We Catch Up With Peggy’s Skylight as They Celebrate Their 5th Birthday

Peggy’s Skylight is celebrating its 5th birthday this weekend, so could you tell us about Peggy’s and how the venue came about?
Paul Deats (fellow founder) and I have been playing music together for 25 years, both musicians, both really into jazz, touring nationally and internationally. We’d settled in Nottingham as it’s a great, buzzing place and as it's right in the middle of the country, it was ideal for us. We realised that while Nottingham had great musicians and a really good scene, there wasn’t really a good space for jazz as it tends to get pushed in the corner. We felt it would be great to have its own space, so we talked about it to some friends - who said ‘you’re mad!’ 

So it started as a bit of a dream. Then, after a lot of planning we made it happen! It’s obviously been quite a journey; the pandemic, cost of living crisis, and then the council wanting to auction the building - which for us could be really difficult. If it does go to auction we’d then have no control over who the landlord would be. It’s still in negotiation with the council at the moment and we hope to buy it. But we’ll have to raise a lot of money in order to do so. 

I’m mainly pleased to say that we’re still here after five years! That in itself is a little miracle, but we’ll need another little miracle in order to buy it.

A lot of people were shocked to see the story of the council potentially auctioning the building. But it was also heart-warming to see over 14,000 signing an online petition against the plans. How did it feel to get that local support?
It was amazing! As Paul put it, it was a real shot in the arm. A real acknowledgment that so many people love it (the venue). You can feel defeated with so much going on - post pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis. So when that response came back, we really felt we were doing the right thing.

So many beautiful things were said about the place - that they love it and how much the musicians value it. That’s what it's all about. It’s making sure that this genre of music - jazz, with soul and blues mixed into that umbrella - is nurtured and has a space to thrive.

I’m sure the past five years have been eventful! Any favourite highlights, memories from your time here so far?
There've been so many dream bands that we’ve had to play here - Tank and the Bangas who we originally saw on Tiny Desk, The Last Poets, who I'd been listening to as a teenager, and who many people call the godfathers of hip-hop, which was amazing. They also did a Q&A session the following day. 

We’ve had The Headhunters play here (American jazz band originally formed by Herbie Hancock). My best anecdote from that, apart from it being an astounding gig, was that the drummer, on tour from America, was worried about his washing! We’ve got a washer and dryer here, so he was like, Oh my god, can you do my tour t-shirts! We put them in the wash, and I think he was worried about a rogue red sock or something in the wash that was going to knacker his t-shirts! He kept looking at me during the gig and I kept saying, don’t worry, the washing is fine! 

They’d finished the gig and I went up to the stage to thank them and ask if we want an encore? And the crowd were going ballistic. Meanwhile the band had gone up to the greenroom and the crowd were getting impatient downstairs, shouting things like ‘come on Headhunters, we want an encore!’ So I stood up on the stage and said, ‘Don’t worry he’s going nowhere. I’ve got his undercrackers in the washer!’

The UK jazz scene’s creativity and evolution into different scenes in the last five to ten years has been amazing. It feels like a new golden age for jazz in this country.
Yes, it’s lots of different pockets (of the scene). You’ve got the afrobeat scene which was only emerging just before we set up Peggy’s. Nubya Garcia played here just as she was rising to fame, which was amazing. 

On a local level, we’ve got Harleighblu who is doing great stuff in America now. Natalie Duncan, who is incredibly talented and I really want to see her fly. We’ve just had Juggernaut play, he’s a local hero and I really want to watch him ascend. 

They’re just supremely talented people and deserve as many venues as we can get across the country. Hopefully people will see what a buzz the (jazz) scene has created and set up a few more places up north and down south. 

We work with young people, with the jazz jam for emerging, upcoming musicians, providing opportunities to play alongside professional musicians and bands. It’s really important that people are nurtured through their development. I feel really lucky that I’ve been given the opportunities that I have, and that’s because there’s been places and people to help me on.”

If we’re talking about Peggy’s, then we must talk about the food as well!
Yes! I’m really glad you asked about that! I was a chef. I call myself a singing chef! I’ve always had a deep love of food and I was brought up in the Middle East, in Iran before the revolution. With Middle Eastern food, it’s a really broad palette. It's naturally vegan and vegetarian, with good quality and kindly reared meat dishes.

I’m really interested in nourishment, so the emphasis is really on a great selection of flavours. It’s fresh and local wherever possible, with a local flour supplier who grows wheat in Lincolnshire and a short distance to [Green’s] Windmill in Nottinghamshire. We used that for our own flat breads in the pizza oven. 

What are your plans and hopes for the next five years?
Buy the building. Be open seven days a week. Pay our staff (even) more money! Just to try and ensure that we can stay and keep delivering what we’re doing. We’ve got a cellar which is a smaller, more intimate space which could be used for rehearsals, private parties. So we’d love to convert that space in the future.

LeftLion is also celebrating a big birthday this year, twenty years young! Any birthday message for LeftLion, for what it means to you.
LeftLion - It’s a cultural institution! It's brilliant, local and funny. I love the emphasis on the language, the Thompson Twins and Overheard in Notts. Keep doing what you’re doing, just great stories about kooky people living in Notts doing ridiculous things like opening up jazz clubs! The city wouldn’t be the same without it.

@peggysskylight