2023 was UK's "worst year for venue closures" with loss of 125 grassroots spaces, says MVT
The loss of the venues has also led to a loss of around 4,000 jobs
Figures from the Music Venue Trust (MVT) have said 2023 was the UK's worst year for music venue closures with stats showing that 125 grassroots music venues were closed over the past 12 months.
The loss of the venues has also seen 4,000 jobs cut and 14,500 events left no longer possible due to not having a venue to call home. 193,230 gigs for musicians have been lost as a result of the closure of the venues, according to the MVT.
The release of the figures follows on from the MVT publicly calling on Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to extend tax relief to independent venues in September of last year.
Other figures released show that at least one grassroots music venue is closing every week. The MVT's Jay Taylor said this is frequently down to many venues having a private landlord. Rents across the UK are rising and tightening venue owners' profit margins, leaving many of them in an untenable position.
MVT, which describes itself as like the "National Trust" of music venues, has been working with grassroots venues to help try to secure their future, by buying existing venues from private landlords and acting as a "benevolent" landlord of sorts to the existing venue's owners.
Speaking to NME about the impact of closing music venues on artists developing and finding an audience, Tom Maddicott, who ran the now closed Moles in Bath, said: "You just need to look at the artists who have played here when we've been a part of their early career: The Cure, The Smiths, Eurythmics, Oasis, Blur, The Killers, Radiohead, Pulp, Bastille, Wolf Alice, IDLES – all these bands start in venues like this. Without them, where do they come from?"
He continued: "We take risks on new talent. We are the research and development arm of the music industry. In any other sector, research and development is funded. It needs to be funded because it costs money to do. That’s not happening in the music industry, and it’s probably the only sector where it isn’t.”
Liverpool's Melodic Distraction and Leeds' Sheaf St are among the other grassroots venues to have closed in the UK in 2023.
