Gimme shelter...

I was part way through writing another post on music television (which I'll publish soon) when my tiny brain was filled with lots of thoughts and ideas about gig venues and whether this can have an impact on your enjoyment of the music. As I started writing this piece I was also made to consider the actual venues themselves and what they can mean to the people visiting them or to the local community. I actually ended up changing my stance while writing which I guess is not such a bad thing really.

The main reason this subject has been in my mind is due to a gig I went to last week. I'm not going to name the venue or where it was, but let's just say it was possibly one of the worst places I've ever been to to watch music. It was a pub with a room at the back which they had decided could be used for music. Clearly it had previously been a back yard or similar as the walls were the exterior walls of the building which caused the whole room to be absolutely freezing cold. I nearly kept my gloves on for the whole night. True story.

Unfortunately at the time this kind of made the gig a bit of a downer for me and while I was moaning on about it to a mate it made me consider how much the venue can actually affect your enjoyment of the thing you have gone to see. Be it music, comedy or theatre, can the place the event is happening wreck your night or even sway whether you actually go in the first place? Well, apparently the answer can be yes.

I asked some nice folks what they thought about this and here's what my colleague Jo Cook had to say:

"I generally don't go to mass arena music gigs now. Too impersonal, not close enough, they are usually in London so it takes all day to get there and then the trains don't run in the evenings etc. Best gigs are usually small, intimate venues, same for comedy, learning  etc, lots of space, but small enough for individual conversation. There are bands/comedians etc I would like to see, but I don't bother because of the venue!".

This seemed to be a common theme when I was talking to people and I totally agree with it. They said they had deliberately missed going to see a band due to the venue that they were playing in. I've done it myself in the past to be honest. When I lived in London I was lucky as most of the bands I saw played at reasonably sized locations such as the Hammersmith Apollo or Shepherds Bush Empire. But I guess this was also due to the fact that the artists were somewhat well known so they needed to be in the larger, better venues due to capacity. But then, what about the smaller, upcoming artists?

This coming week is Independent Venue Week, a 7 day celebration of the small music venues around the UK. Places like The Fleece in Bristol and Surya in London will host both up and coming artists as well as some bigger names like Frank Turner. Frank is the ambassador for Independent Venue Week and has been publicising the current e-petition which has been set up to ensure that anyone who buys or rents a property within a set distance from a music venue should sign a waiver giving up the right to complain about the noise. The UK 'Toilet Circuit' as it's known is running the risk of these venues shutting down due to escalating rent and noise pollution orders along with redevelopment which could mean closure may well be around the corner. These venues have nurtured some big stars over the years and by considering closing them down we run the risk of preventing up and coming acts getting off the ground as these are the kind of places they will look to perform at. Take a look at an article from the Independent on this here.

Bigger venues can be a pain in the arse too though. I have been to a fair few arenas over the years and you either end up sitting miles away from the stage and having to watch it on a screen (if there is one) or you're in the nosebleed section, looking down at a dodgy angle and not really seeing much at all. I know I went to see David Gray at Earls Court years ago, but I have no recollection of actually 'seeing' him as I was so far away from the stage I could've been watching anyone. And of course, a bigger venue means bigger speakers which means blown eardrums. Not good. Sometimes though, you have no choice but to go to the arena due to who the artist is. Bigger bands mean that more tickets will be required for the fans and there is no choice but to schedule the gig at an arena.

Can you hear me at the back?

In Nottingham we have a variety of venues of different sizes which can suit most musical crowds. We have a rather large arena for the bigger acts, the famous Rock City which is of a big enough size to get lots of popular artists playing there and the smaller more intimate Rescue Rooms or Bodega. There are loads of others too which is great for those of us living here as it means there is generally always something going on somewhere. We have had closures here too though and most mornings on my way to work I pass Bar Seven (or Junktion 7 as it was also known) which was a great music venue, but has been shut for a number of years now. There was talk that it would be turned into student accommodation, but so far it still remains derelict.

