“A Summer To Save Music seeks to bring about positive change, showcasing the phenomenal power of grassroots music venues as organising hubs in our communities.”
By Samuel Sweek, Peace and Justice Project
Government inaction has left many of the UK’s grassroots music venues gasping for air.
Many are considering staff redundancies to cut costs and others are on the brink of total collapse, unable to meet the soaring energy costs and despicable landlord charges enabled years of destructive neglect from successive administrations.
The time for action has been and gone for far too many of Britain’s independent music venues, with the devastating closures of iconic locations now a depressingly regular feature in music magazines and local news publications. In its 2024 annual report, the Music Venue Trust estimated that the UK had lost around 15% of its grassroots music venues in the space of 12 months.
In April 2023, the Peace & Justice Project launched its Music For The Many campaign to draw attention to the plight of grassroots music venues and to call for urgent government action in the form of a small ticket levy on large arena and stadium shows to stop the tsunami of closures ripping our communities apart.
Unfortunately, these calls, as well as those of countless others inside the music industry, have fallen on deaf ears – and the government continues to sit on its hands whilst more invaluable independently-run spaces, and the tens of thousands of people they employ, fall into deeper insecurity.
In May 2024, Music For The Many’s calls for a modest ticket levy on the financial superpowers dominating the music industry were vindicated by the parliamentary committee for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport as the most realistic way to secure the long-term future of grassroots music venues. It is a tragedy that the future of many independent venues remains up in the air because of government inaction or lack of political will.
That is why we have launched A Summer To Save Music, to force the government’s hand into action and push for a small ticket levy on the super rich corporate sponsors of concert arenas and stadiums to be implemented to secure the long-term sustainable futures of Britain’s grassroots music venues.
A Summer To Save Music is an exciting series of shows featuring six different line-ups, including ARXX, Shelf Lives, The Menstrual Cramps and the MOBO Award-nominated Kid Bookie, performing at venues in London, Bristol, Birkenhead, Brighton, Norwich and Manchester to demonstrate the incredible contribution of grassroots music venues to our communities.
Music For The Many has a demonstrable history of uniting people to its cause, from the DCMS report recommendations on grassroots music venues and the Art Against The Arms Trade campaign that successfully lobbied UK music festivals to cut their ties with Barclays bank due to its connections to the global arms trade, to the ‘Music For A Ceasefire’ open letter from over 2500 artists, which included some of the biggest names in world music such as Sam Fender, Becky Hill, Bastille, KNEECAP and The Last Dinner Party, and called for an end to the horrors unfolding in Gaza.
It is in this spirit that A Summer To Save Music seeks to bring about positive change, showcasing the phenomenal power of grassroots music venues as organising hubs in our communities. Since its launch, the Music For The Many campaign has proudly given platforms to a broad range of artists and welcomed thousands of people to its space, highlighting the very best of our kind and compassionate society.
We’ve got a summer to save music. The government must act now.
Full ‘A Summer To Save Music’ dates and artists below:
- 4 June Piehouse Co-op, London (with Shelf Lives, Gender Crisis + Fetch) TICKETS
- 9 June The Louisiana, Bristol (with Yakkie + Generation Feral) TICKETS
- 12 June Future Yard, Birkenhead (with ARXX) TICKETS
- 19 June Prince Albert, Brighton (with Hongza) TICKETS
- 24 June Voodoo Daddy’s, Norwich (with Kid Bookie + DeadWax) TICKETS
- 30 June Night & Day Cafe, Manchester (with The Menstrual Cramps + We Are The Weirdos) TICKETS
- Samuel Sweek is the Media Co-Ordinator for the Peace & Justice Project and lead campaigner for Music for the Many. You can follow Samuel on Twitter/X here; and the PPJ on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter/X.
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