The owners of The Clapham Grand have announced they will continue with plans to hold more socially-distanced gigs, following the government approved trial last month, which saw Frank Turner playing The Clapham Grand, with the South London venue operating at less than 20% capacity.
Clapham Grand venue manager Ally Wolf told BBC News at the time, that the socially-distanced show that was trialled was not a financially viable model for other venues to follow going forward. Despite this, Wolf has said that Clapham Grand is aiming to continue hosting reduced capacity shows under the current restrictions, hopefully from September onwards.
In an interview with MusicWeek, Ally Wolf discussed the idea of bringing live music back saying; “No one is going to be able to tour on any level for at least six months, even after that I don’t know if it’s going to be back to where it was, so I feel like people need to get their heads around doing stuff that’s a bit different.”
“And if it means that you can bring people back to work, people can come out and enjoy shows, and acts can play, then surely that’s better than everyone being sat at home? I would be a fool not to try and actually make this work, otherwise I might as well just be burning 50 grand a month without having a venue.”
With the constant worry that venues will close down and staff being left without work, Ally stressed the importance of getting live music up back up and running. “There’s not a one-size-fits-all solution here, but I’ve certainly got the capability to deliver an incredibly safe experience for customers, who have been starved of something they’re dying to watch again, and give acts the platform to play live again in a really good venue that actually feels like a show,” he said.
Ally also confirmed that the venue has applied for funding from the Arts Council to refurbish their upper circle, which would enable the venue’s socially distanced capacity to be upped by 100 by creating more space for audiences.
The venue has also been hosting the Save Live Comedy charity events to a small socially-distanced audience, with comedians like Ed Gamble and Kerry Godliman. The event is to raise money for to help support struggling comedy clubs, performers and promoters amid the pandemic. It has raised £10,000 so far.
“The Clapham Grand is an incredibly versatile space,” Ally added. “I can sell 200 table tickets for a show and make it work for live music, comedy, drag, movies. Multiple event formats fit in the venue because of the nature of its design.”
On the future of small UK music venues following the COVID-19 pandemic, Ally said; “The people that are going to get ahead in this game now are either the people that are incredibly rich and can ride it out, or the people who are going to innovate and try and build back from the ground up. And that, I feel, is what the next step is for the Grand — and I’m sure it’s probably the next step for a lot of people.”
