The night time is dying within the United Kingdom: live performance halls, on the verge of extinction | EUROtoday

The Cure took the choice there. Oasis, Eurythmics and Radiohead used it as a launch pad. Ed Sheeran additionally made his mark on his stage when few knew him. The final to carry out have been Supergrass and The Last Dinner Party. And that was certainly just like the final supper of the legendary Bath Molesone of the vital in style reside music golf equipment within the British Isles, condemned to extinction after 45 years.

“Closing Moles was a horrible decision,” confessed its proprietor, Tom Maddicot on the time of farewell final December. “But it's the stark reality: live music in small venues is no longer economically viable in the UK.”

The closure of the Moles put the ultimate be aware to the requiem that had been sung all through the fateful 2023. 16% of the 960 reside music venues censused (125, precisely) closed completely all year long within the United Kingdom. Four thousand jobs have been misplaced, 14,500 concert events have been suspended and greater than 193,000 inventive “opportunities” for musicians have been left up within the air.

“Do we want Ed Sheeran to play at 27 festivals? Let's make sure first of all that the Bath Moles has a future, because that's where his career began,” laments Mark Davyd, government director of the Music Venue Trust (MVT), which launched this yr his specific SOS earlier than the British Parliament and within the pages of the journal New Musical Express.

“We risk losing the next generation of British talent because we are doing it wrong”, warns Davyd. “Live music venues are a cultural treasure, the laboratory where new and exciting music is created, where audiences from 16 to 60 years old pulsate with songs created not with AI but with HI (Human Inspiration).”

“If venues like this close everywhere, where are we going to be able to play? How are we going to make our way?”

He Music Venue Trust It acts in some methods just like the National Trust, with the mission of preserving the more and more fragile British musical “ecosystem.”

First Brexit, then Covid and now the price of residing disaster (premises rents have risen on common by 37%) have put the sector on the sting.

“Today, music fans They pay 20% VAT in the United Kingdom on their tickets, almost double the European Union average,” denounces Tom Kiehl, government director of UK Music. “Reducing VAT by half would be a ball of oxygen. For many locals, that will be the difference between life and death.”

“We have historically been world leaders in the music sector, but we need action from the Government to be able to continue being so in the coming decades,” provides Kiehl, who additionally regrets the boundaries raised by Brexit for British bands on European tour.

“80% of public aid goes to classical music and opera,” remembers Mark Davyd, director of the Music Venue Trust. “There is nothing wrong with that, but we cannot forget the other music, the one that reaches the majority of the public and the one that has turned this country into a global superpower, from the Beatles to here.”

In Liverpool, with out going any additional, the closure of the Melodic Bar and the Melodic Distraction hi fi off alarm bells in 2023. Birmingham additionally mentioned goodbye to the Velvet Music Rooms in October, which was unable to have fun its twentieth anniversary. The Pryzm chain has introduced the closure of half of its nightclubs in Leeds, Nottingham, Portsmouth, Plymouth and Watford in 2024 resulting from “increased operating costs.”

“It's not just the venues, it's also the artists who are severely affected because they have to cut back on their tours,” warns Mark Davyd. “The entire ecosystem collapses. If the industry does not react, hundreds of clubs will close.”

“There is one thing even worse than a tax on concert tickets in large venues and stadiums, and that is the absolute lack of money in grassroots music,” says Davy, who highlights that the disaster in small venues has coincided with the growth in macro concert events.

“It's the stark reality: live music in small venues is no longer economically viable in the UK”

The large Live Nation confirmed the fundraising document in 2023 thanks, largely, to the world excursions of Taylor Swift and Beyonc. Ticketmaster offered 620 million tickets final yr, 13% greater than the earlier yr. And the development of huge venues for greater than 20,000 spectators (such because the Co-op Live in Manchester, which opens in April with 100 scheduled concert events) is experiencing a very buoyant second.

“0.06% of Live Nation's extra revenue in 2023 (the equivalent of €3.4 million) would have been enough to save the 125 venues that closed their doors last year from closure,” concludes Mark Davy, that remembers how others 150 have been rescued because of the “emergency” mediation of the MVT.

Curiously, the London neighborhood of Camden has up to now resisted the problem. Almost all of the locations he frequented in his day Amy Winehouse (from the Hawley Arms to Dublin Castle, passing by the Jazz Cafe or The Good Mixer) stay open in that microclimate created round The Roundhouse, the place the place the Back to Black singer final appeared three days earlier than her demise on July 23, 2011.

Camden stays virtually a rarity within the bleak panorama of grassroots music venues within the United Kingdom, whereas house owners handle survival methods resembling The Ferret, in Preston, which has transformed a big a part of its clientele into shareholders.

“Every week is a battle with bills,” warns Matt Fawbert, supervisor of the long-lasting institution. Ben and The Believers have been one of many final bands to play there. Their frontman, Ben Titley, spoke on Sky News: “If venues like this close everywhere, where are we going to be able to play? How are we going to make our way?”