Small venues across the UK form the bedrock of the UK music industry (Picture: Getty Images)

Grassroots music venues across the UK are being handed a package of support worth millions of pounds by the government, in a victory for Metro&#82…

How far will AI go in the music world – and will it be the death blow to music festivals? 

Sadiq Khan opened the inaugural SXSW London on Monday (Picture: Getty)

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has given Metro readers an insight into what SXSW London means for the city.

The world-famous festival heads from its home in Austin, Texas,…

In London this week? Make sure you catch some of these shows at SXSW London (Picture: Getty / REX)

The world’s creative eyes are on London this week as the capital’s first SXSW festival kicks off.

Across six jam-packed days, the likes of …

SXSW is coming to London for the very first time this year (Picture: The Stage)

SXSW, a conference encompassing music, art, business and innovation, kicked off in London today for the first time in its 38-year history.

Attendees will witn…

‘London –  I think it’s the greatest city on Earth’.

Those are the words of SXSW London CEO Max Alexander as one of the world’s biggest festivals finally rolls into down today.

Famed for its eclectic mix of music acts, film showcases, A-list appearances, and industry networking, SXSW makes its way from Austin, Texas, to the Capital for a feast of innovative talks, live performances, and film premieres until Saturday.

SXSW has grown into one of the world’s most recognisable and vital creative industry festivals since launching in 1987.

This year, more than 25 venues across Shoreditch in east London will host events including talks from Idris Elba, Katherine Ryan, Cesc Fabregas, Ian Wright, and Sophie Turner, and live music from Erykah Badu, Mabel, Alice Glass, and Pa Salieu, among a diverse mix of emerging and established talent.

Fans can buy a variety of passes tailored around what they want to see across conference, music and film –  or an individual music wristband to catch some of the 500 live performances over the week.

Organisers hope the inaugural week will cement a legacy across London by supporting charity initiatives, shine a light on the city’s grassroots venues, and represent important issues among the community through the newly launched SXSW London Advisory Council.

Find out more about London’s grassroots venues here

One of SXSW’s annual standout events is UK House, which showcases British innovation, creativity and technology through talks and immersive experiences. It also features live performances from the UK’s best rising talent thanks to the British Music Embassy – a key partner of the Department for Business and Trade.

The showcase has become a staple of SXSW and helped launch international careers of Sam Fender, The 1975, Little Simz, and many more.

And this year it’s coming to London’s Devonshire Square.

Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: ‘Our creative industries are a powerhouse of global innovation and it’s a real vote of confidence in the UK’s attractiveness for investors that SXSW has chosen us as its first ever European location.

‘I am proud that our UK House at SXSW London will reflect our position as a truly global destination for business.

‘With creative industries being identified as a key growth sector in our upcoming modern Industrial Strategy, we’re not only helping to attract and secure investment, but delivering long-term growth that supports skilled jobs and raises living standards across the UK, backing our Plan for Change.’

Max Alexander, who was also CEO of Secret Cinema, told Metro: ‘SXSW’s ambition is to become part of the cultural fabric of London.

‘It’s a love letter to London, but being incredibly respectful for what London already is, which is just a profound nexus of culture, business, creativity, ideas, technology, finance, and philosophy.

‘We want to help amplify for London, for Britain, and indeed for Europe, technologies, business models, art forms, and music creatives, and give people a really explicit platform for presentation, discovery and investigation.

Mayor Sadiq Khan on SXSW London

I was lucky to be a part of SXSW in Austin in 2018, and I saw first-hand the electric atmosphere of innovation that the festival creates.

From helping to shape the future of tech and AI, to providing a platform for major new artists, SXSW London is a significant opportunity to generate new ideas, promote our capital and help inspire the next generation.

This week the creative eyes of the world will be on London as our capital becomes the first European city to ever host SXSW.

Leaders from the tech, media, gaming and creative industries are descending on Shoreditch in East London as the world-renowned Texas festival comes to our capital.

Across 34 venues there will be hundreds of talks, live music, and film and TV screenings, as some of the world’s most exciting talent come together.

It’s a great addition to our cultural calendar and another boost to our creative industries. These vital industries generate more than £63bn for the UK economy, having significantly surpassed pre-pandemic levels. They help define how London is perceived around the world, and provide young people with positive opportunities and access to training and jobs.

SXSW is also the start of the biggest ever month for business and investment in London, with the Concordia Europe Summit, London Tech Week and London Climate Action Week all taking place in June.

This series of major business events will attract thousands of dealmakers, investors, CEOs, entrepreneurs, innovators and creatives from all over the world, demonstrating that London is truly the best city for creativity, talent and business in the world.

Globally renowned photographer and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Misan Harriman will be premiering his new film Shoot the People at the festival on Tuesday (June 3) before taking part in a UK House panel named Storytelling as a Force for Change on Wednesday (June 4).

