Live shows return to The Wedgewood Rooms in Southsea – on Friday 13...

The Albert Road, Southsea-based venue is today announcing its first show since March 13 – its long-running comedy club will be there on November, Friday 13.

And over the coming week they will be announcing a whole raft of new gigs, including a series of Sunday concerts, with tribute acts and local bands also on the slate.

This comes after The Wedge was granted £147,372 earlier this month from the government’s Community Recovery Fund (CRF), a £1.57bn pot to help keep arts and culture alive during the pandemic.

Manager Geoff Priestley said: ‘Right from the beginning of this we've toed two lines – that we would open when it's economically viable to do so, and the CRF funding has made that possible, and the second thing was that we'd do it when it was safe to do so.

‘I know things are changing at the moment, but we do feel we can open safely.

‘We're not rushing headfirst into doing this – we're taking our time, toe in the water, seeing what the response is, hoping that people come out and then once we're a bit more comfortable we'll start looking at doing some different things.’

The venue’s capacity is reduced from 400 to about 100 to accommodate social distancing, and tickets will be sold in bubbles of one, two, four or six.

‘We've made some changes in the venue,’ Geoff said. ‘The important thing is putting space into the venue.

‘We've reduced the stage slightly and we've reduced the technical area at front of house, so that we can put in as much space as we can, to put in as many people as we can, as safely as we can, while making sure they're comfortable.’

As to that date, Geoff claimed to not be superstitious.

‘Ironically, Friday 13 was the last thing we did – that was a comedy night too. And I actually like coincidences, and I think opening eight months to the day with a similar sort of event feels like the right thing to do.’

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Looking ahead, he added: ‘Through lockdown we've managed to remain connected to our local music community, and our wider local community – and thanks to them we've got this far with the crowdfunder – so we're looking at getting involved with a few people who might have been missed out.

‘It’s a case of saying, let's have a look at doing what we do, and doing it in a bit of a different way that helps everybody, and after all, that's what the money from the government is for.’

The bill for the comedy club has yet to be announced, but Geoff said they have been promised ‘a very special guest.’

For more information and tickets go to wedgewood-rooms.co.uk

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