Interview: B Sides; the other side of town

We’ve all been there. It’s a Friday night in St Andrews and the only event on the agenda is The Bop or a night in with a bottle of wine. Not much of a choice is it? For Sam McCulloch and former student Matt Gavris, it was just not good enough.

“Having to travel out of town to find a good DJ night became the norm. Why couldn’t we have a night in St Andrews?” Sam commented, co-founder of B-Sides, an alternative night in St Andrews for students looking to see fresh and vibrant new talent.

“Matt and I finally sat down last year and said, ‘we don’t have any acts, we need to bring some really good artists to St Andrews.'” Thus, with support from Union members, they created B-Sides – the other side to St Andrews. Success came right away after an amazing five hour set from Mr Scruff last November and an equally great set from Erol Alkan in the semester that followed. B-Sides began to show how easy it was to bring big artists to St Andrews.

“We know the demand is mainly for commercial music and this is where The Bop dominates. However, there is an undercurrent of students who want fresh dance music to be brought here. This is where we come in,” stated Calum Bryant who is heading B-Sides this year. “We know it’s not easy to start nights like these but if you never try, you become stuck with the same events.”

Although B-Sides’ main focus is dance music, both Sam and Calum emphasise their flexibility: “We want as many people to be involved as possible – in terms of genre of music and in terms of money. We want to keep costs as low as realistically possible. In an ideal situation, every event would be £10 or less.”

And this is what B-Sides is: a night for people to genuinely enjoy themselves. Having only spoken to Calum and Sam for half an hour or so, I can immediately tell how passionate and determined these guys are to put St Andrews on the map for a night out; not just for the sake of themselves but for their fellow students too.

So what can we expect in the next semester from B-Sides? “We have a about ten to fifteen acts lined up for the year ahead. There is a definite act booked for November but we’re not ready to release who it is just yet,” joked Sam.

Not only do we have events to look forward to from B-Sides, but every third Thursday they have teamed up with The Vic to host a B-Sides Club Night where local and university DJ’s can show off their talents. “It’s exciting to see St Andrews’ talent being given the opportunity to showcase what they can do. We’ve had DJs such as Craig Smith in the past and we hope to keep bringing the freshest acts to St Andrews.”

For the upcoming B-Sides opening party take look here.

Images ©Theo Weiss