Something else I have been following with interest is the Save Soho campaign which was set up following the closure of world famous Madam Jojo's. The aim of group is to protect and nurture the music and performing arts venues of Soho which are rapidly disappearing. The coalition (which is formed of performers, residents and politicians) understand that redevelopment has to take place, but they want there to be an assurance that the character of Soho is still kept. You can find out more information and sign the various petitions for Madam Jojo's, the Curzon Cinema or Save the Spirit of Soho on the Save Soho website which you can find here. You can also follow the campaign on Twitter and Facebook. Look for 'Save Soho'.

The fight for Soho seems to be another in a long list of closures and I was also sadden to read about renovation of Denmark Street or Tin Pan Alley as it's affectionately known and the closure of the 12 Bar Club and Enterprise Studios. Since the 90's Denmark Street has been a parade of guitar shops, but it had great personality and remained untouched with no chain stores or coffee shops. Once upon a time it was the centre of the UK music industry with major music publishing and management companies being based there as well as recording studios which were used by artists such as the Kinks and Elton John. Redevelopment is inevitable, but it's still disappointing to see so much history disappear. Despite a petition to save the 12 Bar Club, it was ignored and the development moves on. The club has relocated elsewhere, but the heart has now been taken away from this small corner of London. This is something that seems to be happening more and more nowadays.

When I started to write this post it was mainly to talk about crappy venues and how they can ruin a gig or night out, but as I've been researching and thinking about it I have discovered this. The venue is important to the show. Of course it is. It can make or break your experience and if you end up somewhere that has a bad PA system or sticky floors you will probably come away feeling like the night has been shite. But here's the thing though. Sometimes those crappy venues are the starting point for a new artist who can't get to play anywhere else and without them, where can they go? An unsigned band is not going to be able to play the O2 arena now are they. Nope, it's the back room of the pub with the freezing floor for them along with the hope that one day they'll be playing somewhere a bit better to a bigger audience.

The fight to save these venues is an important one as without them the music scene will falter. We need to preserve the history of these great places and allow a whole new audience to enjoy and appreciate the reasons why they are there. I want to be able to tell people that I saw 'blah' perform in front of a small crowd in a tiny venue before anyone else knew who he was. And I can't do that if there are no tiny venues for him to perform in now can I? It may well be a ballache to go to the dodgy pub, but just think. It could actually turn out to be one of the best experiences you'll ever have so surely it's worth it in the end. Right? Just remember to take your gloves with you...

Blah? Yes, I saw him before he was famous

Music shop lovers of the world unite...

Right then. Hands up if you got some sort of music bought for you for Christmas. Now then, what was it? Did you get a nice CD or maybe some gorgeous vinyl? Yeah, me too. But I'm sure some of you also got either an iTunes voucher or the promise of some sort of downloaded music too. Correct? Thought so.

No feeling the presents

Now, I've written about physical vs downloaded music debate before, but this reared it's head again with me just before Christmas when it became apparent that the lack of music retailers available now is a huge pain in the arse. A friend of mine at work wanted to buy a relative a CD as a gift and had to ask where in town she could actually find a shop selling CD's. And you know what, when we thought about it there weren't that many to choose from. It left me feeling very sad. To make matters worse I saw a tweet from someone a few days later saying that HMV was absolutely rammed when he was out shopping. And why was that? Cos people want to buy bloody physical music and films, that's why. Pah. 

I went Christmas shopping at one of the faceless, massive shopping malls we all love so much and my partner had a look at what shops were there online before we went. He informed me that HMV had closed down and that there were no music shops there any more at all. I was gutted. He was in fact wrong though (or the internet was) as HMV was still there. And of course it was packed and we struggled to get near anything. Which is interesting if people are supposedly not buying physical music anymore. Hmm...

People, people everywhere...

I went to a gig last week and afterwards I bought a rather beautiful limited edition purple vinyl from the lovely merch lady and also got it signed by the artist. Now buying at a gig is all part of being a fan. You may be lucky enough to get some really great stuff that you can't get anywhere else. Could I buy this vinyl in a shop? Not likely. I may get it online, but would it be the correct one? Doubtful. And I definitely wouldn't be able get a signed copy of it. That in fact takes a mixture of a certain little smile, along with a little charm and a lot of style to go with it (wink). Or just polite harassment. You choose. Which is why buying in person for me is always better than taking your chances online. Plus I can now look at my signed vinyl and smile. I can't do that with a download can I? Well, I could, but I think people would be slightly more concerned about me than they usually are...

