ABOUT
Artist Management : Tour Booking : Consultancy
Before launching Kick Arts UK Barney Jeavons worked in venues for over 30 years in various roles including arts centre director, venue tech, programmer, community outreach worker and independent promoter. As Kick Arts UK we have booked countless brilliant shows into award winning festivals, arts centres and grassroots venues and delivered hundreds of one-to-one consultations for artists. Barney also has a long history of music management (Reuben, Dominie Hooper, Sick Joy, Chris Wood and others). The consultations we offer for musicians and other creatives benefit from all this experience and as you can see from the testimonials they seem to be very helpful (so far we have worked with agents, managers, festivals, crew, theatremakers, visual artists, comedians and more)
As ever, we aim to be the trusted friend you turn to for help, nurturing careers and offering advice and support. Collaboration is key, and together we can put the steps in place for you to achieve your artistic and financial objectives.
Touring
Since setting up Kick Arts in 2019 we've booked tours and festivals for Stick In The Wheel, Hannah James and Toby Kuhn, Platform 4, Rowan Rheingans, Sarah Smout and Dominie Hooper, as well as shows for void_null, Exit Child, Sick Joy, Laura Loh and The Exact Opposite. Festivals we've worked with include Hay Festival, Shambala, Deer Shed, Folk East, Sidmouth, Wickham, Warwick, The Wake, Celtic Connections, Colour Meeting, Medicine, Smugglers, Dranouter, 2000 Trees, Americana UK, English Folk Expo and Cambridge.
The artists we represent are all outstanding in their field. Our current roster is Stick In The Wheel, Hannah James and Toby Kuhn, Dennis Ellsworth, 9 Bach, Sarah Smout, Platform 4, DecibelBoy and void_null.
Consultations for creatives
Our one-to-one arts consultations are available to all, from individuals to groups, and we love finding solutions for whatever is holding you back. The sessions are hard to describe as they're different for everyone, but the general idea is that Barney helps unearth what issues are holding you back, your aspirations for the future and what will help propel you forwards, then identify steps to help you achieve that. Sometimes this will include explaining practical things like copyright or the best way to approach potential industry partners, other times it can be around unlocking the more intangible, emotional aspects of the creative process. These sessions are bespoke to each person. Some people like regular sessions to keep them on track, others just need one. Either's fine, whatever works for you makes us happy. The sessions happen over zoom and take 1 hour.
The Barney background: "I've worked as a manager, booking agent and consultant for 4 years, and ran an award winning arts centre in Aldershot for 17 years before that - doing all the booking (folk, roots, rock, world, comedy, theatre etc), budget management, staff management, risk management, etc. I also managed Reuben for the whole of their career during that time. Aside from that I've been a venue tech, independent promoter, tour manager, music industry lecturer, festival stage manager - all sorts. I've learned loads along the way, but that's not the biggest part of the sessions, I just have a knack for helping people plan their future."
Management
Barney is a member of the Music Managers Forum and gets a lot of satisfaction from artist management. He began managing Reuben in 2000, going on to manage Dominie Hooper, Sick Joy and others. We currently work with the excellent human and multi award-winning musician Chris Wood. We are not looking to take on any additional management clients.
Consultations for venues and organisations
You probably know your venue better than anyone, but sometimes it is useful to a friend alongside to bounce ideas off and have the benefit of a fresh pair of eyes. Unlike some consultants, what we don't do is churn out a hefty report of stuff you've told us that sits on a shelf gathering dust. We are much happier helping you discover your aspirations, unearth your existing talents and help fix the issues that are holding you back. Venues are generally about practical actions far more than theory, and we aim to enable you to take the best actions for your business.
