Music Venue Trust Wins Back To The Future Week with Venues Day
In July TheZineUK was highly excited to announce
How time flies!
Is it really that time already? So much has happened since as Music Venue Trust are a pro-active organisation.
Now with a formal Trade Association of the Music Venues Alliance (TAMVA) to be launched, in addition. On the eve of their own Venues Day they will be on Central London's Tin Pan Alley (Denmark Street, Soho's musical heart) making things happen.
With over 400 delegates and 160 venues, nationwide represented, Venues Day 2015 is SOLD OUT (with demand oustripping availability by 2 to 1). They are in consulation with Edinburgh City Council and the Mayor Of London's task force in support of grassroots establishments and the issues that they face.
This, in turn, strengthens the (also formed in 2014) Independent Venue Week (which has announced 120 locations for the annual end of January/start of February festival of artist recommendation and business boost.
Music Venues Day features speakers including Steve Lamacq of BBC Radio 6, Jo Dipple of UK Music and Geoff Taylor, CEO of the Brit Awards/BPI as well as various government officials. Live music, our world class touring circuit and the culture of our Entertainment Industry is as serious as it gets.
As a community hub where every background unites for a good time, their social importance can also not be under estimated. "From the Rolling Stones to David Bowie, the Clash to Oasis and Ed Sheeran to Adele, grassroots music venues have played a key role in enabling some of the biggest names in music to develop as artists and to build audiences. They are the incubators for the stars that go on to pack stadiums in London and across the world.” (Boris Johnson, Mayor of London).
Live music is very much part of Britain and Ireland's international reputation. It would give off worrying signs if it declines.
Since 2007 London has lost 35 per cent of its grassroots music venues. If this decline continues it could have major implications for the long term future of a creative and cultural sector that feeds into the UK's £3.8 billion music industry. Developing radpidly are the Agent of Change principle, which puts the onus on mitigating potential future conflicts between new developments and long-standing live venues and a London Music Development Board to take forward an action plan to protect grassroots music venues. Venues Day is being held (at Ministry Of Sound) in one of the Planet's Capitals of Culture.
In London alone, iconic names that have disappeared over the last few years include The Marquee, the Astoria, the 12 Bar Club and Madame Jojos, with dozens of other important venues closing down beyond central London. We could lose stars by losing music bars; “'There was a website that listed every promoter that did acoustic nights and I emailed every single one. There was probably about 300 of those gigs and I got about 50 replies. I did all those gigs. And then I went back and did them again. And again." (Ed Sheeran).
Not seeming to register, formally, anywhere at all, is the amount of tourism that the live music circuit and temperate weather for our outdoor festival circuit generate. Music fans from all over the world come to what is virtually a Disneyland of within-one-day travel even to the furthest reaches of the Channel Islands, for a show. As somebody that has followed bands (and there are THOUSANDS of us, actually), its the Aintree Racecourse of gigging. Britain is also where so much of the planet's musical talent come to make their name. The Music Tourist Board also points out that it is one of the few serious business careers where basic three R's, people skills, initiative and above all, passion, are a genuine CV, especially in the small to medium venues where entry is affordable and artist liaison is possible. It is just one of the many cottage industries of DIY which are as valid a path as any. I myself am an independent live music promoter, on a modest self employment income, but working none the less. It is in the grass roots venues that I have promoted/co promoted the likes of Kate Tempest, Bloc Party and Tinie Tempah, to name just three that have appeared in front of larger audiences since.
Wow, either with or for bands, I alone have been to many of the national heritage- locations that will be repped at Venues Day: including 100 Club, 93 Feet East, Academy Music Group, Bedford Esquires, Leeds Brudenell Social Club, Bush Hall, Cafe 1001, Cambridge Junction, Clwb Ifor Bach, Corsica Studios, Dingwalls, Electric Ballroom, Edinburgh Electric Circus, Croydon Fairfield Halls, Half Moon Putney, Koko, Sheffield Leadmill, Bath Moles, Nambucca, New Cross Inn, Norwich Arts Centre, Old Blue Last, Rich Mix, Nottingham Rock City, Brighton Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar, Hull Adelphi Club, Camden Barfly, Guildford Boileroom, Exeter Cavern, Bristol Fleece, The Good Ship, Oxford Jericho, Southampton Joiners, The Lexington, Cambridge Portland Arms, Brighton Prince Albert, The Roadhouse Birmingham, The Roundhouse, Stoke Sugarmill, Derby Victoria Inn, Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms, Grays Traitors Gate, Tunbridge Wells Forum, Aldershot West End Centre, Brixton Windmill and York Fibbers. Lots of love n respect to you ALL!
In addition This website/blog/team formed in the back room of Amersham Arms, a 300 capacity entertainment venue in South East London. Music Venues are the after dark, lifeline for many where music meets comedy meets art meets theatre meets community. They pulse with energy - hence the demand to be at Venues Day 2015! Beverley Whitrick, Event Producer for Music Venue Trust, said: "We are overwhelmed by the response to this year's event, which has quickly established its place in the national calendar for the music industry. We hope this year will be a real turning point for grassroots music venues in the UK".
Mark Davyd, CEO of MVT adds,: "Obviously this upcoming week has turned into a huge one for grassroots music venues, with both Edinburgh and London City reports being delivered and Venues Day providing a key opportunity for government, the music industry and the cultural sector to respond".
The much needed Music Venue Trust was founded in 2014 as a registered charity to preserve, secure and improve the UK’s network of small to medium scale, mostly independently run, grassroots music venues. The long term plan to protect that l network w includes, where necessary, taking into charitable ownership freehold properties so they can be removed from commercial pressures and leased back to passionate music professionals to continue their vital operation.
Launching on Venues Day, TAMVA is a subscription trade association that the Trust has created which offers preferential benefits to music venue members across the UK on ticketing, insurance, promotion, and legal, licensing, planning and acoustic advice.
Mark Davyd added: "With TAMVA we are sending out a message loud and clear to everybody else who has an interest in this sector surviving and thriving; we're doing what we can. The grassroots music venues are organising themselves, and working collectively, now we need everybody else in government, the cultural sector and the music industry to get behind us. It's a simple four stage programme - cut the costs, get legal support in place, deregulate so it's easier to do our jobs, and get investment into this sector so that artists and audiences get the venues the UK deserves."
The after dark economy of the nation is a positive force. Please treasure it. #savemusicvenues #keepmusiclive #venuesday @musicvenuetrust http://musicvenuetrust.com/