THE CULTURAL VALUE of LIVE MUSIC from the PUB to the STADIUM: GETTING BEYOND the NUMBERS by Dr Adam Behr, Dr Matt Brennan & Professor Martin Cloonan
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THE CULTURAL VALUE OF LIVE MUSIC FROM THE PUB TO THE STADIUM: GETTING BEYOND THE NUMBERS By Dr Adam Behr, Dr Matt Brennan & Professor Martin Cloonan Research by The University of Edinburgh and The University of Glasgow Part of the Arts & Humanities Research Council’s Cultural Value Project The Cultural Value of Live Music from the Pub to the Stadium Acknowledgements Key Findings The authors are grateful to the Arts • The weakest point of the live music ecology at present is and Humanities Research Council’s the small to medium independent venues. Cultural Value project team for providing the funding which made • Policymakers need to pay more heed to the economic this research possible. We would and cultural contribution of smaller venues. Local regimes also like to thank UK Music, the often focus their attention on major developments whose Musicians’ Union and PRS for Music for their assistance and co-operation key beneficiaries are larger businesses. in carrying out the work. • Greater harmonisation of regulatory regimes and their We extend thanks to all the members implementation across the UK will benefit independent of the advisory board for their ideas and assistance and, particularly, all of the and major operators alike. people who took time out from their busy • The need for a more ‘joined up’ approach across council schedules to be interviewed. The qualitative nature of this research means that we services is widely acknowledged but not always fully needed the perspectives of a multitude of implemented. different stakeholders in British live music and their willingness to speak to us was • Competition between cities drives investment in invaluable to this project. infrastructural projects, yet one of the side effects of such Finally we would like to thank the Reid regeneration can be a more difficult environment for School of Music and the Research & Knowledge Exchange team at the venues without the commercial or political wherewithal University of Edinburgh for their logistical to adapt quickly to ‘gentrification’. support whilst developing the proposal and undertaking the research. • It is these smaller spaces that provide both performance and social spaces for rising acts. They feed into an area’s Disclaimer ‘local character’ – its musical history – in a way that We should note that although makes them difficult to replace. This social aspect of UK Music, PRS for Music, the independent venues, along with the relationships that Musicians’ Union and various venues have contributed to this project derive from it, is the seed-bed from which a town or city’s in important ways, the opinions musical reputation grows. expressed and conclusions drawn are our own and not representative of any other bodies. Getting Beyond The Numbers Front cover and below | 1 Tinariwen at the Howard Assembly Room, Leeds. FOREWORD Both images © Tom Arber This project is part of a long-standing It was this type of dialogue that informed Nevertheless, as our title suggests, there programme of research that began our proposal to the AHRC when it is more to investment in live music than with work on the role of live music launched its Cultural Value project. In line raw capital injection – as important as with the overarching aim of the research to that is. Live music in the UK is a complex and promoters, conducted between investigate cultural value beyond pounds, web of stakeholders – private and public 2008 and 2011 by the Universities of pence and tickets sold, we wished to organisations, councils, policymakers, and Edinburgh and Glasgow and funded provide an account of the broader value of participants in musical activity across the by the Arts & Humanities Research live music, the range of ways in which it is full gamut of genres – with the common Council (AHRC). expressed and the variety of people who ground of a need for appropriate and produce it. viable spaces for shows to take place. This led to the formation of the Live Music Exchange (www.livemusicexchange.org), However, the wider picture is not as Practising musicians make their way from a web hub which produced a series of uniformly rosy as might be hoped. Whilst the smallest rooms to the largest open events geared towards promoting more the sector as a whole has proven robust, spaces, and this variety of venues is crucial substantive discussions and productive and policymakers have paid increasing not only to their own career development links between academia and the live music attention to its role as a driver of tourism, but to the cultural lives of audiences industry. the UK’s national identity and civic across the country. The relationships cohesion, many venues are still struggling. between these spaces, and their civic and Our research activities took place against The news media abound with stories of social milieu, go beyond the financial. a backdrop of increasing significance of