In what may become a regular series we will be interviewing key figures on the Oxford music scene. Promoters, soundmen, journos, and maybe the odd musician will feature. We kick off with Richard Catherall, founder member of promoters Gappy Tooth Industries. Colin caught up with him in the Royal Blenheim, where the White Horse Giant is to die for. And it has a rude picture on the front of the beer pump.

CHM: So….why promote? When it goes well, the bands get all the credit. When it goes wrong, you’re the chumps who have to placate the groups, the audience, the landlord, the soundmen….

RC: Well, we don’t have to placate the soundmen. They’re all c***ts.

CHM: We’ll edit that bit out. Great start.

RC: Nah, leave it in. It’s actually a really easy job, and anyone who has any sort of organisational ability can do it. All you need to do is make sure that it happens, and people know it’s happening, and that they turn up.

CHM: How’d it start?

RC: Well, back in the day, the four of us all had bands, and it was a bugger getting a gig. And so rather than moan about it on the internet like we do nowadays….

CHM: ……They had internet back then….?

RC: ….we got Gappy Tooth going.

CHM: Right. So was it mainly just a vehicle for your own groups or were there a bunch of local bands that you were really keen to put on from the get-go?

RC: Well, it changed. After about a year it was less about promoting our band and more about putting on acts that no-one else was putting on. (There might have been a good reason that no-one was putting them on, in some cases).

CHM: From talking to other promoters in town, is that path the commonest? You’re onstage, then you move behind the scenes?

RC: Not sure there is a strict format to be honest. You’ve got the Gullivers, a good local band, putting on nights as Three Blind Mice. We used to have the Point: top quality gigs put on by a miserable man, and now we have Daisy Rogers- the guy behind that doesn’t have musical pretensions so far as I know. So it’s a total mix.

CHM: Talking of mixes, I wanted to come on to the slightly controversial Gappy Tooth Ethos. Basically, every night is wildly eclectic. You can have a transvestite poet, a hair metal band and then a bunch of guys blowing into kazoos all on the same bill….

RC: ….I can’t believe you think that’s controversial. That’s an amazing night out in anyone’s book.

CHM: Point taken but….

RC: ..I think the onus is on promoters to always try something different. So with Gappy Tooth you see a lineup you’ve never seen before, a stupid little magazine, and an idiot talking crap between the bands…..

CHM: ….That’s often the best bit.

RC: Well, thank you. But you see…I mentioned Daisy Rogers earlier and he has new ideas. He gets the audience to vote for a cover version beforehand, then one of the bands has to play it on the night, he dishes out Panda Pops….he tries to make the evening memorable for the audience.

CHM: Yeah, you like to mess with people’s heads a little. There was one act I remember you put on. It was main support after a ‘credible’  indie group and they were playing Beavis and Butthead metal. Half the room had guys grinning from ear to ear and doing the devil sign and the other half shaking their heads asking “who put these dicks on?”. Created an interesting room dynamic.

RC: Actually, I ran another night a while back, Gammy Leg at the Exeter Hall, with more conventional lineups and the turnouts were no better than Gappy Tooth.

CHM: What have been the biggest nights of Gappy Tooth? Which ones have packed ’em out?

RC: Well, the biggest night in numbers featured Fell City Girl. And they were really sweet guys- they let us keep the whole take on the night, which helped us out of a bit of a financial hole.

CHM: Great band. Others? Personal favourites? Stornoway?

RC: Yup, we put on Stornoway. The Zodiac double-booked us, so we put them on in Moody’s Pool Hall. They gave us a PA which was essentially someone’s stereo- very lo-fi. And they opened the night.

CHM: The Winter Warmer’s a big GTI event. Will it be on next year? And will it be a Warmer Warmer than 2009, after that heating malfunction?

RC: Oh, I expect so. Maybe a different format from what you’re used to, but keep an eye out.

CHM: Finally, for those bands out there wanting a gig at Gappy Tooth, what’s the score? How do you get one?

RC: Nothing fancy, just find us on the internet [http://www.gappytooth.com/], get in contact and we’ll arrange for you to send us a demo CD. Or a link, as it now is in the crappy twenty first century.