My partner knows that if I enter a music shop I will disappear without a trace in approximately 10 seconds flat. He's given up trying to keep up with me and knows that at some point I will appear again by the front door to find him. It's a fact of life. I go into a music shop, I will be kept occupied for a considerable amount of time while I roam the aisles. I love checking what is on offer, seeing if there's an album I haven't got or looking at the staff recommendations to find something new.

When I was younger we had a couple of independent retailers in my home town. Me and my brother used to love going to them and wasting away time looking for bargains. There was also the institution that was 'Woolworths' when we were growing up. I think I bought most of my 7 inch singles from there to be honest. It was a sad day when these shops closed down and our town had nowhere to buy music from. We had friends who worked in these stores and lost their jobs when they shut. We had to go further a field to buy CD's. It was the beginning of the end and for music fanatics it was the grim reality that it would never be the same again.

Who misses Woolies then?

Another mate of mine who also happens to be a musician, fully embraced the digital age of music not that long ago. He got rid of all his beloved vinyl and CD's and now only uses Spotify to stream his music. When I asked him why he'd chosen to do this he told me that he is fully aware that physical music is going to disappear in the near future and he is preparing himself for it in advance. Brave man. This is not something I can even consider doing though as I love my CD's way too much for that. When I moved house a few years ago I had to go through my boxes of singles and ended up chucking some of the older, rather obscure ones that I had collected over the years. It was a painful experience and even now I have the awful feeling that I might have accidentally binned something I wanted to keep. My partner didn't understand. He basically owns about 10 bloody CD's himself so he has no idea.

My brother on the other hand, does understand these things. He came to the gig with the last week and we were having an in-depth debate about vinyl on the way there. There has been a so called 'vinyl revival' of late where folks seem to be going back to buying this format over mp3. I said this to my bro who looked at me with a raised eyebrow and said "Well I've never actually stopped buying vinyl Nic". To be fair he is a DJ so I guess I can let him off on this occasion. But I do think he is correct. The muso's among us will no doubt be of the same opinion. Vinyl never actually went anywhere in the first place. We then had a long and rather interesting conversation about white label records and how you had to be in the know to be able to find the rare ones. None of this ordering them over the internet, nope. You had to visit a record shop and hope they had a copy somewhere under the counter (and that the they liked you enough to sell it to you) as they weren't advertised. Those were the days.

Mysterious white label record

When HMV collapsed a few years ago it didn't look good for music retail. The availability of cheap CD's in supermarkets was blamed and of course the online market such as Amazon. Funny thing is the supermarkets I go in only ever have a very small selection of CD's and usually only the so called 'chart' and not much else. Not the kind of place you would go to if you wanted to buy a specific album. Amazon does fare better I guess. I have bought quite a few albums from here, but mainly because I can't pick them up in a shop myself. Some of the HMV shops were saved, but the fact that the flagship store in Oxford Street has gone is somewhat of a crime. I spent a lot of time pacing those 3 floors and it was one of the many places I liked to shop when I lived in London. They now have a smaller place not that far away, but it's just not the same.

I was over the moon when a local campaign to save Fopp here in Nottingham worked earlier this year. The store was under threat of closure as their lease was coming to an end, but some local people got together to protest and finally they found somewhere it could relocate to. It's a great shop and every time I walk past it there and tons of people inside having a good look around. Fopp are leading on the vinyl revival and are proud to state on their walls that vinyl is killing mp3. Very nice indeed.

The debate is ongoing and could be considered to be about preference (as are most things in life). We sadly now have a lack of places where we can embrace music, be part of the discussion and spend our time thumbing through the LP's on offer in the hope of finding that little something special. We should support our local independent music retailers as much as possible because without them this becomes a thing of the past and those among us who truly love the physical aspect of buying and owning music will be left with no option but to become online consumers. And as someone whose house basically looks like a small branch of HMV, I can definitely say that it's not as much fun...

Got it, got it, got it...