long-standing venues closing or under Interdependence and mutual support exist live music, and a growing realisation of threat, and the climate of austerity has in ways that are often hidden, as are the the crucial contributions that it makes to eaten into the finances available to both obstacles and aids to live music provision. both the UK’s economy and its social fabric. producers and consumers of live music, as The Live Music Act 2012 was a landmark It is these hidden relationships and their well as the local and national institutions piece of legislation, freeing up spaces potential benefits that we hope to tease that support them. across the country for gigs and arising out as we use this report to open a out of a spirit of co-operation across the conversation around music and the spaces sector – from grassroots campaigners to in which it takes place that moves beyond the representatives of the upper echelons the numbers. of the industry. 2 | The Cultural Value of Live Music from the Pub to the Stadium Below Iron & Wine at the Howard Assembly Room, Leeds. Image © Fotofillia Getting Beyond The Numbers | 3 INTRODUCTION The general remit of this research and performing companies) and the councils and their different departments, derives from its parent project – the ‘enthusiasts’, for whom concert promotion policymakers at national level, small, large AHRC’s investigation into Cultural is more a labour of love than it is their and multinational businesses – the list is primary source of income. long. Value, across the heritage and the arts sectors nationwide. With the Of course, all sorts of people are drawn Yet whilst economic accounts are crucial arts at the forefront of government into the orbit of live music and the to making the case for the value of live cuts, the AHRC’s programme seeks boundaries between these categories are music, they do not provide the complete porous. Our key concern in the current picture. A qualitative approach in addition to broaden the way in which we talk project was to produce a more concrete to the figures allows for a more nuanced about the contribution of culture picture of this ‘ecology’. To illustrate understanding of the people behind to the life of the nation, beyond how the different stakeholders across them, along with those areas in need of economic criteria and beyond the live music sector work together, or support, absent from headline figures, and straightforward delineations between separately, to produce a value chain from the conversations that can take place to commercial activity and public the grassroots to the apex of commercial provide that support. activity we asked the following questions: subsidy. What follows is a series of illustrative • What do they have in common? examples drawn from extensive stakeholder Our own investigations have suggested • What are the relationships between interviews. We begin with a brief overview that live music can be thought of as an private sector and public sector parties to of the general situation in the UK and then ‘ecology’, whereby different venues – of all live music? move onto case studies featuring venues sizes – display interdependence, alongside • How do they interact to produce value across a range of sizes and operational different promotional practices. In the first for artists and audiences alike? phase of the research, we focused on one models in three locations across the UK – venue (the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh) and Reframing the discussion Camden, Glasgow and Leeds. Finally, we examined the range of musical activities use these vignettes to outline initial findings that took place within it. In particular, it is It has become increasingly apparent from this research trajectory and point home not just to a range of genres, but that reductionist notions of ‘commercial towards areas of interest in the relationship to a variety of promotional models: the activity’, ‘state subsidy’ and ‘investment’ between the private and public sectors in commercial operators, who put on concerts do little justice to the web of interactions live music. to make money; the state-subsidised between the myriad parties involved in sector (characterised by national orchestras live music production: artists, venues, local ‘ Live music’s important. It nurtures our talent and develops their trade… I think it’s an important part of a developed society, that we recognise our cultural achievements and can actually partake in them, and the more we can open that up to people, the better.’ Mike Weatherley MP MP for Hove & Portslade; Intellectual Property Advisor to the Prime Minister 4 | The Cultural Value of Live Music from the Pub to the Stadium THE NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE In one sense, the most obvious What is ‘investment’? Regional variations national stakeholders are those The need to support the grassroots, The key individual concerns regarding with a national reach – the UK then, applies beyond the needs of the legislation and its implementation vary Government, the large multi-venue grassroots.