J Tillman esquire

As I've mentioned before Kate and I have been putting on small gigs in the Courthouse in Thirsk for 2 or 3 years now, we do 4 or 5 a year and call them 'In The Dock'. The venue is lovely, a converted courthouse with high ceilings, a great PA and lighting gig – a lottery funded venture if there ever was one.

The venue holds 70, which we always manage to sell. We do it in a cafe style with tables and it makes for a really intimate gig. Above all else we look after the artists, the audience really listens and appreciates and buy lots of CDs. I'm sure it is the highlight of quite a few tours, and I know that sounds like us blowing our own trumpets but this is what the artists say. All good.

Anyway, these shows tick along, selling out each time and we don't have to make much marketing effort. All this is changing which is unexpected. I had thought that once we started talking about festivals these Thirsk gigs would become much less important, but they are more important than ever.

They are a marketing opportunity of course, we expect lots of people who come to them to also come to the Deer Shed, we're likely to have some of the In The Dock artists back to play the second stage in the park. But also we've just had J Tillman confirmed for a show later this year. He is the drummer from the Fleet Foxes no less and is an artist in his own right. This is a bit of a coup, the Fleet Foxes are the thinking man's festival band of the moment and these sorts of associations are extremely helpful to say the least.

Each new In The Dock show we publicise (and we think we ought to make more effort) will be a dry run for the festival. We should know who the local journalists are who could make a difference (if any) but we don't. We're also doing a survey aimed at our Thirsk audience asking them what sort of festival they might like to come to, and hoping they don't all want a top tribute band.

I've also been thinking about branding, I love branding, much more interesting than business link funding which I can't even bring myself to write about. I've got quite a few ideas for logos and websites, the researching of which took me to the Latitude web site. We've never been to Latitude but it is clearly what we are aiming at. High quality, with arts and literature (not just music), in a beautiful setting. Good vibes. And a source of ideas waiting to be plundered...