There is always a point in any gig – where the singer introduces the band, for instance – when you think: I’d love a sit down and a bowl of pudding. Well, now pop stars are agreeing by playing gigs in restaurants. London-based Scottish-themed restaurant Boisdale (described by Tatler as “London’s No 1 jazz venue”) has been booking blues, jazz and soul musicians to entertain diners since 1999. But recently, it has started to hire more pop acts: Mel C performed in May last year; Rebecca Ferguson has played a residency; and ex-Sugababe Mutya Buena will appear in November.
To decide on the acts, the restaurant group’s managing director, Ranald Macdonald, gets suggestions from staff and friends. “[Then] we look at how many Spotify plays an artist has had in London, how recently and where they’ve performed. Our customer base is very diverse, at least three generations, and people from different corners of the world. Or, sometimes, we just book an act because we want to.”
Nicola Roberts appeared there last month – only the second time she’s performed live in six years. She agreed, she says, because “in an arena, with Girls Aloud, it’s a big production and you don’t have time to talk to the crowd about the songs. With this, it was more personal and intimate. I’m so glad I agreed because I remembered how much I love to sing. You spend so much time in a studio writing for other people, you forget you sing, you know?”
Almost half a century ahead of the current trend was PizzaExpress. For 50 years, the Dean Street branch in Soho has hosted jazz every night. Amy Winehouse, Ed Sheeran, Jamie Cullum and, more recently, Will Young, Pixie Lott and Seal have played there. PizzaExpress Live music manager Ross Dines admits that it takes a little extra effort to make the nights work; you don’t want singers distracted by a customer signalling for the bill. “Service throughout the performance needs to be both attentive yet, at the same time, invisible,” he says. Macdonald says that his restaurants don’t have rules about talking during performances, but “people know how to behave”.
Look: it’s not going to work for every band. A Thai during Slowthai? That’s going to get messy. We can’t see Drake competing for your attention with a pollo ad astra. But, as Roberts says, it can work if done right. “The thing is, Boisdale is built for music performances; it’s not as if a stage has been built in a random restaurant. I would never do that, it doesn’t feel credible or authentic to me,” she says. “And I was lucky in that I was playing to fans having a bit of dinner, not to a room full of businessmen in a Canary Wharf.” For anyone who’s ever eaten a burger from a hatch at a gig, this new trend is both great and potentially life-saving news. Bring on the dinner.