He told Metro: ‘Shoot the People is a feature-length documentary on what it means to be an artist that refuses to look away in the age of apathy, what it means to document protest movements and how important protest is in our age and I can’t wait to share that with the world.

‘We added two extra screenings as all the seats sold out within 24 hours so a lot of people are excited to see this film because they have also been on a journey of understanding that their voice matters.

‘We are the change that we are looking for – if there are things you are unhappy about maybe your whisper is actually a roar when you realise there is a community of thousands, if not millions, that are also whispering about something. And that’s what this film is about.’

This Morning’s Rochelle Humes, a former member of The Saturdays, will be hosting her Ladies Who Launch Lunch that celebrates the podcast at UK House on Tuesday (June 3).

‘I’m really excited that we’re going to have a presence there’, she told Metro.

‘I’m so passionate about connecting women in business, and that’s the very reason that the podcast exists.  

‘It’s quite quickly built a community organically. I know that’s such a buzz word now, but actually, that’s what I love. We hosted a walk the other day that saw lots of female founders to go on a walk together – it’s so nice to see women connecting in that way.

SXSW London takes place from today (June 2) until Saturday (June 7) at venues across London.  For more information and tickets, click here.

Frank Turner champions grassroots music across London and beyond.

Frank Turner champions grassroots music across London and beyond.

If there’s anyone who knows the importance of grassroots venues to London’s music ecosystem, it’s Apple Music DJ Matt Wilkinson.

The industry tastemaker firmly embedded himself in the London scene as a former new music editor at NME before bringing you the best emerging acts around over the airwaves on his daily radio show.

And by night, you’ll often find him at one of the capital’s many gig spots unearthing the next Fontaines DC, Charlie XCX or Lola Young.

‘We have such an incredible influx of culture coming in and one of the obvious funnels out is music and performing arts’, Matt tells Metro.

‘You get different people heading to London – some of them not through choice, some of them because it’s London and because it’s got this history.  When you throw it all together, you just need small venues to be able to give these artists their start.

‘It’s impossible for an artist to make good music and suddenly go from playing to nobody to selling out Brixton Academy in front of 5,000 people.  You need those middle ground venues where you can play to 50 people, then 100 people, then 250, then a 1,000, then 2,000.  It’s important to have that kind of stepping stone or that ladder that small venues provide.

‘They’re the lifeblood.  Not just of London music but the city itself.  It’s not just music venues, but comedy venues, theatres, and independent cinemas.’

This week, Metro along with the London Mayor’s Office, TfL, MVT, the Featured Artist Coalition and London Creates Music, launched the London Creates MUSIC campaign at the Outernet in Denmark Street highlighting the importance of London’s grassroots music venues and its musical heritage.

The map will be screened for a month at the Outernet London, the largest digital exhibition space in Europe.

The focal point is a captivating alternative Tube map guiding readers through the city’s many live venues, artists you need to see in 2025, record shops, historic locations, and independent labels.

Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden, Skin from Skunk Anansie, Billy Bragg, Charlie Steen from Shame and Prima Queen are among the acts who have backed the campaign and given their views on the importance of a thriving grassroots scene.

Almost 330,000 performances were held at 179 grassroots music venues in London attended by around 4.3million people last year, according to the Music Venue Trust (MVT).

But the trust’s founder, Mark Davyd, warned the costs of running these venues has ‘absolutely exploded’ over the last five years.

The nighttime economy suffered a further blow on Wednesday after The Leadmill in Sheffield lost its fight against eviction, prompting Liam Gallagher to brand the decision ‘scandalous’.

Matt says councils, the government, and larger venues need to be working together to help smaller venues and preserve the city’s grassroots heritage.

He said: ‘Without smaller venues, you’re not going to be able to grow artists to a point where they can actually go and play the O2 or Brixton Academy, or Hammersmith, or the Forum.  Everybody needs to pull together because it’s really tough.

‘We read about a venue a month having to do a Crowdfunder – basically having to beg to survive.  The future is definitely in a turbulent place thanks to everything that’s happened over the past five years, and probably longer.

‘Now is the point when people need to come together. It almost feels the onus is on music fans to help save venues, which is wrong. It should be the music industry that leads the way.’

Another facet of the campaign is to guide fans on their own musical journey across the capital – reconnecting memories visiting the likes of The Lexington and the Water Rats and making new ones at upcoming shows.

One of Matt’s stand out gig memories was the last show at the Astoria – the iconic live venue on Charing Cross Road that closed its doors in 2009.  Organised by Sam Duckworth from Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly, the event was a riotous affair.

Matt added: ‘After the show, they opened the backstage bit you don’t often get to see as a fan.  Someone came on stage and said “everything’s got to go because they’re knocking the place down”.

‘People were ripping old school telephones out of the wall, taking them as mementos.  I’ve got crazy memories like that. ‘

Catch The Matt Wilkinson Show on Apple Music every Monday through Friday from 12pm.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

‘SCANDALOUS.’

