People who say it cannot be done should get out of the way of the people doing it
Let's talk honestly about who is taking action and who isn't.
Regular followers of this column will see me deploy the motto “People who say it cannot be done should get out of the way of the people doing it” a lot. I strongly believe that positive change is possible, and it happens when people come together, focus on a challenge, and take action to make things better.
Yesterday was a big day for Grassroots Music Venues (GMVs), a turning point. There was a great deal of headline coverage of the new £5 million being made available by the Government to Arts Council England’s Supporting Grassroots Live Music Fund in the next 2 years. This money is important. The sector has a gross turnover of £500 million but operates on a 0.2% profit. £2.5 million per year is literally the difference between the whole grassroots sector operating at a small profit or a small loss. As soon as it was announced and confirmed, we immediately started work with our sector, Arts Council England and DCMS colleagues, on ways that we can jointly ensure this money can make the most difference to venues, artists and audiences.
But equally important was the description of the work of GMVs in the Creative Industries Sector Vision which was released yesterday. For the first time, the sector was identified as a cornerstone of the cultural identity and the future of creativity in the UK. You can read the report in full HERE but here’s just a small extract:
“Grassroots music venues are not only pillars of local communities and centres of research and development for the UK’s world leading music industry, but often provide additional social and educational functions such as cultural projects, community work and educational courses.”
We have received a lot of accolades and praise for the work our little grassroots charity has done since 2014 to make such a radical change to the way that GMVs are considered, recognised, and respected. When we started this work in 2014 the first thing we had to do was try and think of a term we could use to describe it that was better than “The Toilet Circuit” - something I feel partly responsible for having founded a venue in an actual toilet some 30 years ago. We couldn’t imagine a government minister every standing up and saying ‘we must stop these toilet circuit venues closing down’ so we had to think of something else that encompassed what they do. In a thirty minute meeting in 2014< Music Venue Trust’s current COO Beverley Whitrick said ‘what about Grassroots Music Venues?’. From that thirty minute meeting to a descriptive title that is a foundation stone of a major strategy and vision document for the entire Creative Industries in just under 9 years is an incredible journey.
Music Venue Trust is extremely proud of the role we, and the members of the Music Venues Alliance, played in creating that path. The support we’ve had from the music community, the artists, the audiences, has been simply incredible. People often write to us that we are the people doing it.
But it isn’t just us, or our community, that you need to make real, positive change. It’s no use shouting that everything is terrible just to hope it gets better accidentally, you need key stakeholders prepared to engage. You need people in positions of power and authority that will listen to your case, consider the data and the evidence, and take action themselves. There’s a temptation to think we have somehow forced this new more positive position for GMVs upon a reluctant government, or coerced people or organisations into doing things they don’t want to do against their will. So today let me correct that impression.
Since 2015 we have been working with all tiers of government, from Ministers of the Crown to local Councillors, to lay out the importance of the cultural activity that happens in these vitally important venues. I’ve met with the current Secretary of State for Culture Lucy Frazer and Culture Minister Julia Lopez, and I’ve met with Kate Jones and Miqdad Al-Nuaimi, the local councillors for Le Pub in Newport. On Monday I am meeting Lucy Powell and Jeff Smith, the shadow minister to Lucy and Julia, and pretty soon I’m hoping I can persuade John Whittingdale, acting Culture Minister, to come and see Noah and the Loners with me. I’ve promised he can leave me to do the crowd surfing.
Colleagues at the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport haven’t just given us the time of day. They’ve been receptive, fully engaged, keen to learn more, absolutely determined to ensure that we create a better future for music communities right across the UK. Their support was incredible during the pandemic, but right now the music team in the department are incredibly engaged and active making sure that the needs of the GMV sector are being heard. We stood together in Corsica Studios recently to learn directly about the threat they face from the new developments happening all around them, and they visited Village Underground with me two weeks ago so they could hear first hand how difficult the current cost-of-living, energy crisis, and staffing costs challenges are.
Equally, Arts Council England’s management and delivery of the Supporting Grassroots Live Music (SGLM) fund since 2019 has made an incredible difference to the grassroots sector, investing over £6 million into programmes and infrastructure that have resulted in visible improvements right across the country. When you walk into your local grassroots music venue, there’s a good chance you will see that work, either in an artist playing there that otherwise might not be able to, or in a better sound, improved lighting, better access. It is fashionable to knock Arts Council England, who never seem to get given credit for doing everything within their power to support and develop creative engagement across the country, so let me tell you about our dealings with them for the GMV sector.
The manner in which the SGLM fund was developed and delivered is an outstanding exemplar of best practice. The support from ACE officers for venues that had never been through the grant application process before was way beyond anything that was required. Leading from the front, the entire music team has been a key factor in the positive changes happening for GMVs for the last 5 years. The new £5 million in funding for this vital ACE fund is going to make an incredible difference to what you see and hear in your local venue, and it wouldn’t have happened if Arts Council England, as an organisation, hadn’t listened, considered their role, worked out what they could do, then delivered. If you want to read more about the success of the ACE programme, you can read the full report on it HERE but here’s just one quote:
“The Arts Council probably saved our business over the last few years.”
What we saw yesterday is government, the culture sector, and creative industries coming together to recognise that the data has been harvested, the evidence collated, the case made. Grassroots Music Venues are essential to the future of creativity in our communities. Action is needed and they are taking it.
Which brings me to who has not acted.
An estimated 1.4 million tickets to see major events were sold in the UK last week alone, at an estimated gross value of £156,800,000. Not a single penny of this has made it back into the circuit where the artists who headlined those events started their careers. If those events had happened in France, the companies who presented and hosted them would have been obliged by government legislation to put £5,488,000 into a fund to support grassroots music venues and artists.
Music Venue Trust isn’t asking for that. We are asking that our own live music industry, who know full well the problems it has with its talent pipeline, stop sitting on its hands hoping the government will solve all its problems. We are saying that the live music industry needs to do what DCMS, Arts Council England, MPs, Councillors, have done. Read the evidence, look at the challenge, consider what you can do. Then act. Stop being the people standing in the way and start being the people who are doing it. Forgive me, but…..
