New under-18s live music venue opening at St James
A new live music venue for under-18s is set to open this Easter at St James, as the community and entertainment centre marks its 40th year.
The opening of the new venue will form part of a busy first quarter of the year for the centre, which secured a grant of more than £200,000 from Education, Sport & Culture in November to keep its doors open this year.
The new venue is situated where the Millennium Tapestry was previously located, next to the music studio used by young musician charity Sound.
St James director Jon Bisson said it would have capacity for 90 people, as well as a refreshments bar and interior and exterior seating areas.
‘Our vision is that it could become a place for kids to come after school to chill out in, as well as a place for gigs,’ he said.
He was also considering whether to offer it for events such as raves.
‘They would be old-school raves, hip hop, not drum and bass.
‘Maybe it could also be a place where people would come following an event in the main hall.
‘We’ve got a licence to stay open until 1am and we could easily get that extended to 3am if we wanted.’
Bands The Magic Numbers and Soul Funk Corporation are due to play on 8 and 15 February respectively, while those looking for a laugh will want to get their tickets booked for comedy shows by Father Ted and Death in Paradise star Ardal O’Hanlon on 1 March and Ed Byrne on 2 April.
Mr Bisson said that this year St James would keep its events schedule to Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, with the centre closing from Sunday to Tuesday to help the grant funding stretch as far as possible.
He said the money had enabled the addition of a further member of staff, who looked after the centre’s ticket office.
ESC member Andy Cameron also now attends the centre’s council meetings as a representative of the committee.
Mr Bisson was looking forward to using 2025 to demonstrate again the value of St James to the States and the whole island, ahead of negotiating funding for 2026 and beyond.
‘We can assume that the States thought providing us the funding for this year was justified, especially after the high level of scrutiny they gave our accounts,’ he said.
‘They’re now familiar with how we do things, so I feel like it will be a different dialogue going forward.
‘Guernsey likes having St James. It costs a few pounds per year per person to run it, which I think is a small price to pay for the resource it provides to the island.’
