Venues in Peril

Two grassroots venues are closing every week.

This. Is. A. Disgrace. As a disgraced former UK PM might say.

These sacred spaces where we discover music, form bonds and see the stars of the future are the music industry’s umbilical cord. They’re where many independent acts make a living in a time of teeny streaming royalties and where people like me get started - my so called career began promoting gigs in a Dorset seaside town.

To kick off a new series of the Drowned in Sound podcast about the future of music journalism, I spoke to The Big Issue’s culture editor Laura Kelly about wearing your values on your pages and the power of stories.

We discussed venues in peril, empathy, truth, going to food banks with Sam Fender, having a hoot with Courtney Love, reading Smash Hits for coverage of the Manics, and so much more.

As a Vogue feature might begin ‘Laura spoke to me from her home in Glasgow wearing a Cure hoodie, surrounded by gig posters and Manga-inspired art.’ It was a really inspiring conversation spanning everything from activism to the myths of meritocracy, as well as how media can begin to change, if not the world, then the stories we tell ourselves.

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