The Barney background: "I played in bands and set up gigs while I was at college, before going on to work full-time at Guildford Civic Hall, Surrey University Student Union and West End Centre in Aldershot. I've promoted gigs from 100 - 1200 capacity, stage managed festival stages, tour managed in the UK and Europe, worked as a venue tech, bartender, programmer, community outreach worker, independent promoter, agent and arts centre director. I've been to countless venues in the course of my work, and experienced them from all angles. I also worked with Music Venue Trust over the pandemic, helping to save almost 100 grassroots venues. This breadth of experience has given me significant insights into the reality of how venues work, and what can help them work better. While at West End Centre we won 'Best Arts Centre Teamwork' in the Live UK Music Awards in 2018, and were finalists in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. We were also a finalist in the Attitude is Everything Awards in 2019 and also attained their Bronze and Silver Awards."
Projects
We've been integral in delivering ModCaf's TestChamber project from the funding process, through recording, the live event and the album release. We've been involved in successfully securing Arts Council funding for 10 other projects as well, and have advised on several others. We also set up the Illuminate literature festival and Barney is a mentor as part of Forward 4 Wiz Trust's most recent project. Barney has also been an Associate Lecturer in Music Business at University for the Creative Arts, and delivers occasional guest lectures elsewhere. He has been a panelist at Venues Day, Parallel Music Conference and more.
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ARTIST CONSULTANCY
In just one consultation with Barney you’ll understand why he’s such a pillar of the UK music scene. His wealth of knowledge and experience creep out of each little anecdote and never in a way thats overbearing or snobby. If you’re an artist lacking direction, allow Kick Arts to help chart your course.
Ben - Arid Wave
Barney is an invaluable mentor to us. His advice is spot-on and he asks the right questions to get our brains moving. I'd heartily recommend a series of mentoring sessions with Barney to any developing artist.
Dan Hope - Mother Sky
Barney from @kickartsuk has been such a help for me as an emerging artist. His advice and guidance has been so helpful along with his huge amounts of positivity and experience. He has been my guru for all stuff music business! Highly recommend and can't wait to get another session booked in. 🙏
Jamie Halama
Dear Barney, I'm so lucky that we met! Your advice and grounded enthusiasm were exactly what I needed to take the most necessary steps forward in pursuing my dreams as an artist who is still finding her feet in the music business. You seem to know all the right questions! 😉 Thank you for making me feel understood and supported!🙏
Rael Koiv
Thank you very much for seeing me this week Barney. I got a LOT out of it and I'm really excited to push forward.
huske monde
Barney is incredible, friendly and knowledgeable. His experience in the industry shines through when talking to him. He has helped us to see more clearly the path on our musical journey.
JV - SOS
We contacted Barney with a view to receiving some guidance on our next step as a band. He was able to accommodate us very quickly and the process of setting up the meeting was quick and painless.
During the meeting Barney was friendly and professional and helped guide us towards achieving our agreed goals. His advice was concise, realistic, achievable and tailored precisely towards us. The meeting also contained a healthy dose of humour which always helps!
We would absolutely recommend working with him and hope to check back in with him in the near future for a catch up!
Rob - Harsh Language Band
"Barney is a honest and thoughtful mentor. Our talk really helped to energise and push along a project I am working on. Strategic planning, with just the right amount kindness that can feel amis in our industry. "
Ethan Proctor - Bridges
We had a great session with Barney. We really felt like he understood what we needed in a short time, having taken the time to listen to our music and what might be useful to us specifically. We would definitely like some more time with him, but even one session gave us some focussed thoughts that we could move forward with. Thanks!
Anna Pool - Wise Women
“You’ve helped me so much over the years dude and continue to do so to this day. Great to have such a positive and experienced voice to guide me through what has been a pretty bleak time for the world and for music. Really loving our sessions and I can’t wait for the next one.”
Kamran Ramsden
VENUE CONSULTANCY
“Barney is incredibly intuitive and did exactly what we needed him to do, despite the fact at the outset, we probably didn’t quite know ourselves what that was. He didn’t push his own services but worked with us to build our knowledge and confidence, giving us genuine ownership over our music programme and its future development. He asked all the right questions and helped us work out the answers, as well as helping us recognise our own strengths and the opportunities they presented. Plus, he is an absolute delight to work with and left us smiling after every meeting.”
