‘The era of grassroots music is over’: Five more London venues could close before Christmas
Music Venues Trust (MVT) has warned that five more small music venues across London could shutter in the run up to Christmas as sky high rent and energy costs kill the sound of upcoming artists across the capital.
Mark Davyd, chief executive and founder of MVT, told City A.M. that this year has already been “the worst ever” with 125 UK grassroots music venues permanently closing or cancelling live music events because they cannot afford it.
“As we get to the end of the year,” he said, “we are seeing quite a large number of venues that have clung on until Christmas to see whether trading and the amount of money we’re raising, or the costs or anything else changed. And we’re right in the middle of that now.”
“I think almost inevitably, we’re going to see quite a few venues in very, very serious trouble in the run-up to Christmas. The era of grassroots music is over,” he added.
MVT believes there are five small music venues that are going to have to close “imminently”, including Matchstick Piehouse in Deptford and Iklectik in Lambeth, which is facing the threat of demolition of its entire site. MVT could not name the other three.
Matchstick Piehouse, which opened in 2018 and is run by volunteers, is facing a sum of £36,000 in rent arrears to be paid by the end of this week, or else it will shut for good.
A crowdfunder set up to “save the piehouse” has already raised 45 per cent of the debt, which dates back to the pandemic lockdowns.
It’s a real sign of the community gathering together because they want to see the space exist.
– Adam Gerrett, Matchstick Piehouse founder
One of the venue’s founders, Adam Gerrett, said this is a “really, really strong start.”
“It’s a real sign of the community gathering together because they want to see the space exist,” he told City A.M., “everyone’s had a super hard time post-Covid. And it’s a giant issue for the grassroots.”
In Brixton, The Windmill is another popular grassroots music venue which is struggling with soaring costs, although it is not on the verge of closure.
Rent and the price of drinks have gone up for them so much that they have four people with boards walking up and down Brixton Hill to attract any customers during the day to the venue which lies off the beaten path.
Tim Perry, the band booker for the Windmill, said: “What brings people to our business is live music and the numbers for that are good because I think people see that as a good value. A lot of our nights are only five or six pounds and you can see some pretty good emerging bands.
But everything has gone up in price for them recently, including rent by 12.5 per cent, which Perry said was”hard to stomach all in one go”.
Rent is a key factor for most of the grassroots music venues but this boils down to a larger issue according to Davyd from MVT.
Demand for these events is still high, but the amount of money needed to put on a live band playing its own original songs simply cannot be raised from selling tickets alone.
The energy costs, the rent, the rates, everything has completely exploded.
Mark Davyd, CEO of Music Venues Trust
“The costs of putting on original artists, original live music, are simply not being met by the ticket sales.
“And that’s not because the ticket sales are down or anything else. It’s that the costs have simply exploded. The energy costs, the rent, the rates, everything has completely exploded,” he explained.
Davyd cited a French model, where every major show contributes 3.5 per cent of ticket sales to a fund so that small venues can afford to keep going in local communities.
“Here we have absolutely nothing. I’m afraid we are now at the point where we think there needs to be government action,” said Davyd.
He also said some of the responsibility lies with large music venues to help out smaller ones, which originally fostered the big artists of today like Ed Sheeran and Coldplay.
Amy Lamé, London’s night czar, said: “London’s live music scene is the best in the world and we’re proud to be home to some of the world’s most famous venues, pubs, bars and artists. The Mayor of London and I are doing all we can to support the music industry and those working in the sector to build a fairer and more prosperous London for everyone.
“We work closely with the Music Venue Trust to support live music venues at risk of shutting their doors for good through our Culture and Community Spaces at Risk Fund and have cut red tape for businesses through our Business Friendly Licensing Fund.
“Sadiq’s London Plan is the most pro-culture ever and includes the Agent of Change principle, which puts the onus on developers to mitigate against noise in new buildings.
“Any venue closing their doors, whether big or small, is a significant loss for the industry and the Government urgently needs to step up action to protect our grassroots music venues – from enabling community ownership of venues in London, to dealing with sky-high energy bills and landlords charging astronomical rents.”
PRS for Music, which licenses and music collects royalties, have apparently “done nothing whatsoever to stop venues from closing down and literally don’t even bother to reply to letters,” Davyd added.
PRS for Music said: “We don’t recognise this characterisation of PRS and this doesn’t reflect the relationship we have built with MVT.
“We have a team at PRS who actively work with MVT Regional managers and they have direct contact within PRS, to support with any venue’s concerns and enquiries.
“We took swift action to support music venues during and after the pandemic, working in parallel with MVT and now have a specialist team within PPL PRS, who focus solely on ensuring MVT members are supported and correctly licensed.”
In 2022 PRS launched an initiative called Back to Live to help small venues invest in their future.