The George and Dragon Hotel, nicknamed Band on the Wall (BotW) in the 1950’s for reasons apparent in Figure 1, declined throughout the 1960s as its core role as a market traders pub was inextricably linked to the declining fortunes of the adjacent Smithfield Market.

Fig 1 - The Band on the Wall – an iconic image of the George and Dragon, 1945. The band is perched on a platform in an alcove – hence the nickname. (Source: Inner City Music Archive 2019)

Fortunately, a long-standing tradition of providing live music provided a financial lifeline. The pub kept afloat whilst others nearby closed, and by the 1980s BotW was the base for Inner City Music Ltd (ICM) and home to the North West Jazz Society. A core of dedicated staff members served a community of loyal yet disparate, culturally distinct audiences (Croal, pers. comm) and ICM kept the venue trading as part of the UK toilet circuit (Miller and Schofield 2016) until funding was secured to renovate the property to a higher standard.

The renovation of the building complex, completed in 2010, was clearly framed within the context of its cultural capital and influential presence on the nascent Manchester music scene: the building as a heritage asset, the organisation within as a heritage organisation. Following the relaunch in 2010, ICM used the building as a base for outreach, widening participation and promoting music regionally and nationally.

The billboard for BotW, Figure 2, promoted the venue following redevelopment. The slogan is intriguing; implicit in the question “Have you been back yet?” is an assumption that the reader did go to the venue previously. For those that did, this emotive advertising affirms their choice, speaking to a shared sense of place and belonging. For those who did not, the implication is clear. Here is an institution – a place with relevance, redolent with meaning and a place that matters.

Figure 2 : Advertising the recently renovated Band on the Wall, Manchester 2015. (Source: author).

The tagline is loaded with heritage and cultural capital, claiming the title “Manchester's original music venue”.

Music venues are emotive places, and the myriad reasons behind the potent blend of place, music, identity, heritage and nostalgia that pervades venues add an intangible but very real sense of belonging for those who 'were there'.

It is said that “The best club in the world is the one that changed your life” (Haslam 2015: 229), a sentiment that conjures up a totemic remembrance of place that the BotW slogan speaks to, as well as being a more commercial reminder the venue has re-opened.

It is too simplistic to attribute the cultural significance of BotW, and the feelings toward the heritage generated within it, to the fabric of the building. There are numerous Victorian buildings and busy music venues that do not have the same legacy or loyalty amongst performers and audiences. The wider setting is therefore key to understanding the enduring cultural impact. Manchester’s Northern Quarter has seen five hundred years of continuous occupation as part of the city centre, but has also remained on the outside of the mainstream in so many respects – at the time of writing, there are still no chain-store shops or multinational fast-food restaurants in the Northern Quarter.

Covid19 is an existential threat to many music venues, including Band on the Wall.

The corona pandemic has decimated the live music scene in the UK and almost all music venues in the UK are facing an existential threat to their immediate future having abruptly closed their doors in March 2020.

Fig 3, Music Venue Trust Campaign Website, August 2020 (Source: Music Venue Trust, 2020)

All but essential staff were furloughed. By August the inevitable redundancies were announced (Music Venue Trust, 2020) despite several high-profile fundraising initiatives aimed at protecting the sector, with perhaps the most plaintive example being the #saveourvenues campaign, Fig 3.

“Seeing established artists live in an intimate setting that holds real significance for them is at the heart of the… campaign, which aims to capture the true essence of the live music experience and the unique bond between artist and audience.” (Music Venue Trust, 2020)

Covid19 has brought a new perspective to music venues, now seen through the lens of an industry under pressure. As solutions are sought and a viable future for live music is explored, attempts are being made to quantify the cultural capital of music venues as the sector tries to establish metrics that can be used to verify claims for state and charitable support.

Music venues “play a vital role in the ecology of Britain’s music scene and broader cultural sector” (Miller and Scofield 2016: 25) and the threat to diversity if venues close due to the covid lockdown is summed up by the manager of Southampton’s The Joiners, interviewed by the Guardian “after November, I just don’t know if we’ll still be here, but if we lose the grassroots venues all we’re going to get is manufactured crap”

The survival of an entire sector is currently unclear. Like many industries, behind the scenes is a complicated supply chain and a support network of suppliers, freelancers and casual staff who inevitably fall outside the scope of campaigns like #saveourvenues.

Whilst music venues are evocative sites of heritage, culture and community, without the artists, crew, staff and an audience... in many respects they are just empty buildings.

Bibliography

Haslam, D. 2015. Life After Dark: A History of British Nightclubs and Music Venues. London: Simon & Schuster.

Inner City Music Archive (2019). A collection of largely unpublished correspondence, photographs, paperwork and publicity materials

Miller, D and Schofield, J (2016) The “Toilet Circuit”: Cultural Production, Fandom and Heritage in England's Small Music Venues, Heritage & Society, 9:2, pp 137-167, DOI: 10.1080/2159032X.2017.1330936

Morley, P. 2011. The Sex Pistols play the Lesser Free Trade Hall: all of indie Manchester sees the future of music. Guardian newspaper article, 14/06/2011. Available at

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/jun/14/sex-pistols-lesser-free-hall. Accessed: 5/10/18

Music Venue Trust website http://musicvenuetrust.com/2020/08/first-artists-announced-for-passport-back-to-our-roots/ Accessed 20/08/2020

Simpson, D (2020) “I find myself spiralling” Guardian newspaper article, 13/07/2020. Available at https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jul/31/i-find-myself-spiralling-the-crisis-facing-british-music-venues Accessed 20/08/2020

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