The Death of Spontaneity: How the Loss of Grassroots Live Music Venues is the decline of Our Culture

 

After reading two articles in the Guardian just published one by John Harris and the other by Giles Patterson I find myself wholeheartedly agreeing with them. As I observe the UK, we are heading towards a world where any live shows we find are the ones which are efficiently organised and booked with the most sterilised of musics. I mean the type of top tier performances where they are asking big cash in advanced for a live event, and that leave nothing to chance. 

The grassroots are being erased from existence in clubland, and we are forced indoors behind our screens where Tik-Tok and Instagram help us to find any given new music champion. Small venues, pubs, bars, and nightclubs are closing doors and being eliminated systematically. This is a slow degrading of our culture and society as those dives, backroom clubs, and dingy places, were always the places where random music experiences happened - but this not just the loss of a venue. We are on the merry go wrong where the serendipitous probability of dropping into a gig, and being inspired or not by music is becoming almost impossible. So what remains are legendary stories from one of the many UK music culture histories of the past be it Rave, Techno, Acid House, Dub, Drum and Bass, Punk and the list goes on. At present these smaller venues seem to be smothered by an invisible force, it's like shoving a funnel of polished slop soup into us, we are being force fed on cleansed, corporate, big industry musics which are increasingly more and more all the same. 

The Importance of Grassroots Venues

Grassroots venues are the lifeblood of our cultural scene. They're the places where unknown bands can cut their teeth, where new friendships are forged over a shared love of music, and where the unexpected can happen. But as John Harris points out in his Guardian article, these venues are disappearing at an alarming rate. 

The Music Venue Trust (MVT) reported that in 2023 alone, 125 grassroots venues either went out of business or stopped hosting gigs. The reasons? Soaring rents, energy costs, and the lingering effects of the Covid crisis. It's a trend that's been going on for years, with Harris first writing about it back in 2013.

The Philosophical Implications

But it's not just about the music industry. The loss of these venues has deeper philosophical implications for our society as a whole. As Harris puts it, "Fundamentally, though, this story is about everyday life, and what non-famous people do with the hours we set aside for pleasure." 

The rise of pre-booked, precisely allocated leisure time is a symptom of a larger cultural shift. We're becoming more controlled, more managed, and less open to chance encounters and unexpected experiences. As the philosopher Byung-Chul Han argues in his book "The Burnout Society", we're living in a world where everything is optimised for performance and productivity, leaving little room for the kind of spontaneity and serendipity that makes life worth living.

The Way Forward

So what can we do about it? Harris suggests a levy on tickets for shows in stadiums and arenas, with the proceeds going to support independent venues. It's a good start, but it's not enough. We need to fundamentally rethink our relationship to leisure time and the role of grassroots culture in our society. We need to value the messy, unpredictable, and sometimes uncomfortable experiences that come with stepping outside our comfort zones and engaging with the world on its own terms, and grasping opportunity when it comes. We need to work on finding how we can reconnect to the places that hose opportunity of this kind. 

As the sociologist Richard Sennett argues in his book "The Uses of Disorder", we need to embrace the "disorder" of urban life, the chance encounters and unexpected connections that make cities vibrant and alive. The loss of grassroots venues is a symptom of a larger problem: the increasing sanitation and control of public space. It is rotten, and the stench is rising, we can smell it all over the UK. 

It's time to fight back against this trend and reclaim the spontaneity and serendipity that makes life worth living. These venues are places for community's, where ideas and moments can have a lasting impact on us and inspire us for days to come. 

Let's support our local grassroots venues, seek out new experiences, and embrace the chaos and unpredictability of the world around us. Our cultural and social well-being depends on it. 

Do not let your local clubs and live venues go. Whilst the chaos of randomness is brushed I have faith, that we will find away to allow the allure of that chance with music, submersion and random exposure arrive once again with our local community spaces, and it is our time to make this happen.