The sub 500 capacity venues are taking a battering in the last few weeks after the World Cup.....

CLOSED OR CLOSING

The Garage ( for a new roof but staff have been made redundant )
Upstairs at the Garage
Carnarvon Castle ( property developer )
Water Rats ( Plum have pulled out in dispute with Landlords )

Add to this the threat of closure for Astoria / Mean Fiddler for Crossrail - and is the Bull and Gate safe ?

The City venues are always under constant pressure because of the value of real estate as well and some are struggling.

This means that London's venueland for smaller bands in the best known quality venues is shrinking fast.
Every venue that closes means that over 1400 slots for bands in London are lost.

The four venues above mean at least 4,800 slots have been lost in the last 4 weeks !! and I believe that another venue in Soho also has closed to bands making 6,000 lost slots.

If you are a BAND wanting to play London ( especially from outside London ) this could mean a massive lack of opportunities to play to the music industry in sub 500 venues.

Venues that are still going include :
Hope and Anchor / Dublin Castle / Barfly Camden / Lark Islington / Dingwalls / Nambucca / Buffalo Bar Islington / Bar Acadamy Islington / Purple Turtle Camden / but these venues are very choosy about who plays and with less slots out there can be even more choosy in future.

The stranglehold that Live Nation ( Clear Channel) and the Acadamy Group have at the venues above 500 means that progress from these small venues is virtually impossible for most bands means that the whole idea of playing your way up the ladder of live music in the UK is beginning to look like the ascent of Everest for most out of London bands.

Tough times ahead for bands and venues methinks.

My advice would be to bands ONLY GIG OCCASIONALLY in London and when you do make sure you have as big a crowd as possible with you ! or you may not ever get asked back !! Competition is intense........and will get harder as the lack of slots feeds into the system.