Stevie G: Our live music venues in Cork need support

There has been a lot of dialogue about the loss of nightclubs in Ireland in recent years and it’s a topic I’ve written about a few times. The situation has reached a crisis point with very limited options available, but I’m worried that things might get worse, and it might be more than late night clubs under threat. Until things change, many of our live venues will also continue to be under threat, and even the ones which are staples of our music scene might not survive. As turbulent as things have been, we’ve still had Coughlans, The Crane Lane, Cyprus Avenue, Levis, Connollys, Freds, Debarras and many other venues putting on events nearly 365 days a year for many years. Imagine if they were gone too? It doesn’t bear thinking about, really.

We live in a country that celebrates our live music scene and lots of our marketing as a country is based around ‘craic and ceoil. But do we really value this music and where it comes from? Venues are hanging on by a thread with little support, and bands and artists are struggling to get by too. High rents and the cost of living make it tough for everybody, and this applies to bar owners, staff, musicians, sound engineers and every one of us who goes to a gig. But ultimately, is our music culture really valued and supported by the powers that be? I’m not so sure. The government provided support during the pandemic at a time when the whole country realised that music was more valuable than we imagined, but I don’t believe our industry is respected enough to ever receive the support it deserves alongside other arts practices.

I’ve felt that the government support has been too narrow for quite some time, and that anything ever tied to music will always be dismissed because of the close ties to alcohol. Even as attitudes to alcohol have changed and at a time when many people attending gigs in licensed venues don’t even drink, there seems to exist a belief that these venues are rolling in dosh because they still drink. Sure, they sell drinks, but the reality is that they are pretty much self funded independent venues who pay for everything through bar and ticket sales. Both of these revenue streams have fallen majorly over the years, while expenses such as insurance, wages and other costs have continued to rise, so it’s a miracle that we still have so many venues.

Will they survive the next 10 years? I’m not so sure. Will there be an outcry when they close? Yes. Will things change? Again, I’m not so sure. I remember experiencing some of this myself when I co ran the Pavilion venue, and when we closed in 2014 there was lots of talk about our cultural importance and contribution to Cork. But do we really value our music venues culturally? Ultimately, they will never receive the same (deserved) support that arts venues and theatres get, but when you examine the line-ups and output from these venues year in year out, can you say that they don’t contribute positively to our arts and culture here?

We live in a golden era for Cork music and the bands that are emerging right now could be poised for huge things. The Cliffords are breaking through in a big way, while I Dreamed I Dream, Cardinals, Pebbledash, Projective, Altered Hours and many more are celebrated both here and elsewhere. Many would have played the small to medium sized venues mentioned above, and these venues are part of a pathway from tiny ones to the Live at the Marquees of the world, which this week hosted Cork’s Cian Ducrot. Without the smaller venues, (and I’ve only mentioned a few), there will be no way an upcoming band can develop both a show and a following, and the music scene which we sometimes lament, will sink further into the abyss. We’ve got local record shops and smaller community spaces and bars still offering support and many of them are struggling too, and sadly won’t make it.

Some of our most prominent politicians will be taking selfies at Oasis and the Electric Picnic during their time off in the next few months, but will they be fighting for our live music venues or will they just leave them for dead like they did with nightclubs? I’m sure there will be pilot schemes and many other much publicised initiatives, but unless real action happens soon, even those venues we take for granted will be gone.