but excessive rates seem to me to be part of a wider problem that is blighting Britain's towns and cities. It is getting to the stage where all town centres are interchangeable with one another because only big companies can afford to set up business there. Boots, Starbucks, Carphone Warehouse, McDonalds. The same crap, everywhere. When I go to Italy I am always struck by how wonderful it is to be able to pop into numerous family-run shops that have a distinctive character a welcoming atmosphere.

I don't know the answer to the 100 Club situation - it's obviously much-loved by music fans like us, but I doubt whether most people would care greatly if it closed down. Personally I think it would be a crying shame... there's too much history in those walls for it to become another place to drink Frappuccinos.

just down the road is a case in point which was knocked down last year to build the cross rail and to profit from the site by building poxy new shops/office space once the stations built.

The Astoria wasn't necessarily the best venue in the world but it was hugely popular everytime you walked past there was a queue of one tribe or other waiting to get in (emo's, G.A.Y.'S crowd, blokes in check shirts waiting to see the Breeders (me)).

And now it's gone and won't be replaced. As to whether it should have government support well the odd thing is that when the likes of Boris and developers try to promote particular areas or London in general they always push the pulshy vibrant feel of the place and yet actively seek out ways to to destroy that feel. People like the feel of vibrant places but not any of the downsides or diffculties.

So I think we should have government support for venues by having sensible approach to planning; in standing up and saying yes these places make noise and have shouty young people spilling out after 9pm but that's a good thing much better than the alternative ie half empty gym-crack exclusive loft style flats, empty bleak shoe shops, another branch of whatever style sandwich shop is in vogue at the moment.

In New Cross there's been a partial recognition of this and money spent to improve things (painting the Venue white rather the depressive black) and sensible licensing, late bars with gigs. There are still problems, there was some chap pinned to the floor by some Police men the other night but there are plenty dead parades of shops in this part of London and it's not just for the kids Jonathan Richman's playing soon!

.... seems to be part of the larger problem of rising property values which is homogenising towns all over the UK.

I live in a posh part of London (Highgate). The high street here is famous for it's village-y atmosphere, its one of the major attractions for residents. However the only places to eat are chain restaurants because no independently owned bistro or curry house could afford to be here. The lovely dickensian high street is slowly being taken over by estate agents and Pizza Express and its ilk. A bookshop closed recently, one is still hanging on, but a lot of what is individual is priced out.

This is the cost versus value argument, but cost has so severely priced out value that "something" needs to be done. No blinkered councillor will see the queues at the 100 Club and think that the happiness and cultural value emanating from the premises is worth more than the cash it can generate. Our rulers can sometimes read a spreadsheet and that's it.

The solution which I propose is that some venues (and buildings in general) need to be rated and protected for their use in the similar way as some are listed and graded if they have historical value. Art and creativity needs official protection before we end up living in identical towns where a Carling sponsored venue is the best we can hope for.

I hate this scenario: it is responsible for the closure of all sorts of small, independent businesses and shops, including, of course, record shops, as well as small cafes and restaurants. The sort of places that make living in a city or area worthwhile. And of course, the replacements are always chain outlets which don't add any value to the area, but merely suck out money to distant corporate owners. I don't have all the facts, but I heard a discussion about Paris, where it was stated that property owners and developers couldn't arbitrarily raise rents (often because the very shops they are about to put out of business have made the area attractive, and thus made profit mongers eager to move in). If a shop or business was established, and therefore part of the community, rents could only be raised in line with inflation, or a by a reasonable amount. Rent control, in other words. I would vote for anybody who would instigate this. The only losers are property developers, and what social function do they perform? By allowing this kind of unregulated profiteering we allow the destruction of valuable local businesses and services which everybody benefits from including, crucially, the local economy.
BTW this is happening in Brixton right now, small cafes which established the area are being asked for triple rent rises because they have made the area a hip place to go.

The 100 Club is obviously a slightly different beast, but having played in bands in London over the last 25 years I saw a lot of changes in the live scene. Back in the 80s when I first started playing venues would always have a few people turn up that you didn't know, it wasn't only friends of the bands. Or one man and his dog.

