Lewisham’s first ever community owned music venue has announced the launch of an accompanying radio station. Sister Midnight- the name of the collective behind the venue and its name-will introduce Sister Midnight FM and will cover all things music in South East London.
Yesterday we launched our new community radio station – Sister Midnight FM!
We’ve been working on this behind the scenes for a while, and we can’t wait to see how it shapes up with the input of our community!
Tune in at https://t.co/IL5517DMYb pic.twitter.com/65M0UC8nzP
— Sister Midnight (@sistermidnightt) August 4, 2023
The radio station officially launched last week and is an effort to build up the music community in the area. The announcement comes after further attempts to put music venues back into the hands of fans and away from private landlords that often are accused of raising prices thereby locking ordinary members of the community out.
Sister Midnight music venue has been the culmination of two years of campaigning for a community owned music base that finally found a home in Catford Town Centre. Owned by Lewisham Council, the building in question represented a serious investment for refurbishment to bring the premises up to standard for its intended use.
Sister Midnight was able to secure a ten year lease that will see the company not having to pay any rent to the council as long as they can front the money to renovate the abandoned building. Once completed, the collective have space for a 300 capacity live room, a private yard and studio space on the upper floors.
The collective boasts that the sky is the limit for the venue and have plans to feature high quality local talent. The project has gained support from notable personalities throughout the UK, including Goat Girl, Porridge Radio and Jools Holland who has even agreed to become a shareholder of the venue. As of August 2023, the building’s construction is set to get underway but Sister Midnight have gone ahead with their radio station which has thus far featured music segments from DJ Gilla, Laani and Shovel Dance Collective. The station will also host local community shows.
Listen back to my JAZZ RE:FEST 2023 Special on brand new @sistermidnightt community radio ‘LAANI on SMFM’ by Sister Midnight FM is on #SoundCloud https://t.co/c6hTC8cNSe — LAANI (@alanna_henry) August 7, 2023
Sister Midnight’s Lenny Watson, while discussing the station and its input into the local scene said, “Sister Midnight FM opens up a whole new world of possibilities for engaging and growing the Sister Midnight community-both in the present while we’re still working on opening our new music venue, and in the future once we’re up and running. We’re so excited to see how the station grows and to have a way for local people to get creatively involved with our work!”
“We’re so excited to see how the station grows and to have a way for local people to get creatively involved with our work…” – @sistermidnightthttps://t.co/CLMQyMo1bW
— DMY (@dmymag) August 3, 2023
Grassroots music gig spaces have been under threat and calls for government action have been urgently voiced in recent years. Many commentators fear that local musicians and artists will lack the means to form a viable career and the UK will lose out on numerous talent acquisition in future. The collective in Lewisham represent one, of what many will hope will be many, local organisations that will invest in music scenes for the community.
