Comment: Arts Rescue Package - don鈥檛 forget small venues Published on: 8 July 2020 Writing for The Conversation, Dr Adam Behr discusses why supporting grassroots venues is important. What if The Beatles hasn鈥檛 been talent-spotted at The Cavern Club in Liverpool? littlenySTOCK via Shutterstock , Icons 鈥� and gigs 鈥� come in all shapes and sizes. July 6 marks the anniversary of the day that Paul McCartney and John Lennon first met at . Sixty-three years later McCartney has played at massive and historic events: Olympic ceremonies, Royal Jubilees, and, of course, stadiums and arenas around the world. In the precarious, socially distanced atmosphere of COVID-19 it鈥檚 becoming just about possible to imagine a small outdoor gathering such as Woolten F锚te taking place again. But the timeframe for music venues reopening is less certain. This is a major concern 鈥� by McCartney鈥檚 , it鈥檚 the 鈥済rassroots clubs, pubs and music venues鈥� that shaped his craft as a performer. As he said in 2016: Artists need places to start out, develop and work on their craft and small venues have been the cornerstone for this. COVID-19 and the lockdown have imperilled artistic activity and creative industries across the board 鈥� and the 拢1.57 billion rescue package from the UK chancellor of the exchequer, Rishi Sunak, offers much-needed breathing room for museums, venues, cinemas, galleries and theatres alike. But much will depend on how this is administered 鈥� not just across the different art-forms but within these sectors: from the Royal Opera House to the small venues, including the Cavern and the Casbah Coffee Club where the Beatles cut their teeth. From the major cities to the smaller towns. John Lennon鈥檚 band The Quarrymen, the day he met Paul McCartney. Wikimedia Commons Given the scale of the crisis, resources are finite but it鈥檚 important, where possible, not to view it as a zero-sum game. A key feature of the relationship between the grassroots clubs, the concert halls and the arenas is interdependence 鈥� an where diversity of venues, as well as music styles, provides not only a pathway for musical careers but a cultural system where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Cultural and economic value Oliver Dowden, the culture secretary, talks of preserving the 鈥溾��, such as the Royal Albert Hall, while the prime minister . Both are vital. The grassroots sector has been described as the 鈥溾�� arm of the music industries and without these spaces it will be hard to produce the McCartneys of the future. This is not just a question of star power. Music is a significant contributor to the UK economy 鈥� around 拢5.2 billion per annum . And live music 鈥� at 拢1.1 billion in 2018 鈥� is central to that. The days in which live performances were secondary to recordings have passed. Consumer spend on live music and the sector overall 鈥� to say nothing of individual careers 鈥� relies on the live experience. To that end, the government鈥檚 announcement can be viewed as an investment as much as a bailout, urgently needed though it is. Nor do the economic figures tell the whole story. The UK Live Music Census of 2017 (which I worked on) demonstrated how venues are embedded into their localities, woven throughout the lives of audience members as well as musicians. : I feel part of something greater as I鈥檝e shared something beautiful with a crowd, even if I haven鈥檛 spoken to them; it makes me feel like I鈥檓 part of a community. Small venues were also the category that had been most visited by respondents to the audience survey (78% had attended one in the previous 12 months) and this foundation for local and national musical life means that 鈥渉eritage鈥� spreads out beyond storied concert halls like the Albert Hall. Local live music has been a focus of as well as home consumption. As the licensee of Camden Town鈥檚 Dublin Castle put it when explaining how the venue was simultaneously : We get people travelling from Japan who come to The Dublin Castle because they know that Amy Winehouse played there and she used to frequent the bar. And they sit down and they鈥檙e thinking 鈥業鈥檓 drinking where she drank鈥�. And I think that makes you feel that you鈥檙e part of that scene which you want to belong to. Nurturing the grassroots Despite its role in shaping Britain鈥檚 musical milieu, the grassroots sector hasn鈥檛 had it easy. Under pressure from , a spate of closures has led to the realisation that, once lost, these spaces are hard to replace. The , which played a major role in lobbying for the recent injection of funds, did much to galvanise and give a more unified voice to what had hitherto been quite a disparate group of businesses 鈥� something that is, after all, a part of their appeal. The imminent threat to hundreds of venues might be allayed, then, but they aren鈥檛 out of the woods yet. Brexit still looms on the horizon 鈥� and recent research has shown that the beyond the problems this may cause , there could also be knock-on effects from the cultural sector more widely. A mapping exercise demonstrates the difficulty of disentangling the fates of local scenes, national industries and international networks. The chancellor鈥檚 rescue package is a vital first step in maintaining the global stepping stones from Woolten F锚te to . It鈥檚 important that it isn鈥檛 the last. , Lecturer in Popular and Contemporary Music, This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the . Share: Latest News 缅北禁地 recognised with geography award 缅北禁地 has been awarded the Highly Commended Geographical Association Publishers Award for its collaboration with Time for Geography, the UK鈥檚 open-access, dedicated video platform. published on: 16 April 2026 缅北禁地 historians mark General Strike centenary To mark the 100th anniversary of the British General Strike and miners鈥� lock-out of 1926, historians at 缅北禁地 are organising a series of events on its enduring legacy. published on: 16 April 2026 Comment: NCP is in administration Writing for The Conversation, Erwei (David) Xiang discusses how some big companies like NCP are so dependent on debt that they can鈥檛 adjust to change. published on: 16 April 2026 Facts and figures
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