VMS Live has announced the first in a series of new venue acquisitions.
The music and venues company has secured a lease on the 1,200-capacity William Aston Hall Wrexham. The venue currently stages about 100 events per year, with current shows on sale including UB40, Rhod Gilbert, Alexander O’Neil and the Wrexham Symphony Orchestra.
VMS Live MD Steve Forster (pictured) said: "Having worked with the university for the last four years as venue consultants, I am delighted VMS have now taken on the lease of the building and will be responsible for its overall operation.
"The venue itself will fall under the control of operations director, Richard Maides and VMS operations manager Aoife Niblock, alongside existing member of staff Mark Fleming. While Carl Bathgate [VMS commercial director], will oversee the promotions team with Paul Ingleby taking on the role as in-house promoter. As part of the takeover, ticketing will become the responsibility of the in house ticketing operation VMS Tickets, powered by Eventim."
VMS partners also include Arena Racing Company (ARC), Asylum (Hull University Union), The Copper Rooms (Coventry), Foundry & Fusion (Sheffield Students’ Union), Fruit (Hull), Inner City Live, The LCR (University of East Anglia Students’ Union), Lancaster University Students’ Union, Manchester Academy, The Olympia (Liverpool), Preston Guild Hall, Charter Theatre & Live Venue (Preston), Royal Holloway Student Union, ULU Live (University of London), The Waterfront & Waterfront Studio (Norwich) and The Welly (Hull).
“This is a really important period for VMS," added Forster. "Over the last five years we have more or less doubled in size year on year. While retaining the ethos of a small business we are in the position where we have had to decide whether we going to look to expand further or try and consolidate our current position.
"With the opportunities that were presented to us, we very much decided to go down the route of expansion. As an entirely self funded business, this does still mean that we have to carefully select the opportunities that we look to pursue. In this light we will be announcing a series of projects that we believe will be key to our future success and help to balance our portfolio of venues and partners."
