A NEW dawn is on the horizon at City Hall Salisbury as the venue begins to launch its own progamme of music events.

For many years the prominent venue has been merely a home for touring acts, however a joining of three minds will see household names not only perform but also on weekend nights.

Samantha Peters, Tim Cross and Phil Smith are behind the project which sees acts such as UB40, The Buzzcocks, T'Pau and Neville Staples amongst some of the big names lined up to perform.

This has been helped by great success with shows such as The Stranglers, Enter Shikari and The Darkness in recent years and after striking the right chord with their own promotions they gained the inspiration to launch City Hall Live. I, like many music fanatics in the city, have long felt underprivilged when trawling through artists’ tour dates, seeing some similar places with big shows and nothing in Salisbury, it now looks as if times are changing. Now there are many nights to look forward to.

Tim Cross, operations manager at City Hall, says they are looking to build a “reputation of trust” and he's not looking to just the established acts for performances – local acts are very much wanted too.

“We'd like to give bands a chance to play with some heritage acts. The lure to this area of music is our responsibility to nuture,” Tim said.

The formats of shows at the venue are changing also: when the headline act finishes the night doesn’t.

Aftershow parties are planned to take place after some of the performances, the first one will be on Saturday, September 27 for the Prince Fatty Sound System with MC Horseman show. Bob and Swans £.S.D Records will be playing top tunes on vinyl only.

The next after-party is December 13, when ex-Specials frontman Terry Hall headlines an event with By The Rivers supporting.

I will be giving tickets away to these two performances soon.

Here’s a list of upcoming dates for your diary.

Mad Dog Mcrea – September 26 Prince Fatty Soundsystem – September 27 Joan Armatrading – October 4 Buzzcocks – October 10 T’Pau – October 11 ohn Otway and Wild Willy Barrett – October 19 The Nevile Staple Band – October 24 Katherine Tickell – October 31 Secret Affair – November 8 Big Country – November 27 UB40 – November 23 Terry Hall DJ Set – December 13