Grassroots venues are critical for encouraging and developing the future stars of music; without these spaces, we wouldn’t have the huge icons we know and love today. 

This was the rallying cry from rising stars Prima Queen when they met Metro at London’s Phoenix Arts Club, having just released their debut album, The Prize.

The duo, consisting of best friends Kristin McFadden, 30, and Louise Macphail, 27, are not from London but found a home in the independent scene here in 2017 when they began to carve out their path into the music industry.

‘London’s grassroots venues have done so, so much to help start our career,’ shared Kristin, who is originally from Chicago but moved here for a songwriting course, on which she met Louise.

The Oats singer continued: ‘One of our pivotal shows was playing at Windmill [Brixton], which is one of our favourite venues.

‘We went on our first tour because the sound engineer became a fan from our set, and then told The Big Moon about us, and we got to go on tour with them.’

Now, Prima Queen are following in the Mercury Prize nominees’ footsteps with their own headlining tour this year, visiting independents like London’s Islington Assembly Hall and the iconic Thekla in Louise’s hometown of Bristol. 

Kristin continued: ‘It literally goes back to these grassroots venues, [that’s] how a band can build up from nothing to start making your way into the industry.’

‘You’d never be ready to play the big shows without them,’ Louise agreed. ‘It’s like a training ground, having all these venues around London.

‘Most bands go through a time where you’re just playing one or more every week and making loads and loads of mistakes, and then learning from them.’

Prima Queen have joined the likes of Billy Bragg and Skunk Anansie to voice their support for London’s grassroots scene following the launch of the London Grassroots Music Tube Map.

It’s part of a new campaign that Metro is running alongside the Mayor of London, Transport for London and organisations including the Music Venue Trust, Featured Artist Coalition, Outernet and Universal Music.

The map will be screened for a month at the Outernet London, the largest digital exhibition space in Europe.

The interactive display of the map will be shown in the Arcade space, which links the nightclub to The Lower Third grassroots music venue on Denmark Street.

What sets these smaller venues apart of the sense of community you can feel in them, especially when you work behind the scenes as well as on the stage like Louise.

She worked for the radical art and music space Matchstick Piehouse in Deptford and was there when it tragically shut down at the end of 2023.

The venue was plunged into £36,000 of rent debt after the pandemic, but with the help of the Music Venue Trust and a huge fundraising effort, it has partially re-opened as Piehouse Co-op.

‘The community brought it back,’ Louise said of the space. ’The venues are crumbling, but the community is still there.’

Kristin believes the online focus can distract from that community aspect, explaining: ‘Some people go viral and they have all these followers, but they struggle to fill venues.’

Neither is wrong or right, it’s just totally different. 

‘It’s sad that people are spending more time on their phones and not just going out and seeing who’s down the street.’

This echoes the ‘best bit of advice’ Louise ever got for starting a career in the industry: to just go out and find the music.

‘The way that you become successful is filling up your local venue and having a queue down the street, and then that’s what leads you to the next step,’ she shared before pondering: ‘I wonder now, is that the same advice because it’s so online?’

Prima Queen have recently played one of their biggest ever gigs at Hammersmith’s Eventim Apollo, with a capacity of 5,000 standing.

The contrast between this and their ‘warm up’ show at the independent London venue Omera, with a 320 capacity, didn’t go unnoticed.

‘Obviously it’s fun being on a big stage in front of lots of people,’ said Kristin before Louise, showing how in sync the pair are, finished her sentence and added: ‘But you can’t see their faces.’

That ‘magic’ connection with the audience can get a bit lost, especially when the artist has in-ear headphones for the music, which almost completely mutes the crowd.

‘When you’re playing in smaller venues, you can really have that back and forth with the crowd,’ Louise explained, sharing that their recent smaller gig became an accidental Q&A thanks to the intimacy.

The Eclipse singers would love for larger artists to start doing small gig tours too, bringing their existing fanbase into spaces they may never have seen before.

She added: ‘The people that already care about music venues, really care. We just need more people who maybe aren’t aware of them to be going to those spaces and putting value on them.

Ultimately, responsibility falls on the gig-goers to keep the doors open rather than the artists – if you have nobody buying tickets and drinks, then the space cannot continue to function.

‘This is a space where you can see music for affordable prices,’ Kristin points out, with most venues only charging around £10 to £15 per gig (as opposed to £200).

Rising electricity and daily living costs also impact the venue owners but in the face of the skyrocketing arena and stadium tour prices, going to grassroots venues could be the way forward.

Kristin agreed: ‘We feel so disconnected in society right now for so many reasons, and to have these spaces to come and be seen by our friends, neighbours, and community and feel supported and support other musicians. 

‘I think we forget how important it is to be in those spaces.’

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Plans have been launched.

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