Musicians’ Movement and Music Venues Trust unite to demand Government funding to save Grassroots Music Venues

Over 10,000 musicians have joined the Musicians’ Movement (a newly formed Facebook group started by musicians Phil Meadows and Christopher Barrett) which has combined forces with the Music Venues Trust to send an open letter to the government, signed by 550 grass roots music venues, to lobby for a one-off £50million payment to save the UK's music venues from permanent closure due to the Covid-19 crisis. With many jazz venues among the signees, the letter states: “Our Grassroots Music Venues are the fundamental foundations and cornerstone on which our world beating £5.2 billion per year music industry has been built for the last 60 years. Our Grassroots Music Venues are absolutely essential to the whole UK music industry bouncing back at any time in the future.”

The letter goes on to outline the wider range of services that grass roots venues provide – including “training, rehearsal spaces, recording opportunities and career development to thousands of young people and are essential to our communities.” It also states: “Thousands of cultural professionals get their first taste of working in the creative industries in our venues, including many of those who go on to work in areas other than music. Grassroots Music Venues sit at the very heart of our creative nation.”

Acknowledging that the health advice is clear that gathering in confined spaces is a high risk activity – the fact remains that there are some 800 grass roots music venues that presented some 175,000 events in the last year and “gave people the experiences they love and the artists the opportunities they need. Since 20 March there have been no events.”

The letter states that venues have complied with the government advice and have remained closed – in spite of the losses this has incurred – and the venues have engaged proactively with the government task force to explore every option to reopen safely. And now the MM and the MVT are asking the government to follow a “simple clear plan” for the sector to be supported to survive the next three months (July, August, September) and to recover in the future. The two steps are: a £50 million financial support package immediately and a reduction on VAT on future ticket sales, bringing tax in UK Grassroots Music Venues into line with our major international competitors.

The statement concludes: “These measures are simple, quick, effective and would prevent the closure of hundreds of Grassroots Music Venues. They are the right thing to do. We are a dynamic, innovative, and inventive sector. We do not need permanent government intervention to exist. We are not asking to become a permanently subsidised drain on the public purse. We do not need the government to step in and tell us how to run our venues. We need government to take two simple steps and leave sus to work out how to do the rest. We need you to do the right thing.”

For more information visit www.musicvenuetrust.com/ and www.facebook.com/groups/musiciansmovement/