Matty Healy, the 1975 star, supported a new event Seed Sounds Weekender that aims to support small music venues in the UK. He has spoken out against “a class war by omission.”
The 1975 frontman Matty Healy has thrown his support behind a small venue event as he warns of “cultural erasure”. The singer has backed a new festival which aims to support small music venues as they struggle to survive.
The Seed Sounds Weekender will take place on 26 to 28 September will see more than 2,000 gigs take place in more than 1,000 venues in an attempt to unite small venues. In response to the event, Glastonbury headliner Matty said: “The political neglect behind this crisis, steadily hollowing out arts funding and cultural infrastructure is a class war by omission.
Over the past ten years, councils across England have reduced arts budgets by 20% to 30%. This ecosystem collapses without government-led reforms like a stipulated stadium and arena ticket levy, a new stadium-and-arena ticket levy, a new business rate reform, and real investment in venue survival.
The UK music industry contributes £5.2 billion to the economy, supports 228, 000 jobs, and exports its soft power globally, he continued, adding that the 150-room above-barkroom rooms are where the entire pipeline of revenue originates.
Lose them, and you are losing the conditions that made everything possible, not just venues. That is cultural erasure, and it will not persist.
This festival isn’t just a celebration; it’s about uniting and supporting this network, making sure that Britain’s distinctive, musical heartbeat keeps beating, and that’s why movements like the Seed Sounds Weekender are so important.
In its annual report, The Music Venue Trust warned that 42.1% of its members reported “financial issues,” while 22.4% of venues shut down as a result of “operational issues” in 2023.
Last month, the music scene was rocked by the closure of the Leadmill in Sheffield, which was a well-known and loved venue in the city. It lost a long-running eviction battle with its landlord, the Electric Group.
Events taking place in 20 UK towns and cities will be mostly free at Seed Sounds Weekender’s gigs. Local venues are the foundation of our culture, according to Matty, not just where bands eat their teeth.
You get silence if you don’t get The Smiths, Idles, Little Simz, or Wet Leg without them. Over 1,200 of the UK’s grassroots music venues have been closed, and 38% of those venues have since been shut down, and this is frightening. 125 venues shut down alone in 2023, and two are closing each month right now.
These rooms “just barely manage to survive,” with nearly 44% operating at a loss and a profit margin of just 0.5% (under £3, 000 annually). Live music is essentially subventioned by the industry by £162 million annually.
That results in communities losing their only obtainable creative spaces, including those in working-class towns, inner cities, and regional centers. The only art that succeeds when that occurs is one that has been financially supported, safe, sanitized, and profitable. The privileged no longer have access to art.
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Source: Mirror
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