Calls for more joined up thinking to protect and promote live music venues

( Photos: Roger Green L-R Rupa Huq, Robert Salmons, Alistair Young and Roger Green of the Ealing Club)

Ealing Musicians have been lobbying parliament over the closure of many live in venues in the Capital.

The UK music industry contributes more than £4 billion to the economy annual with a hefty chunk coming from live rather than recorded music. Music venues also play a vital role in communities, contributing to the identity of places and ultimately bringing people together. Nevertheless, London has lost 35% of its vital grassroots music venues in the past ten years, often under pressure from new developments and the need to build much needed housing.

( L-R: "Robert Salmons John Spellar, MP Mark Davyd, Rupa Huq MP; Paul Broadhurst: Photos Roger Green Ealing Club CIC).

A packed meeting heard from Robert Salmons (otherwise known as blues musician Bob Hokum) Founder of Ealing Club Community Interest Company and Director of Ealing Blues Festival, John Speller MP, Mark Davyd CEO of Music Venue Trust, Paul Broadhurst Head of 24 hour London at GLA and Peter Murray Chair of the London Society and New London Architecture.

Discussion and questions probed issues around business rates and the impact which current planning and licensing rules were having on the viability of these venues. 

Robert Salmons, described how having a plaque erected at the Ealing club where the Rolling Stones met, kickstarted a heritage-led movement putting the area on the rock map. It was namedropped recently by Mick Jagger as to where his craft started and led to the Ealing Club Community Interest Company. Subsequent conversations between the GLA and CIC could well lead to a bid from Ealing to be a borough of heritage.

Mark Davyd told the audience how music venues were literally responsible for the continuation of the human species as their vital social function has historically led to procreation, Paul Broadhurst declared that in creating a night-time tsar on his team Sadiq Khan has the interests of a functioning night-time economy at the heart of his vision for London being open.

All sizes of venues came up from the repurposing of churches for 'raves in the nave' type events to the proposed Madison Square Garden huge stadium proposed for the capital with a capacity of 21,500.

Ealing Central and Acton MP Rupa Huq who chaired the meeting of the All Party Group for London’s Planning and Built Environment said, “As someone with a background in music journalism and the sociology of pop who’s now a London MP with a heavy housing caseload representing a borough with a diverse cultural offer I was pleased to bring these interests together.''

Former minister John Speller MP explained how there should not be a face-off between housing and venues.  This agent of change campaign to institute the principle into planning law was incorporated by ministers Sajid Javid and Matt Hancock so that when buildings are converted to residential use or a new development is put up, the onus is on the developer—not the venue—to ensure that the new dwellings are protected from factors, particularly noise, that could be held to affect their general amenity and enjoyment

Planners from the audience chipped in and in conclusion all present agreed that there should be called for more joined up thinking and a wider appreciation among developers, planners and local politicians of the importance of grassroots music and its potential economic, social and community benefits.

17th July 2019