Music Venue Trust hit back at Manchester’s Co-Op Live for saying some grassroots venues are “poorly run” – despite arena facing own major issues

nme.com:

BBC recently, where he discussed the proposed £1 ticket levy on all gigs arena-sized and above, to help secure the future of grassroots venues and artists.Roden said that he was “very aware it’s a hot topic”, and that he was “embracing the conversation”, but that he believed the levy was “too simplistic”.The report suggests that he thinks support should come directly from the government, and added that while he acknowledges the financial pressures on small venues, he thinks some of them are poorly run.“If the conversation stops being ‘Give me a quid’ and quite aggressive – if it changed to be, ‘What can we do together to help?’, that’s where I think we start to get into that apprenticeship conversation and all those different things that we want to work through,” he said.“We’ve got a list of ideas that we’re currently forming, and I think once we’ve been open six months or a year, we’ll be really able to add something very significant to the grassroots system in Manchester.”2/521.7% of all the shows will be performed by artists over retirement age.

8.6% of all the shows will be performed by artists under the age of 30. 17.3% of all the shows will be performed by artists over the age of 75.— Mark Davyd (@markdavyd) April 21, 2024The comments provoked a response from Mark Davyd, the CEO of the Music Venue Trust, via social media. “Fun facts of the morning: the new @TheCoopLive arena has 46 music events confirmed to take place this year so far,” he wrote. “The average age of the performers is 50 years old.”“21.7% of all the shows will be performed by artists over retirement age.