The slow death of music venues in cities
Small music clubs aren’t just incubators for bands – they play a vital role in a healthy urban ecosystem. What will happen if they all get turned into flats?
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“The night-time industries are treated as a poor second cousin. They’re under constant scrutiny in a way that other cultural activities aren’t,” Gieben says. “It’s hard for bands to progress and get bigger in a city unless there is a spread of mid-level venues, and now the option of a venue the size of the Arches has gone from Glasgow.”
The Arches isn’t alone: the Roadhouse in Manchester, the Point and the Barfly in Cardiff, the Picture House in Edinburgh, the Astoria, the Buffalo Bar and Madame Jojo’s in London – all venues that have been lost; many the victims of tough licensing laws, unwelcoming neighbours, aggressive development and an increase in property values.
Mark Davyd co-owns the Tunbridge Wells Forum (capacity 250) and heads the Music Venue Trust, an industry body aimed at preserving grassroots venues, which he defines as anywhere with a capacity under 750.
“The live music industry’s thriving,” Davyd says, “but the smallest venues are falling off the chart. What we’re left with are these megashows with very high ticket prices, which buoy up the headline figure. Will two more new shows at the O2 in London feel the same as 250 shows at a small venue?”
Each city is unique, but while London’s music scene is partly regrouping away from the centre – Hackney thriving while Soho fades – the headline figure is one of decline. Of the 430 music venues that traded in London between 2007 and 2015, only 245 are still open, according to the trust. National figures are currently unknown, but Davyd says he’s been contacted by more than 60 troubled venues in the last year.
“It often starts from a relatively benign decision,” he says. “The Troubadour in London is up for sale because they had a noise complaint related to their use of the garden. Kensington and Chelsea borough said they couldn’t use it after 9pm, their drink turnover went down substantially, and now there’s no guarantee it’ll be a venue in future.
“Someone wants to build next to the Fleece in Bristol,” he continues. “Bristol city council have fought hard for them, but they don’t have any support in law and flats are going to be built 20 metres from the main stage. In the next couple of years there will be noise complaints that will cost the Fleece £12,000 to £15,000 to handle, and it’s not making that in profit. The Point in Cardiff: they installed £68,000 worth of acoustic baffling to stop the complaints from a new development, and servicing the loan put them out of business. These little things just build up.”
Sometimes venue landlords take hard-to-refuse offers for their premises. In Edinburgh, for example, the Picture House was bought by JD Wetherspoon, and the Venue sold for studio and art gallery space. “You can’t blame people for selling up,” says Davyd. “The valuation of the [Tunbridge Wells] Forum as a music venue is about £375,000. If we sell it to be flats, it’s worth about £1.2m. ”
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Some cities do have robust music policies that are widely praised: Austin in Texas (home of South By Southwest), Chicago, Adelaide and
Melbourne in Australia, various Canadian cities. Many countries in continental Europe subsidise music venues, making a dedicated urban strategy less necessary; but eastern European cities and many UK ones are less forward-thinking. “Mindset is a huge challenge,” says Shapiro. “There are some city councils that don’t see it as a priority, and that’s completely understandable when they don’t have money to provide social care.”
The solution doesn’t necessarily require more money from taxpayers. Instead, Davyd hopes for relaxed regulations, increased statutory protections and reduced business rates (in line with traditional arts venues). “We should stop calling them ‘toilet venues’ and recognise them as innovation hubs and incubation spaces,” Shapiro says. “If you have 25 bands coming through a venue in a month, what you’re actually doing is incubating 25 businesses. Then one of them has a hit song, and that’s an important piece of British IP that’s been beta-tested in these places.”
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