Annabel Turpin - ARC
Barney facilitated a great team session for our venue – focused on music. His wide-ranging experience means he has a case study for every eventuality, which makes for a very engaging and personal experience.
Barney is adept at enabling everyone to be heard and feel more confident in their contributions.
It was an enjoyable and constructive session – well worth time out of a very busy day – with a list of positive and practical actions as a result.
Maria Reeves - The Horton Epsom
My name's Chris Smith and my wife Liz and I own and operate The Chambers in Folkestone, Kent, since we opened it 25 years ago. We're a Grassroots music venue that also offers food and extensive bar too.
Barney was our Regional Co-ordinator for Music Venues Trust through lock-down. I can say with absolute confidence that were it not for Barney we wouldn't be here today still operating. At a time when ALL that we knew was crumbling around us, Barney was a constant for us in so many ways.
To us, he was:
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A pillar of support.
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Hugely knowledgeable.
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Calm and considered in his advises.
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A BRILLIANT interface between bewildered, panicking venue owners and the source of financial support that often seemed out of reach.
On our behalf, he was able to make our case to those that had never encountered our venue, with such clarity, community worth and vigour and to such a strong degree that we find our relatively large business still able to fight in the market place we've called 'home' for quarter of a century.
Barney's consultation strengths include - but don't stop at - high level funding, promotion, budgeting, tour management, profit and loss management accounts. In particular his band agency and management strengths make him a formidable ally to anyone looking to advance in the music industry.
We've worked with Barney all through the Cultural Recovery Fund program and owe our business to him. We've used his consultation skills since then and are happy to say we use his strategies weekly in our post lock-down world.
I would not hesitate for a moment to recommend anyone looking for advancement and assistance in any of the above areas to put Barney Jeavons at the top of their list. We'll 100% be working with Barney again in the future
Chris Smith - The Chambers
COLLABORATORS
Barney has been a joy to work with. Endlessly problem solving, honest, passionate and diligent.
He intuitively understands how to support artists and develop organisations and he genuinely wants to find the best solutions for the best intentions.
Catherine Church / Artistic Director/Platform 4
When Kick Arts first popped up on the radar I thought it was just Barney, evolving naturally into a new role after spending years and years running the most relevant and loved arts venue this side of London.
However after a year and a half down the road of working with Kick Arts, the first word that comes to mind to describe our relationship with Kick Arts is ‘friend’. A welcome friend too - literally walking with us through the highs and the lows of attempting to develop an audience experience-driven act whilst live performance culture has slowly been annihilated.
Laughing, plotting, sharing, staring hard at the difficult questions...
Barn was a friend before Kick Arts and void_null ever existed and I know he’ll be a friend to the pair of us long after we’ve stopped attempting to do anything interesting. There’s something very special about having somebody speak words of encouragement, wisdom and direction at a time when it’s perfectly needed. That’s Kick Arts, even when it’s at 11pm at night when you're trying to hit a deadline for an Arts Council proposal and you have Barney there with you obviously not going anywhere until the thing is done.
‘If' Kick Arts were super heroes then their super power would be ’networking’. Barney’s connections are quantum in nature…which basically means that believing you understand how he operates on that level is proof of the fact that you don’t. Even when he’s dealing with our very specialised and awkward ‘LiveAV’ corner of the arts, his power to throw up connections and interest in what we do is a little strange, if I’m honest… and although Barney is the ‘face’ of Kick Arts, he’s more like some kind of portal into the beating heart of the Arts. Yes, he has folk like Lorna who work with him at KA to help things keep moving, but the organisation seems to run on multiple levels in all directions, connecting with funding organisations, venues, artists and audiences alike. And I think it’s Barney’s experience of providing engagement for audiences for years that is really key to the approach that they take and the support and advice that they offer.
Apart from that…there’s not much to say really…I’d move on if I were you.
void_null
"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together"