But as the club scene took off and music changed the places people went changed to. By the early to mid 90s venues were empty of punters going for a night out, taking a risk on a new band. That changed a little with Brit-Pop but not much. After all why spend a fiver a head, plus drinks to watch three amateur bands, going home at closing time; when you could to a club for the same price, plus a few quid for 'extras' and dance all night, with far more chance of hearing tunes you knew and loved.

That was only part of it though. Every gig I played we were responsible for promoting it, responsible for pulling bodies through the door. Which is fine, but surely as a business a venue should also take responsibility for it? I remember the back pages of the music papers being filled with ads for all sorts of venues back in the 80s, listing all sorts of unknown bands. Posters around town, you knew what bands were playing even if you didn't know who they were. By the mid to late 90s there was none of that.

...very good at squandering/ignoring our musical heritage in Britain.

A couple of years ago I took my daughter to Wardour Street to show her the site of the Marquee Club.

Here it was that Hendrix, Cream, The Who, Zeppelin, Bowie and just about everyone else of note played during the 60s & 70s.

Sadly, there was nothing to be seen at 90 Wardour Street, except for a small fragment of green tiling, all that remains of the original frontage.

We also visited the Station Hotel in Richmond, where the Stones regularly played in 1963.

Although the pub is still there (trading under a different name) there is absolutely no mention of its famous musical history anywhere. I mentioned this to the 20-something behind the bar and received a blank stare for my trouble.

Same thing at the nearby Richmond Athletic Ground, where the Crawdaddy Club moved when the Station Hotel became too small. As well as the Stones, The Yardbirds (with Clapton) also had a residency and Led Zeppelin, Long John Baldry, Elton John & Rod Stewart played there too.

You'd think a small plaque might be in order at these (and other) locations.

It wouldn't happen in America!

And I would dearly love to go to one of Ady Crosdale's do's there.

So here's something a little provincial.

The Princess Charlotte in Leicester closed two years ago. It was the mid size venue that attracted all the bands on the way up and on the way down. Lots of words were printed about how it was a terrible loss, where were the bands going to go, where were the kids going to go and so on.

The venue had been going down hill for a long time. Probably since 95/96. A change in layout, getting rid of the old bar in favour of one room, drove it from having a free social side to being just a venue. Better regional venues were attracting the tours. The beer was horrible. The toilets just awful. The sound dreadful due to a stone floor. But, we were told, it was a historic venue that had to be saved as Rat from Neds had once thrown up over the sound desk or something.

I completely recognise the scene of promoters expecting bands to do the promoting. Venue managers relying on tribute acts to get the bar take up. Pay to play and battle of the bands to cover the rent. It was a significant factor in the winding up of the Charlotte and no amount of rose tinted longing for the old days in a rubbish venue with an awful line up will make me miss the place. The place was competing with the Spa, the Student Pub, The Tesco Express for revenue to pay it's way.

Academy 02 have just opened up three rooms (1k, 500 & 250) on the University campus. A former Jongleurs has just opened up as a venue with 400 capacity and national booking. A former bingo hall in the middle of the city has opened with a 1k capacity. And half a dozen pubs have also opened up/re-jigged their entertainment to provide live music across the city. Throw in a more "economically minded" booking policy at the 2K De Montfort hall and Leicester has never had it so good for rock venues.

As an occasional performer and semi-regular gig goer I'm bemused by all this activity. I wish each business the best of luck but I don't fancy the chances of the new venues without the letter O and number 2 in their name.

...but yesterday I was parked alongside the East Finchley Phoenix which announces itself as the oldest working cinema in the UK. It's undergoing a major refurbishment and in a display at the side it recalls the names it's had in its 100-year-old history. It's clear that it's been threatened with closure a few times over the last century but has tended in each case to be rescued by some brave entrepreneur.

And now it's making another comeback. I shall make a note to go there every time I go past but the chances are I won't go more than once a year. Can they make a viable business out of customers like me?

