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THE MUSIC VENUE TRUST
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For about 3 years, the issues that Clara Cullen, Music Venue Trust’s Venues Support Manager, came across had a similar shape. Noise complaints would escalate and cause a venue to lose its licence, or redevelopment plans would target unprofitable pubs for more lucrative ventures. “The fact of the matter is most landlords would prefer the building to either be flats or to be a restaurant or a Pret,” she laughs.
Suddenly, the pandemic hit, the country locked down, and venues lost their entire sources of income overnight. “In the very early months, I genuinely thought that we could see the total wipeout of the grassroots music venue sector” Cullen tells me.
By the end of 2020, the numbers painted a grim picture: live music industry revenues had fallen by 81%, the annual income of freelancers fell by 88%, and 15% of the workforce had left the sector.
Stark numbers like those can obscure the human impact. “When we’re talking about the loss of a venue, often the venue operator lives in the venue,” Cullen says. “You couldn’t detach the professional from the personal. There were cases in which it was about ensuring people had money to buy food.” The Music Venue Trust (MVT) was founded in 2014 with the goal of protecting, securing and improving grassroots music venues. Along with advocating for live-musicfriendly government policy and raising awareness of the issues facing the night-time economy, they operated an Emergency Response Service. If a venue was under threat of closure, MVT could offer advice to help de-escalate the situation. During the
pandemic, Cullen oversaw this initiative just as demand rose to unprecedented levels. Before the Culture Recovery Fund was introduced, she spent weeks writing letters to landlords and councillors, asking them for support.
MVT also launched the Save Our Venues campaign, the biggest action they had taken so far. Having identified 556 venues at immediate risk of closure, they provided artists tools and guidance to perform virtual gigs in support of the venues close to their heart. By the end of the year, the initiative had raised over £3.8m.
Things might not be as dramatic as in the darkest days of the crisis, but new situations bring new threats. The latest hit to the sector has been the cost-ofliving crisis - the energy requirements of live music are huge, and the accompanying bills are astronomical. One venue that came to the MVT for support had seen their energy costs triple in size.
Furthermore, as the immediate danger dwindles, so does government enthusiasm. The day I speak to Cullen is the final day of the #HackTheVAT campaign. Before the pandemic, the VAT on live music tickets was 20%. This was cut to 12.5% to help recovery, but returned to its previous rate starting April 1st.
MVT have spent the past few months urging music lovers to buy tickets before the reduced VAT went up, to ensure as large a proportion as possible of the money spent on gig tickets went towards supporting the scene rather than the government. “We have to keep pointing out the illogical nature of the fact that we’re a massive driver of music in the world but we’re also now one of the highest countries to be taxed for it.”
Although a lot has changed since the beginning of 2020, perhaps there is still room for optimism. The MVT is currently preparing a new campaign advocating for a whole new model of venue operation: community ownership. This would involve members of the public raising the money to buy a venue’s freehold by investing in a community share. Notfor-profit Sister Midnight is currently campaigning to save Lewisham’s ailing Ravensbourne Arms in exactly this way.
This is not a new development - the idea has been part of the MVT’s long-term ambitions since the very beginning - but the pandemic has highlighted to many that the idea is not just a pipe dream, it’s a necessity. Mark Davyd, MVT’s founder and CEO recently told NME that music venues in the UK collectively were in £90m of debt. This mostly comes from rent arrears. If music venues were community-owned, shareholders would be able to pause rents until the danger passed. For example, Bristol Exchange, which became the city’s first community-owned venue in 2018, did not face closure during the pandemic.
“We’re not going back to 2019 and I don’t think we should go back” Cullen tells me. I’m inclined to agree. If the pressures of the pandemic brought to light the structural issues of the live music sector, it’s only right that the future centres around the communities that care about their local grassroots venues.
If anything has been demonstrated by the trials of the past few years, it’s the passion and resilience of the people who work in live music. “When I go round venues, I’ve never seen people who are more dedicated and genuinely driven by an ethos which I don’t think you see in other sectors.”
Music fans, too, showed their mettle. “At a time when it was very very chaotic and there was no real certainty, people did go above and beyond to support their local venues. I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to repay the debt.”
