Soul Man: Andy Kleek
The Great Northern Ska event is a well-known showcase, they’ve fast got a reputation as being a ‘go to’ event, nailed on good time guaranteed. I grabbed a word with Andy Kleek, the man who puts his money where his idea is.
Andy began his life with record shop ‘Void Records’ in Ashton, from there he did boat parties in Ibiza, came back and found his shop had been cleared out, picked himself up, started selling DJ equipment and then doing dance nights. I’ll let him take it from there…
“It all started with ‘dance/house’ nights. They were great, but that came with a younger element getting really drunk and the like. That lead to big security bills so I thought, you know what, looking at the live music scene there must be a better way.
“In 2015 I did my first live music event, then about three years ago we did Macclesfield festival and that led to the Great Northern Ska Festival. I met Lee Hollister (front man of Manchester Ska Foundation) at one of our Northern Soul nights. We’d been doing those for a short while and I was looking to do something else, something music, but different.
“The Ska thing came about through meeting Lee in the Ska room that was annexed to the main Northern room. I was stood in that room, just listening. Those in the room were so into it and I thought, this is brilliant and I think it’s got legs.
So three years ago we started with Neville Staples, The Selecter and The Beat. I got lots of guidance off Lee – the events matured, naturally, and we’ve both learned a lot. Even on the first event we had a couple of thousand in, it was an outside stage, where Neville Staples, The Beat and The Jewellers all played, and that was it… we were off. The year after we had Dawn Penn, along with another strong line up, and last year we took it further again. We were able to book bigger acts. Once you’d booked one major act, they’d know who to speak to for another, or would recommend someone.
It’s not an easy game, despite what anybody thinks. Don’t get me wrong, it can be really fun and when it goes well, its brilliant and rewarding, but there are massive headaches and risks involved.
“There are plenty of unseen overheads and ‘legals’ to do with putting on events. Security, health and safety, staffing – getting good reliable people is critical – and they are not easy to find. Good suppliers fall into that category too.
“If something can go wrong, it will, and you must sort it, pronto. On top of that, the agents want their pound or two of flesh as well. There’s even things like electricity to take into account. Sometimes people question the price of tickets or the drinks and the like, but if they only had an inkling of the risks and the outlay, let alone the real world costs, they’d think again
“Believe it or not, it’s hard (sometimes) to break even. For instance, we lost a bit of money on the first Ska festival, but we were out to get established. On the second we made a little bit and by the third it was improving. It’s like anything, you develop it, you build it, you put a lot of effort into it.
“It’s taken us three years to get where we are, which is pleasing, but you’ve got to be very careful, it’s a balancing act. It’s also very important not just to rely on the headline, you’ve got to make it a whole event, you need stalls, pitches, food, something you can tie in that’s related to what’s going on.
“We’re doing the tribute festival again, and we’re already in setting up Great Northern Ska Event 2019. We’ve got eyes on the biggest names in the business for the future, too… oh yes, the biggest. “Watch this space.”