The Music Venue Trust have spoken to NME about how “Coldplay are providing a lifeline for new talent” in their effort to donate 10 per cent of all profits from their 2025 UK stadium shows to save the grassroots.
This Friday (October 4) will see the release of Coldplay’s 10th album ‘Moon Music‘. As part of our extended interview with the Glastonbury headliners, frontman Chris Martin spoke to NME about the band’s move to give a huge donation from their shows in London and Hull next summer to help keep struggling live music venues open.
Their help comes after the MVT have long been campaigning for a mandatory levy for £1 of every ticket sold to a gig at arena level and above to go back into the grassroots, at a time when the scene faces “disaster” with around two venues closing per week in the UK. Enter Shikari took it upon themselves to do it last year, and now Coldplay are taking it to the next level.
Frontman Chris Martin told NME that he put his plan into action when he became aware of the situation at the tail-end of last year. “I’d just assumed The Leicester Charlotte would be fine,” he said. “I didn’t think there was an issue because I didn’t think about it. It was around COVID that you started to hear about this or that venue having to close. I thought, ‘Oh, we played all those venues, Oasis played all those venues – these are important’.”
Asked if it bothered him that we may never see another Coldplay if venues continue to disappear, he replied: “I think a lot of people would be happy about that! The truth is that playing live is an important connection.
“It doesn’t bother me that there might not be another Coldplay, but it does bother me that there might not be acts that are free to start on the bottom rung and work all the way up – so that by the time they get to stadiums, they are really good. You can’t just jump into that.”
While agreeing that “there’s nothing wrong with staying on the first rung [of the ladder” of playing live and that side of the ecosystem needs to be kept as a viable career, Martin noted that the talent pipeline would suffer if smaller gig spaces disappear.
“With all of the artists that are playing stadiums next year, it’s no coincidence that all of them started in a van, driving around and playing pubs: Oasis, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, the truth is all there,” said. “Taylor Swift has probably played more than anyone in tiny Nashville venues and county fairs.”
Music Venue Trust’s CEO Mark Davyd then spoke to NME to hail the band’s decision, and call on other major artists and the industry at large to follow their example.
“The reason that Coldplay have done this is because they understand it. I booked them to play in my venue in Tunbridge Wells, The Forum,” Davyd told NME. “I saw them go out and meet everyone to sell their t-shirts so that they could afford their hotel rooms or put petrol in their van. They understand it, the message got through to them and they did something about it.
“I’ve read some churlish pathetic comments from people who don’t like Coldplay, but I don’t care. It’s not about what music you like; it’s about having a system in which artists like that can have a career. Whether they end up in stadiums or stay in smaller venues, it all matters. We’ve got plenty of opportunities to make this function and function well, we just need a music industry that will get on top of that and make it work.”
Check out our full interview with Davyd below, where he explained the difference that Coldplay’s contribution will make – and why the “clock is ticking” for the music ecosystem as we know it without major change soon.
NME: Hello Mark. How much money do you expect to receive from this and what difference will it make?
Mark Davyd: “Coldplay are providing a lifeline for new talent. I can’t put an exact amount on it, but it is a significant amount of money. It depends how much the show costs to produce. We are percentage beneficiaries of how much the band makes, plus receiving donations from everyone else involved in producing the show – all the promoters, the ticketing companies, the venues will all be making a donation. It is a sizeable chunk of change.
“It will certainly be a seven-figure sum – minimum – and that is significant enough that this will stop venues closing, it will mean that more bands can go on tour, it will mean that promoters can take bigger risks with artists. They’re the three things that really need to happen, and they will all happen because of this money.”
What will MVT do with this money?
“The first thing we always try to do is to fend off urgent cases of venue closure. This is going to be a year in which venues didn’t close as rapidly as they did in 2023 – however the number venues in our crisis service has exploded.
“We are looking at probably one in every five venues in the country is currently facing the threat of permanent closure. Some of the money will go to tackling that, however we don’t want to do that in short-term ways.
“This is a set of money and we hope that many of the artists, venues and promoters can come up with a scheme to make sure it’s more sustainable from other shows. What we’d prefer to do is work with artists, promoters and venues that we can invest this to make the most difference.
“There are conversations around how we can bring down energy bills, how we can reduce the amount of money it costs for an artist to go on tour, how do make the most difference to keep the grassroots alive and new talent coming through?”
Of course, it’s one thing to keep venues open, but another to have an ecosystem where artists can actually afford to exist and play them…
“100 per cent, and we’ve been very clear – this is not just Coldplay handing money to venues that need money, this is about investing it in a way to supports artists, venues and promoters. They all lean on each other in a way that cannot be disentangled.”
People don’t realise that artists need a space to fail and develop…
“You have to understand; one of the essential things that artists must do is fail and be crap. You don’t learn anything by walking out on a stage and people telling you that everything is brilliant. You learn by experimentation. No change comes from people replicating something we already like. We want people pushing the boundaries of what music is; of diversity and representation. Experimentation is the hot-point of culture.”
