Brighton venue future secured with support from Fatboy Slim and more

A Brighton venue's future has just been secured as it becomes the 10th site owned by Music Venue Properties (MVP), a campaign which acquires the freeholds of music venues. Set to be community-owned, The Pipeline will be part of a £7m initiative backed by DJ Fatboy Slim, UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, and Squeeze frontman Glenn Tilbrook that's been dubbed the "National Trust of music venues".

Under the current pressures, music venues are facing closure by the day. MVP raises funds through investors and the offer of "community shares", which allows it to buy music venues and lease them to the businesses, who often rent the sites rather than owning them.

Image: bbc.co.uk

Fatboy Slim, who played in the 60-capacity venue in a sold-out gig in June as part of the Everywhere at Once festival, spoke about the investment, saying, "I love venues like this because they remind me of when I started out, that youthful excitement and feeling about having to perform. Rooms like this are where dreams come true or where memories are made, and enormous acts learn their craft." 

He also added, "Venues like this are the lifeblood of the music industry. In this current economic climate, it's quite hard for them to survive, so if MVP buys the venue, we can be the benevolent landlord that doesn't raise the rent, listens to them and gives them long-term security."

Thomas Evrenos, who has run The Pipeline in Brighton since 2017, said, "For the future of the venue this means a lot because having a landlord that understands what we are doing, and realises that our purpose is to create a place that is good for musicians, is super important. "I'm super happy. If it didn't turn out like this and someone had tried to increase the rent, then I would have probably given up."

With the unfortunate news that more than half of the UK's grassroots venues made no profit last year. It meant that thirty live music venues closed and 6,000 jobs, representing almost 20% of the workforce, were lost across the sector, according to the Music Venue Trust. However, it's not all bad news, as the number of people attending gigs at a grassroots level rose by 13%, with 21 million fans attending concerts by up-and-coming acts.

Find more information on grassroots venues and the work of MVT here.

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Header image credit: The Pipeline / Facebook.com