Britain's gig venues fighting to survive

The Harley in Sheffield, the Maze in Nottingham, the Victoria Inn in Derby, have been closed recently, or are about to close, and they are just examples of a big trend - in January 2018, industry body UK Music estimated that 35% of venues across the country had closed in the preceding decade. On top of that, a third of Britain’s small venues outside London were fighting to survive in the face of high business rates and noise restrictions. One of the reasons - “People don’t seem to want to pay for music", as David Poole-Burley, former owner of the Vic says. Guardian...