Big acts like Blue set to perform 'in car park'

It might be a venue in a car park, but promoters have still managed to bag big names like James Morrison, Blue, Russell Howard and Al Murray for a series of shows.

The stars have been booked to play at The Amp, a temporary 1,400 arena that has been set up outside The Courtyard, Hereford's 400-seater theatre.

Courtyard CEO Ian Archer said the county deserved "something other than just a 400-seater theatre", with the new venue opening its doors on Friday.

After already maxing out the indoor theatre's capacity, Archer said: "I wanted something that would bring artists here, the artists that we can't bring to The Courtyard but the people of Herefordshire deserve to see."

The temporary venue will also host K-Pop All Stars, The Shires, Simon Reeve, The Bootleg Beatles, Chris Ramsey, and even Harry Redknapp and Paul Merson.

It will then be dismantled on 31 August before plans begin to find it a more permanent home next year in Hereford.

"For The Courtyard, in a way it's securing its future," Archer said.

"It's getting harder and harder to make things work financially on a 400-seater theatre.

"Costs rise but we can't keep increasing ticket prices exponentially, so how can we achieve something that is different than The Courtyard?

"[But] we can't keep doing it on The Courtyard car park, so where do we take it in future?"

Archer also revealed more than 16,000 tickets have already been sold for shows at The Amp.

Paul Stevens, a board member at The Courtyard and also the Chair of the Hereford City BID, said: "I am very excited.

"There's nothing of this size that's been in Hereford since the late 90s when the leisure centre hosted the Manic Street Preachers and Pulp.

"It's going to get some big names back into the city."

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