Halifax Piece Hall has announced a scheme that will support grassroots music venues in Calderdale borough through MVTâs Pipeline Investment Fund (PIF).
The Music Venue Trust (MVT) signed a groundbreaking agreement with The Piece Hall as well as promoters Cuffe and Taylor that will now give fans who attend concerts at the hall an option to add a donation to MVT when purchasing tickets through Ticketmaster.
All of the funds that are raised will go directly towards supporting grassroots music venues in Calderdale borough through MVTâs Pipeline Investment Fund (PIF). The Piece Hall has become the first major UK venue to provide fans with the option to support independent venues directly at the point of purchase.
Speaking of the agreement in a press release, CEO and Founder of Music Venue Trust, Mark Davyd, said: âThis has been an incredibly challenging year for grassroots music venues, with more than 100 venues forced to close their doors to live music and many more at risk.
He continued: âIt is absolutely vital that everyone in the music industry recognises the incredible strain the grassroots sector is under, and so itâs great to see The Piece Hall leading the way with a plan that will really make a genuine difference to other venues in the local area. We are extremely grateful to The Piece Hall and Cuffe and Taylor for coming together to support the whole ecosystem around them â we hope it inspires others to follow.â
Today (October 4), the MVT also announced the first acquisition under its public ownership scheme.
The #OwnOurVenues initiative was first announced in May, following the news that legendary gig spaces like North Londonâs Nambucca and Sheffieldâs Leadmill were closing their doors or under threat, respectively.
Having been backed by Ed Sheeran, the scheme aims to secure the long-term futures of such venues by directly tackling the issue of ownership.
Earlier this month, it was reported that the UK is set to lose 10 per cent of its grassroots music venues in 2023.
Last month, The Music Venue Trust have revealed to NMEÂ that 67 venues have closed so far this year, with 90 currently working with MVTâs Emergency Response. Roughly half of those are likely to close in 2023 â giving a total of around 100 grassroots music being lost from the UK in 2023; thatâs 10 per cent of the number of independent gig spaces in the country.
Speaking to NME about the MVTâs warning from earlier this year, that the entire live music industry was headed âover a cliff edgeâ without government action or without eight of the UKâs new large arenas to âcontribute to the security of the wider music ecosystem by investing a percentage of every ticket they sell into the grassroots music ecosystemâ, Davyd said: âThere are more big concerts going on and people are paying more money for tickets than they ever have.”
He continued: âThis is the best year for live music in the UK in terms of gross receipts that thereâs ever going to be. Itâs not possible to make an argument that this can be accompanied by 100 venues closing down, cutting down access to live music for communities and cutting off the talent pipeline for artists thatâll never get to play.
âThese two things arenât compatible, and no one can tell me that itâs acceptable for the top-end of the industry to be turning in these massive gross receipts from these huge tours in stadiums and arenas while a venue 15 miles down the road is closing down because it doesnât have the ÂŁ10,000 it needs,” he added. “The amount of money it takes to keep these small venues open is incontestably small in comparison to the money thatâs being brought in at the top.â
The MVT also penned an open letter to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt about how the situation is âas dire as it can beâ with more than one grassroots venue closing in the UK every week.
âBetween us finishing our report at Friday at 5pm and coming back at 10am on Monday morning, two more venues closed,â MVT CEO Mark Davyd told NME, paying tribute to Jimmyâs in Liverpool and The Brass in Hastings, which both announced their closure on Saturday (September 23) and Sunday (September 24) respectively.
Davyd continued: âOur report shows that weâve gone from 960 venues in October of last year to 835 that are actually operating. Thatâs 125 less and a 15.7 per cent decline. Venues havenât just closed down, but some of them have also given up putting on live music. The only way that they could afford to survive was to stop putting on live music and start selling pizzas.”
As a way to support independent venues, rock band Enter Shikari recently announced that they would be donating £1 from every ticket sold to their upcoming UK and Ireland arena tour to benefit the Music Venue Trust.
Speaking to NME about their decision to donate ÂŁ1 from every ticket sold for their upcoming arena tour, the band’s frontman Rou Reynolds said: âIt sounds like thereâs a lot of focus on providing spaces for the real high-end of the music industry. There are a lot of new arenas on the way, while at the same time there is no support whatsoever for the grassroots circuit. Thereâs a very clear link between small venues and big venues â especially in the terms of providing new artists with a space to find their way in the industry and find their audience.”
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