2017 had everything going for it. After a pretty disastrous 2016, it wasn’t really that hard to make things better and to be a fairly successful year, however, it became clear pretty early on that this wasn’t going to be any straightforward year. This is my year in review. I’ll start with the more personal/harder bits and then move on to my media picks of the year before rounding off! Continue reading
There’s sad news coming out of Cardiff. The Full Moon on Womanby Street has announced they’re closing due to lack of confidence from their creditors. This is the latest blow to hit Womanby Street following the closure of Dempseys and The Moon Club. Alongside this, there have been announcements of both a Wetherspoons hotel and a new residential development planned for the street which puts the rest of the venues under even more threat.
Ah 2016, the coffee stain on the desk that is the 2010’s. It’s certainly been a bit of a weird year! Politics have turned down a road that no-one expected. Not even those leading the way saw this coming! On top of this, there are claims of the year being cursed thanks to a constant stream of big name deaths from all corners of the entertainment industry. 2016 has certainly been a year that many want to be over! Continue reading
As you may or may not remember, I wrote a blog post some time back about small live music venues being under threat from closure. In this post, I urged everyone to sign a petition for Urgent Review of the Noise Abatement legislation. This petition is now closed and the Government has replied stating the following:
The law, as currently constituted, strikes the appropriate balance between managing the noise environment and considering the needs of business.
In short, they’re not willing to help keep small venues and live music alive. Frank Turner (Lead singer of Möngöl Hörde and acoustic folk singer) is not happy with this as he thrives and makes his living from live music. Frank has come up with another solution… To adopt the Agent of Change principle! Continue reading
Something has come to my attention recently, and it’s something that is starting to get on my nerves…The closure of small licensed live music venues.
I’m not talking about closures that have happened due to financial issues and the like (as sad as these are), I’m talking about closures made due to noise complaints. Noise complaints from ‘neighbours’ who have moved in knowing that they live in the very close vicinity of a live music venue…