Lamenting the Gigspace...

Apr 25 2008 3:06 pm, Johnny K

So, there was fighting at the Barfly the other night. Good. It might remind people that something’s happening in the small venues. With bands being rushed to The Astoria 1) Before they’ve released their second single and 2) Before The Astoria shuts down, small venues are having their future history (if you’ll forgive the oxymoron) ripped out from beneath their feet. The Barfly, The Dublin Castle, The Bull & Gate, these used to be places where bands grew. But gradually they’re turning into different environments. In modern life they’re more like the room in hospitals where babies are plonked just after they’re born but only shortly before they’re taken home. You only visit those babies if you’re a relative or nurse. Just as the only people who see the best bands in the small venues these days are either friends or sound engineers. The problems here are manifold and more depressing than watching an English football league with almost no English players when the only alternative is becoming a league like Germany’s – dominated by home-grown players, but lacking any distinct ability to compete at the highest level.

     Let’s deal with these two points in turn. Why are bands playing the bigger venues so early in their careers? To some extent, it’s because record labels need evidence that these acts have a fanbase. And obviously selling out a 2,000 capacity venue is more reassuring than filling a 400 capacity back room. But isn’t there more of a buzz when gigs are in the tinier venues and people are stuck outside without tickets? People become proud to say they were present at those moments and doesn’t that kind of energy help bands in the long run? Of course, everything’s about the short term at the moment. And so, with live music currently thriving, Ken Livingstone feels he is in the position to say that modern concert goers demand more from their facilities than The Astoria can offer. Has it got a bar? Yes, four actually. Has it got toilets? Yes. What more does the ‘concert goer’ need, Ken!? I’m positive whatever it is, they’ve got it at the O2. But it sure doesn’t work the other way round. And for all the people that love The Astoria they won’t be finding what they want (e.g. atmosphere) at the O2.

     With the destruction of central London’s most important music venue looming, then, bands can be forgiven for wanting to get on that stage quick smart. But where will they be playing in two years time? Everything goes in cycles, and just as the Premiership will one day suffer for having destroyed its working class fanbase, so too will live music rue the day it killed the smaller venues and cut the industry off at its source. Unless that’s never allowed to happen. So let’s hope that more of the action in small venues starts making the news pages. Let the industry remember that more of their energies could be focused on reinforcing the foundations that have taken half a century to build up. And let the world not die because we’re destroying the O-zone layer and burning all of its natural resources. Etc. etc.

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