Time is being called on bars, basements and back rooms which are part of rock and pop history.
There are uncertain futures for venues where some of today’s biggest names played their first gigs. They include the pub where a shy then-18 Kate Bush faced drunken football fans and the spot where a young Reginald Dwight, aka Sir Elton John, belted out Ray Charles hits.
Last year, 125 boozers stopped doing live music – half of them closing altogether, citing soaring costs. Yet there is still a huge appetite for live music with an estimated 5.6 million people watching a band in a smaller venue in 2023. And there was some good news last week as The Crown, the Birmingham pub where Ozzy Osbourne’s Black Sabbath had their first gig, won a last-gasp reprieve from redevelopment.
More than 15,000 people signed a petition calling for the 150-year-old pub, dubbed the “birthplace of heavy metal”, to be designated a “site of civic pride, cultural value and historic asset”. It now has Grade II listed status, to the relief of music fans. Sabbath, then called Earth, played in an upstairs room on July 13, 1968, and went on to become international superstars, selling 70 million records.
Heyday
Jez Collins, of Birmingham Music Archive, hopes the pub, which has been vacant for 14 years, will host bands again. He said: “People come from all over the world, stand outside and can’t believe they can’t get inside. It’s boarded up but the stage where Ozzy played is still there. Their posters are still on the walls, there is graffiti from the heyday of punk. Many bands like Sabbath, who were breaking new ground, couldn’t get gigs in most city centre pubs, they had to play in small back rooms. These places have huge cultural significance.”
Meanwhile, other iconic venues have risen from the ashes. The Cavern Club, where the Beatles first performed on February 9, 1961, was torn down in the 70s after a compulsory purchase order by British Rail but rebuilt in the 80s using the same design and original bricks. Live music still thrives there.
Sadly, the Marquee Club in London, where the Rolling Stones first performed in 1962, was demolished in the 80s. Yet many historic boozers continue to serve up beer and bands, including The Dublin Castle in Camden, North London, where Madness debuted on January 16, 1979.
The two-tone group had to pretend they were a jazz band to get a booking. But landlord Alo Conlon was so impressed he gave them a weekly residency. Lead singer Suggs said: “It meant everything. We could barely play our instruments. But more people came week after week. Then, people started to dress a bit like us. Suddenly, there was a queue around the block – and record companies started to notice.”
Madness filmed the video for their 1979 hit My Girl there. And regular Castle performer Amy Winehouse even helped out by pulling pints. It also launched the careers of bands such as Blur and The Libertines. In Sheffield, Ann Flynn, landlady of The Grapes, gave the Arctic Monkeys their first gig, paying them £27 on June 13, 2003. Lead singer Alex Turner later claimed he only did it because of a girl he liked, who had agreed to come along. He said: “I’d never been on a stage in my life before that. I don’t think I opened my eyes for the whole set. But that 25 minutes – wow.”
Ann still runs the place and has turned the upstairs room where they performed into her sitting room. She said: “If I’d known what was going to happen, I’d have made it into something like The Cavern.” Other historic music pubs to have cheated closure include the Half Moon in Putney, South London.
The Stones, The Who and Elvis Costello played there. And on June 2, 1977, it was the stage for an 18-year-old Kate Bush. Family friend Brian Bath recalls Scottish football fans down for the next day’s game against England were in the crowd. He said: “It was a riot. They got on stage and threw a whisky bottle for each other to catch. It was mental but we got through it. It wasn’t really her thing.”
A year later, Kate’s debut single, Wuthering Heights, made her the first female artist to get a number one with a self-written song. In 2016, the venue looked set to be sold after a three-year closure due to flooding. But 6,000 fans signed a petition and artists who had played there campaigned to save it.
In 2007, Kelly Jones, lead singer of the Stereophonics, signed a petition which helped save The Shepherd’s Arms in Cwmaman, Rhondda, from demolition. He said: “The Shep’s gave us our start in music. I’ve gone there since I was old enough to drink and we used to do acoustic shows upstairs just before we got our record deal. Whenever I see it, I immediately think, ‘Ah, I’m home’.”
The Cart & Horses in Stratford, East London, launched Iron Maiden in 1976. And the band came to its rescue by contributing songs to an album in aid of the boozer when, post-pandemic, its live music looked doomed. Iron Maiden founder Steve Harris said: “The history of that place, for us, goes without saying. It’s also just down the road from my nan’s house and West Ham’s ground. It’s an important place for me.”
At the Hare & Hounds in King’s Heath, Birmingham, there is a plaque to mark UB40’s first gig, a pal’s birthday party, on February 9, 1979. Guitarist Robin Campbell said: “I was paralysed with fear and thinking we’d never get through it. Then I was massively relieved that they loved us.” Mark Davyd, of the Music Venue Trust, said: “Every artist needs somewhere where they can start and someone who will believe in them.”
Radiohead performed their first gig at the Jericho Tavern in Oxford in 1987, as a group of 16-year-old schoolboys then called On A Friday. And Elton John’s first gig was in his North London local, The Northwood Hills Hotel. He played Thursday to Sunday for £25 a night, watched by his mother, Sheila. It is now an Indian restaurant, Namaste Lounge.
Jez added: “They are the small, gritty places where artists learn their trade, make mistakes and hone their craft. If you don’t hold on to them, some of the next Black Sabbaths, Ed Sheerans or Stormzys of this world may never be discovered.”