Should the clubs close?

Consider these two people, writing about the Grassroots Music scene.

Left: Bob Lefsetz has just written a piece in his Leftsetz Letter “Let The Clubs Close” in which he says “The bottom line is today’s generation doesn’t want to go to clubs to listen to the music of unsigned/developing acts“. He goes on to say “People are hungry for music, the new and the different. But today it rarely starts in clubs. For all the denigration of the internet, that’s where it starts, and then it goes to live, that’s the formula“. He uses the example of Sam Smith: “He had a hit record and immediately played arenas… if you’re known, the demand is there“. Lefsetz is obviously a “disrupter”. One of these people that likes to thrown unpopular statements out onto the internet for clickbait and to raise hackles.

Right: Mark Davyd, who’s hackles have been raised, has responded with “Let the Bob Lefsetz Column Close Down“. He paraphrases Leftsetz view that “Playing a stadium is all the live music there needs to be, because the only thing about live music is the money that’s made from it“. Davyd’s view, as CEO of the Music Venue Trust, is that the pipeline of new talent needs to be nurtured or else the arena’s will have no talent to showcase in the future. Davyd is seeking an arena levy to help fund Grassroots Music Venues (GMVs).

So is this just the usual right vs left, capitalist vs socialist argument?  Well, although I’m firmly of the belief that GMVs are worthy of frequenting (in my case weekly, or sometimes daily), I can’t help thinking there is a big problem with the scene.

I love Grassroots Music and so do my “tribe”. But my tribe’s demographic is largely older people. Most of us go to gigs because that’s what we have done since we were younger. In my case, since the 18th September 1976 (not that I remember it or anything). My tribe is at the barrier waiting for the support band. My tribe is in the mosh. My tribe are sitting on the shoulders of others singing along loudly (yes, I’m talking about you Jules, last night at the Mutations festival). Younger people do attend these gigs but they are in the minority. Why?

Part of the “problem” as Lefsetz suggests is it’s “Five guys, and it was almost always guys, gritty from the city, working it out on stage, playing rock music“.  Although in Brighton it’s never just five guys thankfully, and it’s never just rock. Does this put younger audiences off? Well maybe it does. The atmosphere at gigs I go to is as much about alcohol as music. I’ve cut back on the amount I drink for multiple reasons, but I am aware that my single pint of beer doesn’t keep the venue going, and the ticket price bares pays for the sound man, and certainly not the band or the promoter.

I’m finding younger generations do not drink alcohol. So does this put them off attending a GMV? I think it probably does. Plus I also find that indie rock isn’t always the music of choice of the younger listener. Are there urban, rap, hip-hop, grime… nights taking place? What’s the audience demographic? I honestly don’t know, because I won’t be there to see it for myself. I don’t listen to that music. Maybe I should? This Thursday’s Mutations Festival schedule is predominantly those genres of music. I have decided not to attend, not least because, at 63, 5 days at a festival is hard work. But maybe I should attend? Maybe I need to find out?

So this is the crux of the problem. How do we know whether GMVs are going to die out when my generation shuffles off in the direction of a care home? We don’t.  How can we protect what we love when the people wondering what to do: Leftsetz or Davyd or me, are old white people? We can’t.