Liverpool, Music City? - Report

When we think of the numerous and various flash points over the
years Bido Lito! has been active, it is hard to make the case
for Liverpool – in terms of the built environment, at least
– to be considered a city with music truly at its heart. From
noise abatement notices to planning decisions, and fracas around
busking to council rates fallouts, venues such as The Kazimier,
Static Gallery, 24 Kitchen Street, Constellations, MelloMello,
Wolstenholme Creative Space, Nation and a whole raft of others have
had their run-ins with the city. The particular issues at play
across each of these situations are diverse and specific, but what
is universal is the situation that results; a venue pitched against
the bureaucracy of the City Council.
This doesn’t work for anyone, least of all the venues concerned.
It also does little to help the council understand the subtly of
the issues at play and the potential impact on our city’s music
ecosystem. Because the reality is that there are few areas of
civic life that don’t have an impact on music in the city, a point
referenced in The Cultural Value of Live Music report – produced
by Dr Adam Behr, Dr Matt Brennan and Professor Martin Cloonan of
Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities – “licensing, noise abatement,
skills and training, policing, health and safety, highways… lots of
areas have a huge impact on live music that don’t necessarily refer
directly to it.”
We need a Liverpool City Music Office to act as an honest broker,
a positive mediator between the city and the music community. This
organisation will navigate the bureaucracy of the City Council
on behalf of the music community, but also work with the council
to help them understand the broad ranging impacts of policy
and decision making on the city’s music culture. The Liverpool
City Music Office will lobby the council positively, and work
in partnership with the council (but not for them) on behalf of
the music community to pre-empt flash points before they occur,
ultimately seeking to create a situation where Liverpool truly is a
city with music at its heart, considered and prioritised across all
aspects of civic life.
The characteristics of the challenges we face are specific in their
nature to our city, but on the whole not unique. According to the
Live Music Rescue Plan, commissioned by the Major of London, “35%
of London’s grassroots music venues have been lost since 2007”.
Bristol’s Live Music Census, completed in 2016, celebrated the
fact that “live music generates £123m of revenue towards the local
economy”, but pointed out that “50% of the city’s music venues were
affected by development, noise or planning issues.” Furthermore,
at the time of going to print, Live Music Exchange embarked on the
first UK Live Music Census, a move to quantify for the first time
the nationwide challenges the industry is facing, and inform policy
to help it flourish.