The horror of London’s music venues

There were headlines last month about the plight of live music in Britain. More than a third of grassroots venues are making a loss; more than 100 of them are ceasing to put on live music or closing altogether. Cue the stories about how, if it wasn’t for these broom cupboards giving musicians the opportunity to learn their trade, you’d never have got all those acts you know and love. All true, of course. We need small venues, and not just for the health of the music industry but for the simple pleasure of sipping a pint watching a young band in a small room.

But dear God, the bigger venues that accommodate graduates of the grassroots circuit need to up their game, too. In London, consider Shepherd’s Bush Empire, a theatre whose sightlines are so bad that many genuinely (and wrongly) believe the floor rakes up towards the stage.