The gigs that never were

Absentmindedly rummaging in a bedside drawer for something to use as a bookmark, I unearthed a familiar cardboard rectangle with a perforated edge. Two tickets for Michael Kiwanuka, 10 March 2020, De Montfort Hall, Leicester.

The gig, like countless others last year, didn’t go ahead. Although restrictions hadn’t yet kicked in, the artist himself rescheduled for personal reasons. Probably for the best given we were locked down only two weeks later and Covid was well and truly lurking in the shallows.

And so began the steady muting of 2020’s musical calendar, with a stream of emails and text messages announcing the next cancellation, or an optimistic rescheduling for the autumn.

This week, 25-31 January, is Independent Venue Week, a seven day celebration of the UK’s local music venues and the people who make them what they are. In their own words, “a nationwide initiative with a completely local feel”.

It’s a week that puts the cultural hubs that characterise our towns and cities on the map, the places we first got up close to our favourite performers before they graced the festival main stages and arenas, the places that never get too big for their boots, regardless of which big names cut their teeth on their sticky floors. Nottingham’s Rock City, Birmingham’s Hare and Hounds, Sheffield’s Leadmill.

In normal times there’d be an intensive schedule of real life live events to dip into across the week, the weathered walls of our treasured local haunts pulsating with possibility.

This year, mid lockdown 3.0, the unassuming doors of those venues remain firmly locked. When and whether they will ever reopen to audiences remains unclear. Independent Venue Week will therefore go digital/behind closed doors and all the other phrases that have become commonplace to describe an absence of crowds.

But it’s not all doom and the music plays on. The IVW schedule is as impressive as ever, with a line up of no less than 96 live streamed performances, 23 “In conversation withs”, 11 industry panels and a virtual festival drawing the likes of Liam Gallagher, Fontaines D,C, Blossoms and Beverley Knight. BBC6 Music again throws its support behind the initiative, championing grassroots venues at every opportunity. 

As we tune into Independent Venue Week from a social distance, the uncertainty around the future for small venues, and reflection on what should/could have been will make it an emotional one. The events I missed out on last year represent a mere handful of all the gigs that never were, but their absence still leaves a gaping hole on my musical experience CV.

Michael Kiwanuka at Leicester’s De Montfort Hall - a Mercury prize winner on stage in the glamorous old school surroundings of an 110 year old music hall was never going to be anything less than spectacular. De La Soul at Nottingham’s Rock City and the absolute honour of having hip-hop royalty grace your home city. Might we have spotted Maseo, Posdnuos and Trugoy digging the crates in Rough Trade, picking up a pre or post gig flat white in 200 Degrees. And did they like Nottingham more than Manchester? We’ll never know.

There are things that Covid can't stop. We can still live stream our beloved music in a snug front room. We can wear our best band t-shirts. We can turn the volume as loud as we like. We can dance like no-one’s watching (because there really isn’t - apart from the cat). We can swig cheap cider straight from the can if we want to. But we can’t replicate the euphoria and the emotion the unique alchemy of an artist and a well-loved venue brings. Let’s hope it’s not long until the doors swing open again.