Dick Bonham at the Old Woolen, Sunny Bank Mills.

Dick Bonham at the Old Woolen, Sunny Bank Mills.

Transcript

00:00So I'm Dick Bonham, I'm one of the directors of Trouble at Mill, which runs the Old Woollen here at Sunnybank Mills.

00:07It's a fantastic venue, we've got 500 people standing, 225 sitting down.

00:12We have all sorts of acts on here, so we have music, we have comedy, we run a lit fest, we have absolutely all sorts.

00:20So we've had big acts here and up and coming acts, it's been very exciting.

00:26So what sort of bands and artists have played here?

00:29So we've had all sorts play here actually, so one of the big ones for us was Public Images Ltd.

00:34So Johnny Rotten, who was definitely a kind of character.

00:37We've had people like The Wonderstaff, The Wedding Present, Arrested Development was absolutely, what an incredible night.

00:43One of the best gigs we've had on, absolutely fantastic.

00:46But lots of comedians, so just a week run with Clinton Baptiste of Phoenix Knights fame.

00:53And we do our lit fest as well, so we've had people like Ian Rankin, big authors coming along, so all sorts of things.

00:59And what's it like running an independent events venue when so many are struggling?

01:04It's not easy times for people, people haven't got a lot of money and sometimes it is trying to make the best of it.

01:11For us, we've got a lot of different things on, so it's varieties the spice of life for us.

01:17It's getting different audiences in, different people, a bit of something for everybody.

01:22Our fantastic bingo nights, bingo for the people, which is just uproarious and a lot of fun.

01:27And it's just quite a cheap, quite a fun night out and you can win three quarters of a thousand pounds.

01:32So it's about getting that variety.

01:34I think as well because we're in a suburb of Leeds, sometimes people don't know where it is,

01:40but actually you're getting a lot of people who don't want to go into the city centre now.

01:44So I think for us it's a really good location.

01:46There's big parking, there's a big car park outside which is a big bonus.

01:50So yeah, we have fun, that's the rules.