We had the undiluted pleasure of being interviewed by Noise Delays Recovery a few weeks ago. It was an open interview steered by Jamie Ward – a ricochet through the subjects of grassroots venues, the death of creativity, and mental health and addiction in the music industry.
It’s quite interesting reading this one back – it’s difficult allowing yourself to be completely honest to a complete stranger – but honest we were. As I write this post I hear that our upcoming gig at Jimmy’s in Liverpool is being moved to another venue, as Jimmy’s is shutting its doors – another grassroots venue bites the big one. Where will it stop? The NME recently wrote that the UK is to lose 10% of grassroots venues by the end of 2023. They write of the calls made on the government and pleas to the larger venues to support the cause. But I think it’s on all of us to make a difference here – we as music fans can choose where we spend our money and what on – go and watch that original band that you’ve never heard of – turn up to watch the support band – donate to the Music Venue Trust if you can, or help out your local grassroots venue. It’s all too easy [not for me natch] to support The Rolling Stones as they turn out yet another album and do yet another stadium tour – but that £200 ticket to see them could get you entry to more than 20 gigs at your local venue and you’d be supporting the future of music, rather than paying the tax bill of multi-millionaire musicians who have, in many cases, quite frankly outstayed their welcome. Perhaps it should be made incumbent upon them to give a small donation per ticket to support the cause – something that Enter Shikari have chosen to do.
We are honestly the cheeriest of bands – so if you fancy getting apoplectic alongside us TV FACE types – then read the full interview over on Noise Delays Recovery.
ta muchly, sTeVe
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