Tories Can’t Dance: Meet the non-profit group bringing Liverpool students gigs on a budget

Have you ever thought about how much money you’ve spent on concert tickets in an academic year? Or where you can find budget friendly gigs for you and your housemates to let off some deadline season steam?

Liverpool isn’t called the City of Music for no reason. We’ve got a blossoming scene of artists and venues, from basements to arenas, live music in your favourite pubs, to DJs blasting bangers in underground tunnels. But when you’re dying for a dance and you’ve spent your last pennies on a meal deal for a Sydney Jones session, finding a spot for live music that fits into the budget might feel impossible.

Luckily for you, we’ve got the inside scoop on a not for profit team bringing students live music on a budget. And the best part? You get to enjoy live music while your ticket goes towards supporting social causes across the city, and beyond. What’s not to love.

The Liverpool Tab sat down with the team behind Tories Can’t Dance, the non-profit group bringing students a monthly music night at The Jacaranda, everyone’s beloved indie music spot.

Born out of a handmade flag at Glastonbury Festival and a love for the local music scene, Tories Can’t Dance has become a beloved night in the calendar for students, and music enthusiasts alike.

Tories Can’t Dance have been involved in every student’s favourite weekender, Smithdown Festival, raised hundreds of pounds for charities every month, and made The Jacaranda an absolute staple in students’ venue rotations.

Here’s what James McGowan and Megan Walder had to say about their ventures, from meeting as students to establishing a monthly night out not just for students, but played by students too!

We asked Megan and James how Tories Can’t Dance came about, and what motivated them to set up their live music nights for social causes. James told us he played gigs around town, and had a few mates down at The Jacaranda who offered him the chance to perform.

He said: “I decided to put on the show myself and wanted to pay the other bands, but it didn’t feel right to keep the money our friends had paid to come to the gig. It was during the last days of Boris [Johnson] and people were really struggling, so I decided I’d donate the profits to a local charity”.

James and some friends had a flag made for Glastonbury Festival that said Tories Can’t Dance, which was actually voted the sixth best flag of the year over on Reddit. He said “the name seemed apt” and “helped a lot with the early popularity” of the night – so much so that The Jacaranda made it a monthly event.

To date, Tories Can’t Dance has raised close to £4,000 for charities, and had some “unbelievable musicians on” as James liked to say. Megan told us they had simply caught the bug, as  after we’d done it once we knew we had to do it again”.

“The first one was all James, it was us two for a few years and it just grew from there. There’s 5 of us now which is pretty lovely! It’s just nice to be the antidote, even if it’s for a few hours a month,” said Megan.

“The world is pretty horrible right now but we all come together to have fun, listen to amazing music and raise money for a good cause”.

‘We’ve tried to keep it as cheap as possible’

James told The Liverpool Tab he had three simple ideas when starting up Tories Can’t Dance: “use music to support people in the community in need; support local musicians; and keep gigs affordable”.

He said he wasn’t too clued up in the charity community at the beginning, but through Megan, they’ve managed to connect with “amazing people doing unbelievable things, supporting sexual abuse victims, asylum seekers integrate, suicide prevention”.

But as James put it, “it’s also heartbreaking how many charities need to exist in the city”.

“From a music perspective, we’ve been lucky to be supported by many friends who are outstanding musicians. Liverpool is an odd place, where you bump into people with millions of Spotify listens on a nightly basis. We’ve used this to help platform newer and emerging artists, when venues and promoters, and prospects of getting your first show, are disappearing. 

We’ve also tried to keep it as cheap as possible. The Jac make that possible for us and we can’t thank them enough. We started with £5 tickets and while we’ve had to up it a bit, we’ve kept early release at £5. If people message us telling us they’re struggling to pay we always work something out”.

