In 2024, a grassroots music venue in the UK was lost every two weeks. Venue closures can be due to a number of reasons, most commonly rising costs, however redevelopment, gentrification and disputes with landlords can also lead to closures.
Sadly, it has become all too common that venues, built to be the beating heart of local music, are redeveloped into luxury flats, housing, or hotels. Venues, designed to be egalitarian ways to share art and music, are all too often developed into houses and flats.
York itself felt this effect as recently as December 2024, when The York Vaults (also known as the Victoria Vaults) closed its doors due to the sale of the freehold to a property company.
First taking place in 2014, Independent Venue Week, inspired by the successes of Record Store Day, aims to shift values, ideas, and policies surrounding independent venues. In this way, its manifesto is to represent venues which are undervalued in society, to inspire creativity and to champion art and expression in public life.
A longstanding champion of these values, BBC Radio 6 Music hosted a celebration of independent venues at the iconic Brudenell Social Club, with artists BIG SPECIAL performing an explosive, awe-inspiring set.
Tickets, limited to 350, could only be obtained through a ballot, provided entirely free to the customers. They entitled the spectator to venture into the ‘pool room’ to see Steve Lamacq’s live broadcast, interviewing local legends Yard Act, all before a radio-recorded set in Brudenell Room 1.
BIG SPECIAL, a comedic blend of poetics and noise, championed the core values of independent venue week: creativity, art and expression. Drummer Callum Moloney was continually beating down on the floor toms and bass drum, as though attempting to break through; while vocalist Joe Hicklin recited poetry about the bleak nature of British life. Altogether a powerful and driven set from start to finish, making every second of their limited 30-minute set as loud as the last.
BIG SPECIAL too, in many ways, owe their success to the support offered by independent venues. They were first played on Radio 6 Music by Steve Lamacq as unsigned artists, and are crossing the stepping stones of independent music. In many ways, performances like this leave one wondering, would we ever see music like this without these venues.
Drummer Callum Moloney went on to state that “We need more independent venues. Stop trying to turn everything into posh flats, we don’t want them” a powerful proclamation to the 300 in the room and over 2.7 million live listeners. It is in this that the triumph of independent venues lies, and the spirit of Independent Venue Week remains. It is to inspire change, to place value on the otherwise undervalued, and to champion creativity, art and freedom.
It is worth noting that, as recently as November 2024, in an attempt to aid independent venues the government has backed a recommendation by The Committee of the Independent Society of Musicians to introduce a small levy on arena and stadium tickets to support grassroots music venues, artists and promoters, with Creative Industries Minister Sir Chris Bryant statingthat “grassroots music venues are one of the UK’s most valuable and yet undervalued cultural assets”. Evidently, ideas and policies are changing surrounding independent venues, however more still needs to be done.
The BBC Radio 6 Independent Venue Week champions the values of art, expression, creativity, and freedom that local venues encapsulate, empowering individuals to actively engage with the venues around them. It empowers people to support their local venues, to engage in their local communities and gives them a necessary push to attend local shows.
So, next time you’re struggling for something to do, take a look at the gigs in your area, support your local venues and champion these places of creative and musical expression, it will always be worth your while.
Catch up on The Big Special’s performance here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0027dwy