Leamington cafe which has become a hotspot for live music is launching its own record label

Temperance, in Bath Street, was established by Adrian Gains in 2018 as a café and art gallery by day, and a bar and music venue by night.

It quickly established itself as a hub for creativity and a space to showcase local talent, expanding to National Theatre Live, film, spoken word and comedy nights, as well as serving vegan food and drink, all sourced from local independent suppliers.

After the hospitality industry was hit during the Covid-19 pandemic, Adrian was offered guidance from Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, and was eligible for support through Project Warwickshire – a free recovery and growth business support programme to help companies in the tourism, leisure and hospitality sectors in the county, in the wake of the pandemic.

Working with Chamber business advisor Sarah Humphreys, Adrian was given support and training to help raise the profile of the café, enhance his website, and market events.

The site has seen awareness of its events space boom – attracting artists close to home and as far away as Australia, as well as famous faces including ex-Dr. Feelgood guitarist Steve Walwyn, Jo Boden from Bellowhead, Horace Panter from The Specials and Chris Difford from Squeeze.

Adrian is now taking the next step to launch his own record label ‘Temperance Live’.

“It’s really exciting,” he said. “We have a great technical set-up and superb sound engineer and our reputation is growing fast.

“We can now offer musicians the opportunity to record their amazing live performances and get them heard by a much wider audience.

“We’ll have live sessions released on platforms such as Bandcamp and will be selling CDs.

“We are keen to support up and coming musicians and already offer our venue as a free rehearsal space. Now we can also record their music and help them get it played on radio.

“Live music played to a live audience. We have waited a long time for that.”

Project Warwickshire is funded by the European Regional Development Fund and Warwickshire County Council, with support delivered by Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with Shakespeare’s England and Northern Warwickshire Tourism, on behalf of Warwickshire County Council.

Adrian added: “The support has really helped with business challenges and issues post-Covid recovery.

“A website review helped us to identify areas we could improve on regarding discoverability of our events which we implemented, and also further marketing advice to help us get on the map of great venues to visit in Leamington.

“Running this kind of business is quite lonely, especially in the last few years, so to have somebody like Sarah just to talk to about things and offer her support has been a big help.”

Warwickshire County Council’s portfolio holder for economy and place, Cllr Martin Watson, said: “Temperance is a fantastic independent local business in Warwickshire, and Adrian has shown real tenacity to transform what was largely a derelict site into something really special for the town and region.”