Passion unrocked

Many music venues have been through a torrid time, but ahead of Independent Venue Week, Daniel Dylan Wray finds why there are reasons to be optimistic. Pictures by James Hardisty, Tony Johnson and Gerard Binks.

For Sybil Bell, founder of Independent Venue Week (IVW), there is a sense of hope in the air. “We’re better off than we were last year,” she says. “But I’m longing for the time that we can get back to just doing it all normally.” Since founding in 2013 and launching in 2014, IVW has set out to promote, celebrate and engage independent music venues across the country with a series of week-long events, concerts and promotion campaigns. This year’s IVW kicks off on Monday. “For us, it’s always just been about getting people into venues – to get people off their screens and get out in person and go to a venue,” Bell says. “That is now clearly much more important than it’s ever been. The last 18 months have definitely demonstrated that we really do need these places.”

It’s been a rough couple of years for many venues across Yorkshire. Some have closed, others have teetered on the brink, and others barely hung on. A combination of back and forth on restrictions, trepidation about people returning to venues, staff shortages, and whether they got access to things like Arts Council funding have all been determining factors as to how venues have managed. “It’s hard to reconcile the last two years given it feels we’re not out of the woods yet,” says Nick Simcock, of Oporto in Leeds. “We’ve been supported financially enough to get through, but this was far from certain. Once we were successful with rate relief and local council support, this has been topped up every time there has been another lockdown. Support from the central government has been harder to come by though.”

Similarly, Michael Ainsworth, of the Grayston Unity in Halifax, described it as a “rollercoaster” two years. “At the outbreak of the pandemic when we were first forced to close, I was not optimistic and could see us having to close for good,” he recalls. However, a soon potentially disastrous situation was flipped on its head. “It’s a real irony that in some ways the pandemic has actually enabled the Grayston to have a future and a quietly positive and optimistic one at that,” he adds. “The reason being that due to our involvement with

IVW – which we have been involved for the past five years – it enabled us to apply for Arts Council cultural recovery grants.

“Also, our membership of the Music Venue Trust enabled us to apply, and get further funding, from the Arts Council towards having work done to increase our capacity from 18 to 50. We were the UK’s smallest venue and whilst undoubtedly that brought us to the attention of BBC 6 Music, amongst others, the new larger size has enabled us to be able to book full bands and bigger artists.”

Tom Simpson, of the

Parish in Huddersfield, was initially not so lucky with receiving support. The venue instead turned to the local community for help. “We decided quite early to try and raise money via a crowdfunder,” he says. “The response was amazing and overwhelming. We absolutely would not be here today if it wasn’t for the generosity of our amazing customers.” The Parish even had to move venues in 2020, adding to the chaos and stress of the year. “The situation we were in was so perilous,” Simpson recalls. “We were worried we could lose our homes, we had personal guarantees on huge amounts of debt, and debt was growing day by day as we were still being charged full rent.” However, the forced move brought about a