The importance of independent venues to the music scene cannot be emphasised enough. For any band hoping to make it, these are the stages where they learn their craft & where new musical movements begin. Every town and city across the UK have “that” venue. The dingy cellar where they’ve seen a mates band play to 10 people, or the 200 cap room upstairs where the ‘next big thing’ is on their first UK tour. We all love these places; we know they’re not the best, but they’re ours.
They keep closing…and it fucking sucks.
Music fans in our hometown, Birmingham, are fighting to save “The Flapper” – one of the cities best and ‘proper’ rock bars. The usual circumstances are behind it; the land is more valuable for development rather than for a place for rockers to knock back a Trooper and shoot pool. Members of our team have played gigs there, our friends have played gigs there and on occasion, even a couple of our heroes have played there too. It’s the after work pint where the “town dickheads” don’t go, the pre-gig round opposite the arena. For these reasons & many, many more – we are asking everyone to sign this petition to help save one of Birmingham’s best.
Sign the petition here: https://www.change.org/p/birmingham-city-save-the-flapper-birmingham
Leeds have seen the infamous Cockpit venue close (thankfully the team have since established the excellent Key Club across town), Manchester has seen several notable clubs g0 – most recently Sound Control. Bristol was fighting to keep The Fleece; after looking set to close it’s still there…and hopefully there it will stay. Camden’s Purple Turtle closed its doors 2 years ago, earmarked for repurposing, to only re-open recently as The Crowndale and have to start all over again.
Independent venues are the lifeblood of the local music scene, help us save one of ours.
