In Music Venues We Trust

A new trade body aimed at protecting small live music venues has formed following a series of high profile venue closures and relocations in the last year including The Freebutt in Brighton, Madame JoJo’s, The 12 Bar Club (pictured) and The Buffalo Bar in London.

The Music Venues Alliance will represent over 100 venues, lobbying and campaigning to protect such spaces and working in tandem with the already established Music Venues Trust.

The alliance has already participated in a roundtable discussion called by the Mayor of London Boris Johnson, which took place at City Hall last week. Other representatives from the live music industry also attended to discuss how public authorities, and the Mayor’s office in particular can better support the needs of such venues.

CEO of the Music Venue Trust Mark Davyd said: “The small venue circuit has come under a number of different pressures in the last few years, and cultural and city planning are key elements of a comprehensive action plan that is needed to ensure that the UK continues to enjoy the best live music circuit in the world, producing some of the best artists in the world”.

Davyd continued: “It is important to emphasise the role that these small venues play in the ecosystem of British music, providing the first performance platform for writers and musicians. This is the grassroots and bedrock of the UK music industry, which creates thousands of jobs and is one of our biggest export earners. These venues are the research and development department of that success”.

The Mayor’s office immediately announced a task force that will swoop down with great vengeance and furious anger on those who threaten the lifeblood of the live music industry™-. Presumably this means property developers and their ilk, who are not only responsible for creating a climate in which an inner city small venue is a far less viable business option, but also for the word ‘gentrification’ dropping into every other conversation that The Gen has.