I have a similar attitude to rock venues. No matter how much you may admire them or want to see some blue plaque recognition, the big issue is how many times do you go? It was always tough for rock gigs in London. Given people's leisure options nowadays it's far tougher than it's ever been before.

Not really true. Think off-hand of any of the really historic US club venues of the 60s and 70s (CBGBs, Max's Kansas City, Gerde's Folk City) and they're all gone. The Troubadour is still there but that's about it.

isn't to my mind very good. It can be really difficult to see the act and I've never found it's shallow but wide layout particulalrly endearing.
I recognise it has huge historical significance, but if a band / artist I want to see is on there, I have to see I inwardly groan and wish they'd play somewhere else.
I don't want to see it close, because it means one less venue, but by the same token I'm not likely to be heading down there any time soon.

rates are entirely the remit of the local council, which will need to raise as much as it spends on local services in order to balance the books. In that regard, any reduction in rates can only come from increasing the tax on home-owners or cutting services.

Rent: sure, there's some profiteering going on but many, many buildings are ultimately owned by the pension funds we're all relying on to shell out when we hit 61, 65, 66 or whatever the retirement age is this week. (That said, we need a far more flexible market with other than 25 year, no break, upward review only leases!)

Heritage? Come off it! I think we're in danger of over-rating our little corner of the cultural world if we go down that path. My view is that we spend too much time agonising over this and attempting to preserve buildings that are frighteningly expensive to maintain or are situated in places that are no longer convenient. Knock 'em down and/or redevelop them. Rock n' roll will find another venue as long as people want to go and watch it.

Given that there are (I believe) businesses above it, how much will the council stand to make from renting out a basement? Following the closure of the Charing Cross Road Marquee, Astoria, Astoria 2/Mean Fiddler, the Embassy Rooms and the Metro, there would be no small-to-mid-sized venues in that bit of Central London anymore apart from the Borderline. And given that the eating, drinking and shopping enjoyed by gig-goers in the vicinity of the 100 club will stop, the council are being a bit short-sighted. It won't close those eateries and shops, but they'll notice when a few extra hundred punters aren't there of an early evening. They won't be swapping their musical evening for a four-hour trip to a subterranean Starbucks.

Too loud, over-priced nasty beers, a late licence meaning you miss the last bus despite responsibilities, unspeakable khazis, nowhere to sit... remind me, what's so good about club and pub gigs? I say this despite fond memories of seeing Alberto Y Los Trios Paranoias at the nashville, Tom Petty at the old Marquee, and the sacred Andre Williams at the Charlotte, Leicester. Oh, and the UK Subs at the 100 Club.

Paul Kingsnorth's book, "Real England: The Battle Against The Bland", is a varied collection of examples of quirkiness being elbowed out by blandness due to many of the same forces behind the 100 Club's troubles. It's not a particularly gripping read, but it helps to summarise where the problems lie and suggests what might be done to improve things.
http://www.paulkingsnorth.net/realengland.html

same after the Birmingham Odeon became a full time cinema. And now JBs in Dudley is going bust.

They're not in London by the way.

I kind of don't want a gig venue in the heart of the West End. That's for people who want to go to Planet Hollywood, drink Starbucks Frothy brown slop, hang around waiting for some non-entity to turn up for a Premiere at the Odeon and get their iPhone stolen in the crowds.

It's a shame to lose a bit of Rock history but that is generally the way of venues and nightclubs, they come and go. They re-open somewhere else (see The Cavern, The Haçienda etc).

You can leave traces of these things. The Free Trade Hall in Manchester where the Pistols played 'that' gig, and where a man shouted 'Judas' is gone although the façade is still there and you can have your photo taken outside it (and there are bits of dressing room wall preserved somewhere in the new building I believe). That's probably enough for most, it actually was a rotten venue for rock music!

London is full of great venues, and I've been mightily impressed by my recent visits to the Lexington (just across from Word Towers!) and the newly re-opened 'Relentless' Highbury Garage. Great sound, good beer, friendly staff, great place to enjoy music...what more do you want?

When it is a real shame is when a small city or town loses a live venue and there is nothing else to replace it. Then literally, Bands won't play no more (too much fightin' on the dancefloor')