To share some rather good news throughout lockdown 3.0, the campaign to save the UK’s most iconic and beloved music venues has succeeded in saving 13 more from the critical ‘Red List’. The Music Venue Trust’s new #SaveThe30 ‘Traffic Light’ campaign pinpoints the 30 grassroots music venues that received next to nothing from the governments Culture Recovery Fund, due to ineligibility. The new campaign, which was launched in November 2020, is set to encourage gig-goers and music fanatics to donate to their venues Crowdfunders. Now, 13 venues have been saved due to the tireless work of these campaigners, getting closer to Music Venue Trust CEO, Mark Davvyd’s aim to “save them all and reopen every venue safely.”
In the recent news of 13 venues being removed from The Red List Davvyd stated, “The love shown for these venues continues to demonstrate how important they are to people and to our towns and cities. Music Venue Trust is committed to reopening every venue safely and we are going to carry on working through this crisis until that outcome is achieved.”
One of the 13 saved from the Music Venue’s Trust fundraiser was Grand Elektra in Hastings. The venue is the cities leading music venue and nightclub, hosting comedy nights, theatre and music videos as well. Paul Mandy, the owner of Grand Elektra stated, “Being part of the red list #saveourvenues has been great support for the venue and hospitality sector. It’s brought great publicity to our cause and with the support of the MVT which has been amazing throughout the whole of the pandemic crisis and helped us weather this storm so far.”
The full list of the 13 venues removed from the Red List are:
Arden Inn, Accrington
Backstage Kinross
Boulevard, Wigan
Four Horsemen, Bournemouth
Gellions, Inverness
Hootenanny, Inverness
Plot 22, Sheffield
Rossi Bar, Brighton
Strange Brew, Bristol
The Brunswick, Hove
The Grand Elektra/ The Crypt, Hastings
The Railway Inn, Winchester
Waterloo Bar, Blackpool
However, there are still venues being added to the ‘Red List’ that are in desperate need of support. These include BOOM in Leeds, The Lexington in London, The Windmill in Brixton and many more. The target for the campaign to succeed is £1,750,000 with a current £791,502 raised from 12,418 supporters.
BOOM Leeds, a renowned punk music venue, has hosted famous artists such as slowthai, Gallows and Code Orange. Yet, the beloved venue is still in dire need of donations due to the pandemics restrictions on live music. Frank Turner, lead vocalist of Million Dead and now solo singer-songwriter, performed a live-stream set in which the proceeds went to BOOM Leeds. In a social media post, the singer stated how his ‘first hard-core gig’ was at BOOM, leading to Turner and his fans raised £7000 for the venue.
To support your favourite music venue and stop iconic live music settings closing, donate here.