Megan spoke about what makes Tories Can’t Dance important for her. She said: “Easily the community. We’ve made so many friends doing this, like people we’ll have in our lives forever. It feels quite cyclical for me. The Jacaranda Phase One (rip) was where I found myself as a student and where I first met James, so it’s nice to be able to create a space where we can bring like minded people together, maybe help someone find their feet and some friends.

And the charities are definitely a part of that community, they’re the people day in and day out who work tirelessly to do the hard jobs. They’re the backbones of our community and deserve to be celebrated and supported. Every time I think I have a favourite, it gets matched by the next charity that comes through the doors, and the next”.

‘It’s how I came to love this city’

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James and Megan shared their love for Liverpool’s nightlife and live music scene, but agreed “there’s not as many venues and gig nights as there could be”. 

“It’s a shame because I feel like on top of going to a bar, you also get added creativity, inspiration, and something that could change your life,” said James.

The Liverpool Tab asked the musical duo how important it is for students to get a taste of the local music scene. James told us “we get a lot of students at the events, likely because it’s accessible. It’s particularly important now that prices for bigger gigs are skyrocketing. You can only really see a few big bands a year. 

“A lot of our acts are also students, and often that first introduction came from them coming to one of our events”.

So if you’re an upcoming student band or artist, why not give Tories Can’t Dance a go?

Megan told us that Tories Can’t Dance has seen “some ridiculously talented artists come through our doors and some of them aren’t even performing anymore because they “aged out” or just had to follow a new path and it’s horrible”. She’s as much of a fan of The Beatles as every student in the city, but her excitement for new music is just getting stronger.

“I do find it a bit exhausting when people go on and on about how incredible they are without doing anything to support the next big band who are currently practicing in their mum’s spare room or studying at LIPA,” she told us.

“Thankfully we’ve managed to imbed ourselves into a community who agrees. And what better way to fall in love with Liverpool than absorbing and supporting the talent that exists within this incredible city – it’s how I came to love this city and I’ve been here for 9 years!”

‘By engaging in the music scene, we protect it’

Tories Can’t Dance is doing wonders for the music scene around the city, and as Megan put it, “by engaging students in the music scene, we protect it”.

“You go to that one gig that changes your life and you’ll be going to gigs until the day you die. The power sits with you guys. So we keep our ticket prices low, we don’t turn people away and we pay our artists fairly. We’re lucky as we don’t have a long list of fees we have to pay and work full time so we don’t take a cut, it makes it a lot easier to reduce our fees. But by coming to a cheap gig, you might think next time about going to one a bit more expensive and supporting another incredible local promoter”.

James said it’s been a while he was a student, “but finding the right community is so important”.

“You make amazing friends in university but it’s not guaranteed that they have the same tastes or interests. We like to think TCD is a community anyone can walk into – with people or on their own”.

We asked them how current students can make the most of the city’s music scene. Megan told us to just “experience it all once” and she’s definitely not wrong.

“Go to someone new, try visit every venue at least once, head to the amazing museums we have on our doorstep. You’ll dislike some of it but you might just find your community”.

James said: “You don’t always need to pay for the big artist everyone’s heard of. For the price of seeing say Lewis Capaldi, you could see the likes of Permanent (Joy), Tonia or Two Blinks, I Love You 60 times”.

What have you got coming up that students must get down and see?

James told The Liverpool Tab that Tories Can’t Dance “have a show the last Friday of every month at The Jacaranda. We’re also planning a few bigger events with Love Music Hate Racism, so keep an eye out!”

“We definitely want to get more charities into our space, sharing the incredible work they do and getting people more excited and engaged in raising money for them,” said Megan.

“I think my aim for this year is to have someone come to a gig and say, “you know that charity from last month, I volunteer for them now”. That would be amazing”.

So, if you’re free Friday 29th May, get yourself down to The Jacaranda for a night of live music that supports a good cause – even better if you rally up your friends and flatmates! Check out @toriescantdance on Instagram for all the details.

Featured images via Josh Wilkins @adjust.studio