28/05/2026
CEO of Music Venue Trust, Mark Davyd, after attending the launch of the V&A Museum ‘Lost Music Venues’ exhibition:
There is a bitter and deeply unpleasant irony in the launch of the Lost Music Venues exhibition at the V&A Museum yesterday coinciding with the announcement that both The Six Six Bar and The White Hotel will be closing.
We are moving as quickly as we possibly can, supported by fantastic artists like Coldplay, Sam Fender, , Frank Turner, Mr. Scruff and by the grassroots levy administered by LIVE Trust, to get meaningful support into Grassroots Music Venues.
Some people aren’t moving fast enough, and some people aren’t moving at all. Both these closures have one specific actor, or rather ‘lack of actor’ in common, an organisation which refuses to take these closures seriously and acting as it could and should be to stop them. In both cases one organisation’s attitude and behaviour towards these venues has directly, I’m going to say that again, directly contributed to their closure.
That organisation features in our Venue Support Team crisis management notes for both these venues and in literally hundreds of other case notes. All musicians, venue supporters, live music fans, and the communities who love these venues deserve to know who that organisation is.
It’s you, PRS for Music. You have a great day sitting in your cosy London office refusing meetings and arrogantly dismissing the overwhelming evidence that change is urgent and necessary. Perhaps you can have your own exhibition in a few years time; “PRS for Music’s Favourite Venues It Closed Down”.
