Wednesday, July 27, 2005

VENUEWATCH: Venuewatch

The onward march of progress has picked up its pace a little, and the vapourisation of the legendary Edinburgh Venue is hitting two years earlier than originally planned. The city is to lose a music haunt which for two decades has hosted bands on their first lap of the city - from Franz Ferdinand to the Stone Roses - and will instead gain some offices "and an upmarket delicatessan."

"Of course, if we'd done this twenty years ago just think of all the extra filing we could have seen inside these walls" said an excited property developer. "Admittedly, the Happy Mondays and The Strokes would never had been here making musical history and giving people experiences they'll take with them for their whole lives, but on the other hand - we could have been selling three types of pastrami all along instead. And who wouldn't swap a gig in a club packed with sweat and hormones in order to get a slightly different sort of sandwich from the sort you can get anywhere else, eh?"

Actually, the developers claim to be helping the Venue find somewhere to go:

Phil Myrescough, the group's managing director, said every effort had been made to help the current operators of the Venue, Raw Promotions Scotland, find an alternative location, but no progress had been made to date.

He added: "They want to relocate, but it's easier said than done finding an alternative location for somewhere like the Venue."


Yes, Mr. Myrescough, exactly. Offices can go anywhere, but perfect venues? They're not so easy. What does that tell you?


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's so sad. I went to Uni in Scotland in 1998, and was sick of it and about to leave, until I went to the Edinburgh Venue to see Gorky's Zygotic Mynci at the end of my second week. At that point, I decided it'd be worth staying at uni if I could go to gigs like that regularly.. RIP.

Moggieboy said...

Fuck me - Pure at the Venue was pretty much the only reason to visit Edinburgh for the first half of the 90s. It's not like the city's exactly bursting at the seams with other venues.

Pish like the Corn Exchange that is completely inaccessible, or one of those shitey festival venues - is that the future?

Thank fuck the Liquid Room is still alive & kicking...

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