“Cutting out these grassroots venues cuts out accessibility”

The government announced on Sunday 5 July a £1.57 billion rescue package for the arts sector in the UK to help protect theatres, galleries, museums, independent cinemas, heritage sites and music venues from the financial blows they have taken from the coronavirus pandemic.

This is welcome news for everyone in the arts, particularly for small grassroots music venues which were at risk of a 90% closure rate.

Bristol grunge band, Gum Soul, discuss how coronavirus has affected their industry as well as why this funding is vital.

Describing their music as “Berrocca tunes, fizzy tunes, tunes that you whack into your pint of water when you’re hungover and it bubbles up and it sorts you out for the rest of the day,” Gum Soul bounce from influence to influence like a game of pinball.

“We don’t want to get pigeon holed,” said Curt, lead vocals and guitarist.

Photo by Amia Watling

Photo by Amia Watling

Before the coronavirus pandemic put the country on hold in March, things were moving forward for the band.

“Things were starting to make a bit of sense within the gigs and the live music. People were coming, actually showing up. It’s just bare frustrating, like this was going to be a really good year. But when you saw the great scope of it all, you're like yeah, shit, you’ve got to just kind of band together.” Said Nic, bassist and vocalist.

“Pun intended. It’s something we can’t feel too down about, because there’s so many other bands in the same position. It’s so relatable,” said drummer, Jake.

“Cutting out these grassroots venues cuts out accessibility to people, if they go we’re just going to be wound up with loads of horrible poshos playing music.”

Although they all miss breaking up the monotonous 9-5 with gigs and band practice, lockdown has served up a couple of small silver linings.

Nic said: “It kind of gave me a lot of time to actually think about what I was writing. So it was useful in that instead of having this kind of lightning in a bottle moment in a rehearsal room.

“It definitely gives you time to think more about songs, the identity of the band, and the identity of yourself within a band. But then it gets to the point where you don’t want to think anymore and just want to play a gig.”

Lockdown hasn’t stopped everything, with the band contributing a demo to a compilation EP in support of the NHS, as well as covering Father John Misty’s Real Love Baby, all from three different cities.

“It’s quite hard when we haven’t really rehearsed. A lot of a song making is when we’re in rehearsals all together,” said Curt.

“I think one of the hardest things is to get a drum sound, I know I sound biased. A few weeks before lockdown on a Saturday we flashed out five songs, so having the drum tracks from then good to go was really helpful,” said Jake.

For small, unsigned bands like Gum Soul, these venues are the bedrock of everything they do.

“They’re in a danger zone at the moment, so bringing up that recognition is so important. More people are realising how important they are in both a social sense as well as a professional sense for younger bands,” said Curt.

“It’s the grassroots venues that need to be saved because we wouldn’t as a band be here if it weren’t for them. “I don’t want to live in a world where the only venues are o2 academies and you have to pay £6 for a Carlsberg that isn’t even that nice and the only people who are in the music industry are people who are privileged enough to do it as a full time job.

“Cutting out these grassroots venues cuts out accessibility to people, if they go we’re just going to be wound up with loads of horrible poshos playing music,” said Nic.

Photo by Phil Hiscocks

Guitarist Rory also stressed that it’s not just an issue for bands. “They come with all these independent promotion agencies and independent labels, and everything kind of stems from these grassroots venues.

“Without them it’s just going to be the proper high end promotion companies and they won’t make way for the smaller ones.

“It all stems together and comes under one roof, it’s like a big spider web in a way.”

Oliver Dowden, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport admitted that the package will not be able to protect every job in the arts, “sadly, I will have to be honest with you, of course we will see further redundancies."

This is why campaigns across social media such as #SaveOurVenues and #LetTheMusicPlay are so important, as they raise awareness for the 50% of the live music workforce facing unemployment and the 90% of grassroots venues that are under threat of closure.

Gum Soul encouraged music fans who can’t wait to get back to gigging to hold on to future event tickets, as this helps keep money in the pockets of artists and venues, as well as buying merch.

Curt emphasised it can be as simple as engagement on social media, he said: “if you’re not gigging the content you upload is going to be pretty tough to keep going, it sounds really cliche but even just liking a post makes a difference.”

All in all, without these venues, the music industry will essentially be left to the privileged and the extremely lucky. They allow bands to make a name for themselves and give independent companies the chance to be involved.

As Nic said, “I want to see terrible bands at a place that is a big dingy. That’s what I love. Even if they’re terrible it’s crazy that you can see them get better over a few years. If you take that out, you take out the whole independent spirit and the platform of anybody saying anything.”

The band remains hopeful however, Jake said: “I think because of the break and because of what’s happened, I think people will really really try to get more gigs going and have bigger events and more special occasions.”

The #LetTheMusicPlay campaign launched by UK Music called on the government to offer: 'A clear conditional timeline for reopening venues without social distancing', and 'an immediate comprehensive business and employment support package', which should include 'a Government-backed insurance scheme to allow shows to go ahead; an extension of the furlough scheme and help for the self-employed and sole traders to prevent mass redundancies; [and] rent breaks for venues to allow them to reopen.'