The Cure took the alternative there. Oasis, Eurythmics and Radiohead used it as a launch pad. Ed Sheeran also made his mark on his stage when few knew him. The last to perform were Supergrass and The Last Dinner Party. And that was indeed like the last supper of the legendary Bath Molesone of the most popular live music clubs in the British Isles, condemned to extinction after 45 years.
“Closing Moles was a horrible decision,” confessed its owner, Tom Maddicot at the time of farewell last December. “But it’s the stark reality: live music in small venues is no longer economically viable in the UK.”
The closure of the Moles put the final note to the requiem that had been sung throughout the fateful 2023. 16% of the 960 live music venues censused (125, exactly) closed permanently throughout the year in the United Kingdom. Four thousand jobs were lost, 14,500 concerts were suspended and more than 193,000 artistic “opportunities” for musicians were left up in the air.
“Do we want Ed Sheeran to play at 27 festivals? Let’s make sure first of all that the Bath Moles has a future, because that’s where his career began,” laments Mark Davyd, executive director of the Music Venue Trust (MVT), which launched this year his particular SOS before the British Parliament and in the pages of the magazine New Musical Express.
“We risk losing the next generation of British talent because we are doing it wrong”, warns Davyd. “Live music venues are a cultural treasure, the laboratory where new and exciting music is created, where audiences from 16 to 60 years old pulsate with songs created not with AI but with HI (Human Inspiration).”
“If venues like this close everywhere, where are we going to be able to play? How are we going to make our way?”
He Music Venue Trust It acts in some ways like the National Trust, with the mission of preserving the increasingly fragile British musical “ecosystem.”
First Brexit, then Covid and now the cost of living crisis (premises rents have risen on average by 37%) have put the sector on the edge.
“Today, music fans They pay 20% VAT in the United Kingdom on their tickets, almost double the European Union average,” denounces Tom Kiehl, executive director of UK Music. “Reducing VAT by half would be a ball of oxygen. For many locals, that will be the difference between life and death.”
“We have historically been world leaders in the music sector, but we need action from the Government to be able to continue being so in the coming decades,” adds Kiehl, who also regrets the barriers raised by Brexit for British bands on European tour.
“80% of public aid goes to classical music and opera,” recalls Mark Davyd, director of the Music Venue Trust. “There is nothing wrong with that, but we cannot forget the other music, the one that reaches the majority of the public and the one that has turned this country into a global superpower, from the Beatles to here.”
In Liverpool, without going any further, the closure of the Melodic Bar and the Melodic Distraction radio set off alarm bells in 2023. Birmingham also said goodbye to the Velvet Music Rooms in October, which was unable to celebrate its 20th anniversary. The Pryzm chain has announced the closure of half of its nightclubs in Leeds, Nottingham, Portsmouth, Plymouth and Watford in 2024 due to “increased operating costs.”
“It’s not just the venues, it’s also the artists who are severely affected because they have to cut back on their tours,” warns Mark Davyd. “The entire ecosystem collapses. If the industry does not react, hundreds of clubs will close.”
“There is one thing even worse than a tax on concert tickets in large venues and stadiums, and that is the absolute lack of money in grassroots music,” says Davy, who highlights that the crisis in small venues has coincided with the boom in macro concerts.
“It’s the stark reality: live music in small venues is no longer economically viable in the UK”
The giant Live Nation confirmed the fundraising record in 2023 thanks, in large part, to the world tours of Taylor Swift and Beyonc. Ticketmaster sold 620 million tickets last year, 13% more than the previous year. And the construction of large venues for more than 20,000 spectators (such as the Co-op Live in Manchester, which opens in April with 100 scheduled concerts) is experiencing a particularly buoyant moment.
“0.06% of Live Nation’s extra revenue in 2023 (the equivalent of €3.4 million) would have been enough to save the 125 venues that closed their doors last year from closure,” concludes Mark Davy, that remembers how others 150 were rescued thanks to the “emergency” mediation of the MVT.
Curiously, the London neighborhood of Camden has so far resisted the challenge. Almost all the places he frequented in his day Amy Winehouse (from the Hawley Arms to Dublin Castle, passing through the Jazz Cafe or The Good Mixer) remain open in that microclimate created around The Roundhouse, the place where the Back to Black singer last appeared three days before her death on July 23, 2011.
Camden remains almost a rarity in the bleak landscape of grassroots music venues in the United Kingdom, while owners manage survival strategies such as The Ferret, in Preston, which has converted a large part of its clientele into shareholders.
“Every week is a battle with bills,” warns Matt Fawbert, manager of the iconic establishment. Ben and The Believers were one of the last bands to play there. Their frontman, Ben Titley, spoke on Sky News: “If venues like this close everywhere, where are we going to be able to play? How are we going to make our way?”