How would you respond to Martin’s comments that every stadium act came from a grassroots venue?
“I read a comment from one of the leading agencies stating that artists are coming through more from TikTok now. That is utter fucking nonsense. There is no evidence whatsoever that the world’s leading agencies are making their money out of acts coming from TikTok.
“It’s good additional factor and promotional tool, but TikTok is not producing a Coldplay. I’m sorry, that’s just absolute nonsense. You look at all the biggest artists playing huge shows next year, and every single one of those acts has had the opportunity to build those skills in a small music venue around the world.
“This conversation needs exposing: TikTok, Youtube and Instagram are useful promotional tools, but they are not replacing the experience of learning your live skills and building up your audience. That’s just not happening. Please name me the artist that made it on YouTube, never played a small venue, and is now headlining Glastonbury. There’s no such thing.
“We looked at the actual evidence and all of these things are good. If someone can get a viral hit on Youtube, then good! But you know what they’re going to do after? They’re going to need to play some live shows and earn some money, because they’re not going to earn any money out of a bloody viral hit. It’s a flash in the pan, then it’s gone. We need sustainable careers. We want people who are making their 10th and 11th album.
Where are we at with the mandatory £1 levy and the government investigation into it?
“There was an unfortunate pause caused by the election and a change of government. I’m not massively critical of the fact that the incumbent government hasn’t done a lot of work, but I think there is a ticking clock. That clock is going to tick for as long as iconic music venues don’t close down – as happened with Bath Moles – or that the venues stick at it but come to us for help.
“People need to know: this is the highest number of venues facing closure that we’ve ever dealt with in one year. In any moment, those could all tip over into closures. We would see a massive collapse of about 20 per cent of all venues in the country closing down if we don’t see action from industry or the government.
“So my message to Lisa Nandy and Chris Bryant is: the work into what needs to be done has been done and everybody knows it – including you. You’ve a little bit of leeway, but it won’t stretch to Christmas. If nothing has been done by Christmas then people who run music venues are going to feel that.
Other countries have shown this can be done, right?
“Generally, while we are ahead in our conversations about what needs to be done, the reality is these are the same problems all over the world and most of the people who understand them are now proposing the solutions. I would personally be amazed if we were the first country who manage to bring in a grassroots levy for spaces of arena sized and above. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we were one of the last countries to do it.
“Do you know when France started doing this? 1986! Do you know who did it? The music industry itself! We’re 38 years behind the curve and we still have people in Britain saying, ‘Oh no, you can’t do this’. It’s so frustrating.
“Everywhere I’ve been, countries all around the world are now looking at this. There are versions of the music industry emerging: one is the multi-national corporations who are reporting that everything is absolutely brilliant and they’ve never made so much money, and the other is the national domestic markets – particularly the grassroots and development of talent – and they’re absolutely on their knees.”
What would you say is the message that Coldplay’s example sends out?
“A very simple one. I don’t want to hear anything else from people in the music industry about how hard this is or reasons why it can’t be done. It’s nonsense. It can be done, and it has been done. Enter Shikari took a lead on it, other acts followed and now Coldplay have demonstrated how simple it can be.
“Listen: the biggest live rock band in the world can do this, so please don’t tell me it can’t be done. It’s either a lack of will to do it, or a lack of understanding about how much it needs to be done.
“We would much prefer that Coldplay are the example and the music industry gets its act together. That’s what really needs to happen. If we can’t do that, our second option isn’t to let all the music venues close, but for the government to step in and make the music industry to do it. The option to do nothing isn’t on the table.”
Otherwise, disaster awaits?
“If the industry or government haven’t acted by December, we are going to see a catastrophic number of closures by 2025. Tribute should be paid to venue operators who are absolutely out on a limb waiting for aid to arrive. “The Coldplay cash will help, but this is a multi-multi-million pound problem. It’s not up to Coldplay to save every single grassroots music venue in the country. That’s up to the music industry. If they won’t do it, the government will have to do it for them.”
“All hail Coldplay, but then everyone stop hailing them, look at how they did it, and they just get on with getting it done.”
Are you hopeful?
“You can’t take away hope. If you announced tomorrow that neither the music industry nor the government were going to do anything, then more than 100 music venues would close immediately. It’s as simple as that. There’s no way they can afford to carry on doing what they’re doing, and the reason that they are carrying on is because they can see some light at the end of the tunnel because of people like Coldplay. We either advance to the end of that tunnel or we shut the tunnel down. Which will it be?”
Check out NME‘s full interview with Chris Martin here, where the frontman also tells us how ‘Moon Music’ helped him battle his demons, his healthy competition with new artists, and how the end of the band as we know it is just around the corner.
See Chris Martin’s NME playlist of what’s on his speakers here – featuring Fontaines D.C., Peggy Gou, The Verve and many more.