Emerging UK indie rock band, The Carnabys, become the youngest patrons of Music Venue Trust standing alongside Elbow, Slaves and Frank Turner and launch the ‘Save Live Music’ Initiative in a bid to pull live music back from the brink of extinction.
British live music scene under threat of extinction: Imagine a world with no David Bowie, Rolling Stones, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Muse, Arctic Monkeys, Ed Sheeran….even no Adele. All of these great British Acts owe their very existence to the once thriving small music venue circuit, which is now under serious threat as recent research reveals that 35% of London’s live music venues have closed since 2001, including landmark music venues such as The Marquee, Madam JoJos , The Astoria and 12Bar Club. Across the country the story is the same.
It’s not too late to save live music: Upcoming indie rock band, The Carnabys, who rely heavily on the live circuit as their core vehicle for reaching new audiences, have joined forces with Music Venue Trust in a proactive initiative to preserve our British music circuit called ‘Save Live Music’. In a bid to pull our live venues back from the brink of closure, The Carnabys are putting their album, ‘Too Much Never Enough’ up for pre-sale 3-months in advance of its release in August and will donate all their earnings to The Music Venue Trust http://musicvenuetrust.com The band will also be championing the cause throughout all promotional activity on the release of their new double-A-side single, ‘Scars and Safety Pins/Caught In The Rain’ on 10 June. It’s therefore no wonder that Music Venue Trust have recently announced The Carnabys as their latest patrons alongside Frank Turner, Slaves and Elbow.
The Carnabys are a band who have a growing reputation for fantastic live shows, with the support of Blondie, Steven van Zandt, Patti Smith, John Giddings – without live music venues, bands such as The Carnabys wouldn’t exist. Our future generations of music would fall into extinction. An outstanding 5-piece British band from South West London who catapulted onto the industry stage when they beat over 12,000 global artists to win ‘Hard Rock Rising 2013’. Since then the boys have been on a collision course to world success as they sell out gigs all over London including venues such as KOKO, Garage The Borderline and The Jazz Café. They’ve also performed to hundreds of thousands of fans as they’ve been on Tour with Blondie, shared the stage with the likes of Lenny Kravitz, Kings Of Leon, Fratellis, Palma Violets, Brice Springsteen and Patti Smith. So it’s no surprise that they were hailed by Debbie Harry as one of the best support bands they’ve seen in years. But 2016 sees The Carnabys step from support to main stage as they perform at Camden Rocks on 4 June and The Isle of Wight Festival on 12 June.
Jack Mercer from The Carnabys comments, “As a Live band, The Carnabys are second to non. We’re totally dependant on that Live venue scene being robust, supported and thriving. At the moment it is far from that. Music Venue Trust has some heavyweight support, is vocal and well regarded by the industry and has a clear set of plans on how to support this sector of the industry. We will donate all of the band’s revenue from the pre-sales of this album to ‘Save Live Music’ - I don’t think this has ever been done before; certainly not by a young up and coming band.
“It's not all about TV shows and YouTube - sure they have a place, but not the only place – it’s like only being offered McDonalds and never being able to eat a decent meal again. Unless this attack on live music venues stops, then we will all be eating McPop Music in the UK and the era of Great British Music will be over.”
To read more about the issues and challenges facing grassroots music venues that have led to the Save Live Music initiative, visit musicvenetrust.com
