FEATURE:
Behind Closed Doors
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What is the Future of Grassroots Venues After Lockdown?
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EVERY day…
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seems to bring bad news regarding the music industry. Whilst artists in lockdown have to postpone album releases, some are moving them forward – like Dua Lipa and Laura Marling. Nearly all festivals scheduled for the summer have been postponed. It is sad to think that we might need get to see any festivals this year but, where they can be reorganised and go ahead next year, the same confidence cannot be applied to a lot of smaller artists who rely on grassroots venues. I have mentioned live venues recently, but the subject warrants repetition. Music Venue Trust is set up to protect venues and, at this hard time, ensure that as many as possible are reopened when we are out the other side of the coronavirus crisis. This announcement is on the Music Venue Trust website:
“Support Announced by UK Government
“The following is the latest information available (as of 8am Saturday 21 March) of the various measures that are being made available by Government to support Grassroots Music Venues (GMVs) in England during the COVID-19 crisis. Many of these measures are UK-wide. For national variations, please see below.
In each case, this is the best information that Music Venue Trust has been able to acquire from government at this time. We are in contact with departments across government to ensure that as soon as additional advice on how to access this support becomes available we can deliver it to GMVs, together with instructions on how to qualify for it and access it.
We will continue to update each section with full guidance when we receive it from UK and national governments.
Scottish Government have announced a package of measures to support businesses in 2020/21, please click here for info.
Welsh Government have announced a package of measures to support businesses in 2020/21, please click here for info.
Northern Ireland’s Government have announced a package of measures to support businesses in 2020/21, please click here for info.
Across all nations of the UK, Music Venue Trust will continue to work with government to ensure that the entire sector, wherever located, is able to access a full range of support so that permanent closures are averted.”.
At the moment, there is confusion what the exit strategy is for the U.K. economy as a whole, so the fate of grassroots venues might not be clarified just yet. I do worry, as nearly all small spaces at the moment are posting online that they need support. Long before the pandemic hit, so many venues struggled to survive – because of rent prices, competition from the Internet and changing tastes. There will be such an appetite for live music later in the summer. I know many larger gigs and festivals have been postponed, but I wonder what will happen when live gigs can happen again. Not only will every artist be clambering to play as soon as possible – causing a nightmare for bookers and organising the diary -, but I wonder how many smaller venues are going to reopen in a few months.
IN THIS PHOTO: Guildford’s Boileroom is one of many venues that has faced huge difficulty since the lockdown came into force in the U.K./PHOTO CREDIT: TMS
It is a testing time, and grassroot venues can only rely on public support for so long. I realise the Government are injecting as much money into the economy so that as many businesses as possible can survive at this tough time. Whilst it might mean raising taxes, it is paramount that music venues are protected and can reopen. Organisations like the Music Venue Trust are brilliant, and it is great seeing the ingenuity of artists whilst they are unable to perform. Many are releasing albums, whilst others are streaming gigs from their homes. We all want to get back out and see gigs, but we have to be patient to allow the situation to improve. I can only imagine how stressful it is for those who run and work at grassroot venues. This article from Music Business Worldwide spells out the current predicament:
“In these unprecedented times the very foundations of our industry are under grave threat so of course urgent action is needed. Whether it is the wider supply chain, the future of both salaried and freelance workers , record stores or the live sector there can be no doubt that unless we all do something to stabilize the situation we will have a very different landscape to return to if and when things return to normal.
The Music Venue Trust is an organisation representing 670 UK music venues and as such we are uniquely placed to comment on the issues currently affecting the live music scene at a grassroots level.
PHOTO CREDIT: @everythingcaptured/Unsplash
The decision by the UK government to enforce social distancing through a ‘lockdown’ policy while fully understandable has been catastrophic for the live music sector, and hardest hit have been those grassroots venues already operating on thin margins.
Since these restrictions really started to bite three week ago, we have surveyed, audited and analysed the situation and our findings are grim. Just 17%, equating to 114 grassroots music venues out of the 670 we represent, are currently secure for the next eight weeks.
The other 556 venues are at imminent risk of being permanently closed down.
The situation is dire, and it is now incumbent on the wider music industry to do something about it.
Many music careers start in grassroots music venues. Without them the opportunities for the industry and music fans alike to discover and engage with new talent would shrink exponentially. Developing artists nurture their fanbases here, they learn their craft in places that are often important cultural hubs for a local scene.
Put bluntly, without these venues the opportunities for artists and audiences to connect in a meaningful way at a local level will simply disappear in a lot of cases.
There is no sugar coating it, if you don’t help now there will be no going back.
We have a goal. Not 556 closures. Not 555. Not 300, or 200, or 100. None.
Please help us. Visit www.musicvenuetrust.com to find out more about what we do and how you can help”.
It is devastating to think that scores of much-loved venues will close as they have no other options. Whilst out politicians have their hands full dealing with a whole range of economic quandaries, I do hope there is a relief fund set up for venues; a kitty that means, at the very least, relatively few will close down. If we can protect the majority of grassroot venues struggling, it will mean their future is more secure than it is now without aid. When things begin to return to normal, artists will not have festivals to play; they have singles and albums due, so they need smaller venues to cut their teeth and spread the word. Now more than ever, the fate and importance of grassroot spaces needs to be recognised. I do hope that there is a plan in action from the Government, as the depletion of grassroot venues not only impacts musicians, but everyone who works and relies on the venues. There is no exact telling how many more weeks these venues will be closed, so it is paramount money is set aside to safeguard our vital spaces. In the meantime, you can support local venues by donating, buying merchandise and sharing them online – all pulling together to ensure there is a healthy live music scene when we come out the other side.
PHOTO CREDIT: @kdarmody/Unsplash
A report in Music Week yesterday (9th April), shed some more light on the situation venues are in:
“Mark Davyd has told Music Week that it would be “impossible to exaggerate” the scale of the problems facing the grassroots venues circuit as the coronavirus lockdown continues..
The Music Venue Trust (MVT) boss told us he’s adopting “guerrilla tactics” to save the 556 venues – the vast majority of the 670 venues under his organisation’s stewardship – that are currently facing closure.
Davyd was speaking to Music Week as part of a special report on the situation indie venues are in with the UK in lockdown, many staff furloughed and many, many freelancers suffering as a result of widespread venue closures.
In 2019, the MVT was faced with 96 imminent threats of venue closure. Now confronted with a vast increase, Davyd has launched the £1 million Grassroots Music Venue Crisis Fund (GMVCF), a direct appeal to the music business for help.
How can artists help this situation?
“We’re working with artists to pick venues that they strongly feel they want to save and we’re going to host a virtual online fundraisers. Frank Turner and Ferris & Sylvester have already done them. We’re negotiating with more artists to save a particular venue. Most of these venues can be saved for between £10-20,000. So, in the next eight weeks, which is the crunch period, if we could host 200 or 300 gigs online, raising money for venues to pay off the bill they have to pay, and in the meantime we run this national service, we have an ambition that not one venue will be lost in this crisis”.
Though we can see live music online, we are all looking forward to the moment when we can see gigs together at our favourite venues. We truly cannot wait…
PHOTO CREDIT: @rebeca_calavera/Unsplash
UNTIL that day comes.