’s also just amazing when your in a room with a couple of hundred people and your sweating and your right next to the audience who are 2ft away.

“I think that’s where it all begins for all bands, it’s nice to go back to that.”

Bastille will play the Warwick Arts Centre on 29 November.

Coventry City Reporter COVENTRY City Football Club have held discussions with the local authority about three possible sites to build a new stadium, the Sky Blue Trust has revealed.

The group has revealed details of Coventry City Council meetings with land agents of the football club/ Sisu to provide preapplication advice in respect on one site but, as a result of potential difficulties, has since suggested three alternatives that the club’s owners might want to consider.

It emerged last April that the football club’s owners were looking at the possibility of developing a site in the city, understood to be the former Woodlands Academy in Broad Lane, but that is fraught with infrastructure issues and complications.

City’s owners would have to overcome various hurdles to build a new football stadium on the site of a former school, not least the fact that the site has a legal covenant which can guide or restrain how you build or alter a property - attached to it which means it could only be used for educational purposes.

In another significant development, the council has provided a team of completely independent senior planning and development officers to liaise with Sisu and their land agents, who have had “no involvement in the ongoing litigation.”

The City Council has previously been accused by the football club of standing in the way of any attempts to build a new stadium in the city.

The latest details have emerged after the fans group, the Sky Blue Trust, asked Coventry City Council a series of questions as part of a drive to contact all stakeholders, including Ricoh Arena owners Wasps and Coventry City FC owners, Sisu, and urge them to get the football club back to Coventry.

The Trust are also due to meet with the English Football League next month.

Mark Robins’ men are currently playing all their ‘home’ games at Birmingham City’s St Andrew’s stadium, some 22 miles from Coventry.

“Following the exile of our beloved Coventry City to Birmingham, The Sky Blue Trust has been forced to focus on one priority - bringing the club back home,” said a Trust spokesperson.

“To that end, we have requested meetings with key stakeholders to hear, on the fans’ behalf, the answers directly from those involved.

“Following our meeting with Wasps’ Nick Eastwood, we were grateful that the rugby club made public its stance on relations with CCFC, insisting it wanted football to return to the Ricoh.

“Meanwhile, an equally frank conversation was held with Coventry City Council and, as a result, we are able to publish unedited questions and answers surrounding a potential return for CCFC and potential impediments.

“The Sky Blue Trust will be meeting senior representatives from the English Football League in December. We have renewed our requests for a meeting are Coventry City Football Club and its owners, Sisu so we can understand their position. We would hope they, like us and the EFL, would be committed to bringing the Sky Blues back home.

“Let nobody pretend that being in Birmingham is anything but incredibly damaging to the future of the Sky Blues.

“That is why we are leaving no stone unturned in our attempt to bring people together with the goal of City returning to Coventry. In the meantime, it is important that fans understand any progress or otherwise.”