Having brought the likes of The Spitfires and Stone Foundation to Teesside over the years, Teessider Promoters Into Tomorrow, fronted by Gary ‘Diz’ Walters, have decided to call it a day. Lee Allcock caught up with Diz to reminisce about past gigs and speak about how he will continue to support grassroots musicians by a different means.
What has been the highlight of your promoting career and why?
It’s really hard to pick just one. The first time I put The Spitfires on, in Doc Brown’s in Middlesbrough, is a contender because that’s where it all started. It was before Into Tomorrow and was one of Leon Pape’s Grass Route 4Play Specials. I’d pestered him for a year to put them on and, eventually, he caved and gave one of his nights over to me. It was a massive success and on the back of that, he invited me to join Grass Route and, from there, Into Tomorrow was born. When he gave it up, Jed Lyth came on-board to help me. Every Stockton Calling was an annual highlight for me too. The one most talked about was when Avalanche Party headlined The Sun Inn – a few people have described it as legendary. I was stood with Vic Galloway (6 Music, BBC Scotland) and he was blown away. He later declared Avalanche Party the best live band in the country on the back of it. There are also all The Georgian gigs we put on in Stockton. I love that venue and to put any gig on there was a privilege. I’d probably pick out the Stone Foundation one as my personal favourite. A guy called Kev McGuire, who a lot of people will know, brought his terminally ill daughter to the soundcheck and the band played ‘Your Balloon Is Rising’ while he danced with her in his arms. He said he’d never get the chance to take her to her first prom or dance with her at her wedding, so this was his equivalent.
What have you learnt about gig promoting over the years?
That you have to be slightly mad and a bit of a masochist to do it. I don’t think people have a clue how stressful it can be, particularly trying to sell tickets. You can have a band that you really believe are phenomenal and who you’re dying to bring to town, but if they’re someone no one locally has heard of, it can be incredibly hard to get people to listen, let alone buy tickets, even more so now, post-pandemic. It’s also definitely harder than when I started out because of how Facebook has changed: it’s difficult to reach your target audience now without spending money. Facebook assumes you’re a business making a profit, but that was certainly never the case with me.
Why did you decide to call it a day?
Well, it stopped being fun and became all stress and I’d gone through enough of that in my personal life the previous year without my hobby adding to it. Being on holiday for the first time with my new partner and spending every day on my phone trying to promote the all-dayer we had planned, and at the end of the week not having shifted one extra ticket, I just thought, ‘time to take the hint’.
How will you remain involved in supporting the grassroots music scene?
Through my Radio Stockton show. I actually had a message from someone the other day saying they’d brought tickets to see She Drew The Gun in Leeds after hearing them on my show, so it’s working already.
You can listen to Diz’s Radio Stockton show at radiostockton.co.uk.
