Broadcaster, DJ and the first chair at LIVE (Live music Industry Venues & Entertainment), Steve Lamacq has long been a strong supporter of grassroots talent. Here he calls for the industry to support the LIVE Trust and create a fighting fund for festivals, venues and artists.

Almost to the week, 36 years ago, in my past life as a journalist for the New Musical Express I was dispatched to Bath to review the most exciting new guitar band in the country at that point. The Sundays, a group whose success would help reshape the music industry’s view of ‘Indie’ music, were on a short tour of grassroots venues tour to promote their debut single ‘Can’t Be Sure’.

They were, by degrees, angelic and frosty and warm and embracing. And from that night on, as they blossomed in confidence on that tiny, low lit stage, their route to Top 20 major label status was assured. The venue itself, the legendary Moles Club in Bath also enjoyed further triumphs. It would go on to help launch all manner of other careers including early gigs by Oasis and Ed Sheeran. Until, out of the blue, in December 2023 when it announced it was to close with immediate effect. Not because it was badly run or was faced with dwindling local audiences (on the contrary, its gigs regularly sold out); instead, Moles was forced to shut because it simply couldn’t keep up with the tide of rising bills it was being presented with.

Its closure however was something of a wakeup call. And as more and more venues began to shut their doors, it became clear that something needed to be done to help sustain the now shrinking grassroots circuit.

At the start of 2024, now recently ensconced in my role as Chair of LIVE, Jon Collins its CEO and I conducted a series of one-to-one meetings with LIVE board members to assess their own feelings about the problem and what solutions we might feasibly find to stem the closures. It was out of these informal conversations that the idea of a LIVE Trust was born.

We also learnt however that problems with the grassroots ecosystem weren’t just confined to the dire financial plight of many venues. Artists too were starting to find it too expensive to go out on tour. And promoters were increasingly nervous about booking shows which, amid a cost-of-living crisis, looked ever more risky.

This helped guide our thinking about the Trust, as the idea began to take shape and build momentum throughout the year (including an explanation of its proposed aims during the evidence sessions before the Commons Select Committee into Grassroots Venues last May).

So it has been a long time coming, but we are delighted that the LIVE Trust has now been formally launched. Adopting the idea of a voluntary £1 contribution from arena and stadium shows over 5000 capacity – a proposal long campaigned for by the Music Venue Trust – we hope to accrue a fighting fund that can benefit all the players involved in the grassroots scene, from venues to musicians and promoters to production.

The Trust itself, responsible for distributing the money raised, will, we hope, also represent through its line-up, a broad view of live music and where our financial help should go. Applications to become a trustee are open now.

It is, I believe, a potentially game-changing moment for the live industry and a demonstration to government that we are willing to work together to champion British music from the ground up. And it could be Bath Moles’ greatest legacy yet.

This article is included in the spring edition of Access All Areas magazine, which is available here. 

 

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