On Boris Johnson’s list of pandemic priorities, the arts aren’t exactly high up. Things higher up include confusing the general public and pandering to racists. But those are topics for another piece. To a man who purely sees culture in terms of money and statistics, the wellbeing of music venues and culture just isn’t important.
In this edition of Freestyling I look at why, and how the government is tackling the issue of music venues and why their approach is reckless and endangers the vibrant and thriving arts culture that makes Britain great.
Part 1: The Problem
During lockdown, the music scene has gone into a forced hibernation and for good reason. While venues and music culture have been a huge part of my life for the past two years, they’d be the last place I want to visit during a global pandemic. Yet with the government relaxing rules around social distancing, pubs and businesses, it seems the Government is looking to put profit before safety. Despite his clear cultural ambivalence to British music and independent venues, last week Boris announced a five step plan on how to safely reopen live music spaces. But, much like the Government’s Peri Peri pandemic scale, we’ve seen that this can be bent and sped up as and when it is profitable, or Dominic Cummings needs it to be. As Mark Beaumont eloquently explained in his NME article on the subject, all it takes is Cummings to get up on the Pyramid stage and bash out ‘Seven Nation Army’ on a ukulele and festival season is back on.
There’s no sense of nuance to the Government’s plan, and it's only concern is the illusion of normality rather than the wellbeing of the UK’s previously thriving music scene. It’s putting the power to decide the fate of British music, underground culture and independent venues in the hands of people who’s only experience of the subject comes from putting on a Mumford and Sons album at a dinner party. With that being said, here’s the road map the government proposed last week:
Stage One - Rehearsal and training (no audiences and adhering to social distancing guidelines)
Stage Two - Performances for broadcast and recording purposes (adhering to social distancing guidelines)
Stage Three - Performances outdoors with an audience plus pilots for indoor performances with a limited distance audience
Stage Four - Performances allowed indoors / outdoors (but with a limited distanced audience indoors)
Stage Five - Performances allowed indoors / outdoors (with a fuller audience indoors)
If you got bored just reading that, I’m not surprised. It’s a list as vague as it is dangerous, one that forces venues to repon but slashes their attendance and profits in favour of the ambiguous notion of ‘restarting the economy’. It’s forcing them to open, but ignores the fact that this will cost them more than temporary closure would. Before the pandemic, venues were at breaking point - this is another nail in the coffin.
Venues need punters to stay alive, they need people through their doors and emptying their wallets. This is nothing new, we’ve known this for years. What they don’t need is the pressure to reopen during a pandemic, with an audience the size of a seminar group and dwindling profits. Yet this is what Boris' plan implies. The only reason to open these venues so early is the same reason that pubs are reopening this weekend, as a distraction from how the UK is still sitting towards the top of charts of global infection rates. It’s the equivalent of breaking your legs and then going out clubbing to dance on them to try and convince people they aren’t broken.
Think of any small venue with a capacity of 200. For our York readers that would be slightly bigger than the Fulford Arms. For Londoners, The Windmill. For Guildford gang, The Boilerroom. At social distance that audience becomes 20, maybe 25. Unless you charge four times the price for tickets, there’s no way venues can support themselves. They can’t break even. According to the Let The Music Play campaign, over 90% of venues will face closure as a result of this.
In his recent NME article, Beaumont explains how this might look:
“The Venue Music Trust have calculated that staying closed for a further three months will cost a combined £46 million, and 93 per cent won’t be able to reopen at all... but opening with such restrictions would cost £85 million (or £52 million with a one-metre restriction) and even the best-funded establishments would risk permanent closure.”
This is not exactly ideal.
Part 2: Solutions
In response to the government’s Nando’s chart, the Music Venues Trust have provided their own roadmap to reopening, with their suggestions for how to keep the industry afloat. It’s safe to say it’s a little more rigorous than the Government’s.
Stage 1 - Create the sector support financial package that is immediately required so that any sort of grassroots music venue sector survives to require any more steps at all
Stage 2 - Check if you have completed step 1. If not, keep checking until you have
Stage 3 - Get out of the way of one of the most dynamic and innovative creative industries in the world and let them get on with it
Stage 4 - Continue to receive massive social cultural and economic benefits for decades to come because you got Step 1 right
Stage 5 - Realise this doesn’t need 5 steps, it only needs step 1
The MVT also suggested a cash injection of £50 million necessary to keep small venues afloat, which may sound like a lot but is nothing compared to the amount venues will lose as a result of these measures.
Right now, this looks to be the safest and most profitable solution.
This idea isn’t just sensible, it’s popular - 500 independent venues have already signed an open letter calling for this. Campaigns such as #saveourvenues have already raised over £2 million but this is not enough and the Government needs to take action. If that doesn’t sound bad enough, sources are reporting that Johnson just gifted the multi-millionaire racist pub landlord Tim Martin £48 million to keep going. Money that would have made the difference between venues stay afloat, and going under. They might even get turned into a Wetherspoons.
And you can be sure as shit UK music and venues give more to this country than fucking Spoons. Your move Boris.
Here is a list of sources that I found helpful writing this piece, it’s worth reading up on some if you want to learn more about the very real issue facing British venues right now.
NME
Standard
Music Venue Trust
Save Our Venues
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