The live music industry has been one of the most badly affected in the ongoing Covid-19 crisis. Given the risk of large groups meeting in enclosed spaces, these businesses were the first to close and, for many of them, the last to reopen.
News last week from Hull and Manchester showed that some may never reopen. The Welly and Polar Bear in Hull are closing for good, and Gorilla and The Deaf Institute in Manchester have been saved from closure. While Covid-19 didn’t create the perilous situation these venues face, it has accelerated it.
Grassroots music venues, those with a 1,500-person capacity that host a minimum of three concerts per week, have been challenging businesses to run for years. High costs leave businesses relying on ancillary uses, such as brand launches and private rentals to survive. More than a third of music venues have closed since 2007. If we switch to nightclubs, venues that predominantly feature DJs, the number rises to 50%. It’s a tough business.
But these places are essential. Many of us began our working lives in them. I started at age 15, collecting empties at my local venue in Toronto, The Comfort Zone (now it’s a pharmacy). Most of us have life-affirming experiences in these places, whether it is seeing an artist before they break or performing in one at some point. The visceral experience of being crowded together with those that share a united interest is an experience we all share. These experiences wouldn’t exist without these venues.
Support act
Recent government announcements related to supporting the wider arts and culture sector recognise this. An injection of £1.57bn in relief support is welcome, but it is to be shared with the wider cultural community, with larger institutions set to benefit first. Culture secretary Oliver Dowden admits this won’t save every venue and the charity Music Venue Trust is fighting to prevent more than 550 potential closures in the next three months.
Vacant theatres, concert halls and live music venues are protected from upcoming planning reforms allowing the redevelopment of vacant commercial buildings as residential through permitted development rights, which bypass local authority planning consents. Perhaps Dowden or one of his special advisers, at some point, went to a grassroots music venue and had a transformative experience.
But this support, however welcome, supposes that the planning system that governs these spaces is fit for purpose and some additional protections and funding will carry them forward into recovery. This is not the case. If we value land on a purely financial basis, preferring to prioritise how much it is worth without considering what happens inside the building, grassroots music venues cannot compete.
The viability calculation on a grassroots music venue will produce a negative. The band on stage is a conduit, not a profit centre. Their presence facilitates a wide range of economic and social activity, from selling alcohol to training a student on how to market an event or budget for it. The Mayor of London estimates that for every £10 ticket sold in London in one of these venues, a further £17 is spent nearby on food, drink or transport. Yet few protections are offered to those who make their living in them. Musicians, artists and the self-employed have been left out of most government support. So much for valuing them.
A worth beyond profit
The solution to foster more resilient recovery of these venues is a change to the system that governs them. Those unable to trade profitably should be bundled into a charitable trust, with the trust owning the freeholds to protect their use and committed to a modest yield, say 3% per annum. The Music Venue Trust, with the support of the Creative Land Trust, could manage this.
A cultural viability calculation should be drawn up to define and measure a space’s talent development, as well as its mental health and wellbeing benefit to its community, with such calculations included in Section 106. Or cultural viability could be its own stipulation for approval.
If a venue cannot turn a profit, it need not be forced to, so long as it is serving other community needs. A well-run venue will improve its area, which will bring dividends to those who invest in it and its adjacent buildings and uses. But if we’re to enjoy these spaces and places after Covid-19, we need to rethink how we value them.
Some relief and planning protections are welcome, but we have to go further. Clean water is only really valued when we don’t have it. And with more venues on the brink of closure, we’ll soon realise it is the same with this resource.
Shain Shapiro is chief executive at Sound Diplomacy
