This documentary will highlight the issue of closing music venues across the UK, with help from some artists, venue owners and politicians!
What if The Cavern had closed before The Beatles got a chance to play there? Or The Marquee Club closed before The Who had a chance to become ‘The Who’?
Well in 20 years time, we may not be asking ‘What If?’ but rather ‘What could we have done to save live music?’
The live music scene is under threat. An estimated 40% of small music venues in the UK have closed down in the last decade. With the costs of running a venue inflating and noise compaints, it becomes harder for them to remain open.
Some of the historic venues that have closed down include:
The Astoria (London): Which hosted David Bowie, Radiohead, Muse and Deep Purple to name a few.
The Marquee (London): Played a huge part in the founding of The Who. Also was a host to the legendary Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and The Rolling Stones.
The Hacidena (Manchester): Replaced by flats…
The Blind Tiger Club (Brighton): A registered Music Venue for 160 years! Closed down due to noise complaints of someone who moved in above it.
The Duchess (Leeds): Saw Nirvana, Oasis, Pulp and Blur grace it’s stage.
These are just a tiny tiny amount of the venues that have closed down.
Why is this a problem? Well, with every closed music venue, we not only lose the culture that was inside it, but it’s potential to nurture the great British bands of the future. The fewer the venues, the less artists get a chance to learn their craft and build their audience up. Which means in the years to come, your would-be favourite bands and the potential game changers and trail blazers might never get a chance to flourish or worse still, may never get the chance to ‘be’ at all.
This documentary will raise awareness of this issue and attempt to recover the live music scene along with the help of some artists, venue owners and politicians!
Where is the money going? Well, it will be going towards the following:
– Production costs: We will be travelling the UK to interview the experts and the people who have lived through the highs and lows of the UK’s music scene over the past few decades.
– Getting this thing distrubted, so we can get as many people to see this as possible and hopefully put a stop to the silence that is spreading over the UK! Putting into small cinemas, video on demand services!
– Paying for the awesome rewards for you guys; the supporters of our cause!
We’re experts in working with low budgets. We have been lucky enough to already have some great footage for this documentary. We’ve talked to bands like The Carnabys who are building up their audience through the live music scene and who are the youngest patrons of The Music Venue Trust, as well some older musicians, to help us on our journey into building this film and making a difference. Using our extensive contacts in the music industry we have more artists and industry pros lined up and ready to go.
But unfortunately, changing the World ain’t cheap! We need your help and help to give us the extra backing we need to get this thing made, so that we can all look back together in 20, 30, 40 years when live music is thriving and you’re putting your back out at a gig and say “yeah, I was a part of saving live music”.