Can you paint us a picture of a typical night at your place? 

The beautiful thing about Green Door Store (GDS) is that there is no typical night. We try our best to accommodate to so many individual genres and groups which means our events are a hand-crafted collection of varied and inclusive events. One night could be a fundraiser for a local charity, next day we could have a heavy hardcore all-dayer followed by a club night playing Kate Bush and The Talking Heads. We keep things interesting and unexpected whilst catering to the majority of the grassroots scene as much as possible. Our production team do a wonderful job of keeping their ear to the ground and identifying the up and coming in so many corners of the industry – and that really makes the events here special. 

What else happens at Green Door Store that isn’t a gig or a club night? 

We regularly host Platform B which is a youth-led pop up radio station showcasing a diverse array of musical genres all being played by a new wave of young producers and DJs. It’s a wonderful project and it creates a wonderful buzz in the venue during the day. The venue is also regularly used for music video shoots and photoshoots from everything from TikTokers, artists and brands. We love getting involved with any idea that people have for the venue and have held a bunch of other events including drag nights, record fairs and art exhibitions.

What does it mean, on a practical level, to be a grassroots venue? 

Its busy work. We programme nine live music or club nights every week, working with local or national promoters, as well as programming in-house events and festivals ourselves for the local scene… Practically there is always something happening.  

What does GDS bring to Brighton, and to The Great Escape Festival?  

I think the main thing is a sense of community. Our main moral is to support everything DIY and underground: showcasing local bands on our annual events such as 234 Fest, GDS Bday Show or Alt Alt Escape Kick Off Party or supporting new and upcoming promoters by working alongside them to host shows. Being part of city-wide events like TGE is an amazing opportunity to highlight the importance of Brighton as a musical city. In general, creating a space for a multitude of communities in Brighton to be able to celebrate music or night life in a hub of like-minded creatives.

Why do you do what you do, in the way that you do it? 

Our main focus is always about creating a space for communities to celebrate events that are authentically a representation of who they are. Whether it be one of our LGTQIA+ events or hosting events for different music sub-genres, say, punk, hardcore, hip hop or indie. We want everyone to identify GDS as a creative hub and safe space for everybody and anybody.  

Which venues influenced GDS? Who are your venue ancestors?  

The owner of GDS was inspired by a venue in London called Shunt which was hidden beneath the London underground. It had a very similar structure with its historical underground arches and it gives off that similar vibe both in appearance and mystique.

Which venues are your kindred spirits now? 

The Rossi Bar is our little sister venue and will always be our kindred spirit venue. It’s a small 60-capacity cocktail bar and live music venue which has become an establishment for brand new young bands and promoters to hone their craft before moving onto other bigger venues in the city. We’ve seen so many fantastic bands start off headlining shows at Rossi Bar and who are now national tour artists such as Lambrini Girls, SNAYX and LYNKS. Apart from that we love and support all our fellow independent venues in Brighton and are part for MVAB (Music Venue Alliance Brighton) which is a collective of local grassroots venues that work together to highlight the importance of protecting our grass roots scene. We’re so lucky to be part of a fantastic pool of venues that all do so much to support our local scene and help create one of best music scenes in the UK. 

Your accessibility info is really in-depth. Can you tell us how this came to be? 

Being one of the only all-one-level access venues in Brighton we felt like it was important for us to ensure we were doing everything we could to facilitate those who may have accessibility needs. Live music should be accessible to everyone and we want to make sure that is the case. During the time we were closed over the pandemic we were able to take some time to look at ways we could improve our venue to do just this. By the time we had reopened we were awarded silver status by Attitude Is Everything, an organisation that is dedicated to helping create more accessible events in the live music industry. 

What can you tell us about your connections with communities who experience disability? I noticed that Carousel are one of TGE’s partners this year. 

We work with Carousel regularly at the venue and this year we have several showcases happening with them. With all the work we have put into making a GDS a totally accessible venue it’s such an honour to be able to work with amazing organisations like Carousel who are doing such important work in creating incredible inclusive events for people with disabilities and it’s also amazing to see them collaborating with The Great Escape this year. 

What do people say they like about you?  

A lot of people just enjoy the atmosphere. This is all down to everyone who makes GDS the venue it is: bar staff, sound engineers, our in-house programmers. Everyone in the team is an integral part of making GDS have the personable touch that it does as a venue. Doesn’t matter what day of the week it is, or what event is happening, people just feel comfortable coming to the venue and knowing that they are in an inclusive space where everyone is made to feel welcome. We get a lot of love for our local showcases and it’s one of our favourite parts of GDS too. We’ve always been an establishment that puts our local scene first and I think people can see that.

What do you like about you? 

We just enjoy the work we do here to be honest. We get to facilitate and put on amazing events, for a wonderful audience and get to support all of the fantastic artists that are in Brighton, and there is a lot of them! You get to put in so much passion and community spirit into the job role and being a part of that is amazing. 

What are the downside(s) of running a grassroots music venue? 

Of course, working in any independent creative sector there’s always trials and tribulations, but there’s a reason why people want to be involved with grassroots music. It’s a whole industry run by passion for the DIY scene. We’re lucky enough to be part of a scene which is so rich in support – whether it be from audience, artists, promoters, other venues. There’s a lot of community in Brighton and I think that’s reflective in our city’s music culture.

What does it cost – and I don’t mean the budget – to run this venue?  

If you mean ‘what does it cost personally?’ of course with any job in planning events it takes a lot of time and effort. There’s a lot involved but it’s all part of working in the creative sector. The rewards from seeing people enjoying an event that everyone in the venue has worked really hard to create is such a huge honour and seeing the way people appreciate our venues and the work we do here is the reason why were so passionate about putting on the best events we possibly can. 

Can you tell us about your international connections, the Berlin parties for example. And what others are there?  

We work with a lot of wonderful promoters who work with international artists all the time which creates a fantastic opportunity for us to host artists from all over the world. We love being able to see local bands support international artists in our venue and be able to have the opportunity to play alongside incredible touring artists.  During TGE we regularly work with Canadian record label Canada House to showcase Canadian artists and we’ve been working with them ever since the venue started hosting TGE showcases. 

What’s the story behind your latest t-shirt drop?  

The Green Door Store Logo has become such an iconic piece of Brighton culture, it’s always great to offer the patrons of the venue a way to celebrate their love and support for a grassroots venue and we love seeing people around the city sporting their GDS merch. The other T-shirts we have are our ‘I F***NG H8 CLUBBING’ T-Shirts, which are based on our popular club night with the same name which has slowly become one of Brighton’s most popular club events even though the night started as an anti clubnight clubnight.  

What’s the best way for people to support you?  

The best way to support any grassroots venue is through regularly attending shows and just going out of your way to support your local venues. Support your local artists, share events, buy merch and just be really mindful about how important small creative establishments are in creating cultural hubs in your cities. Without the fantastic creative hub we have here in Brighton we wouldn’t have the rich music scene we have. It’s all symbiotic of each other promoters, venues, artists we all work together as a collective to facilitate our local music scene.

Anything else you want people to know? 

We’d like to take this question as an opportunity to highlight a bunch of local upcoming talent from Brighton to check out: Hotwax, CLT DRP, Hutch, Tinman, Kymara, Ellis.D, Monakis, Currls, Welly, Epsom Salts, Attic O’Matic, Jar of Blind Flies, Flip Top Head, Austen Showers and so much more. We would also like to encourage people to go out there and support your local grassroots scene in any capacity at all.