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T H O M A S D O U G L A S
OPINION
DAVID POLLOCK The mismatched nature of Edinburgh’s live music scene was put fi rmly under the microscope this year. Is there a viable solution to the various problems that our capital’s venues are experiencing?
Local elation at having a home- grown winner of the Mercury Prize Fathers in Young (pictured) was quickly tempered for those with one eye on what’s happening the capital’s music scene. ‘Edinburgh council are really fucking bad,’ said Graham ‘G’ Hastings in an interview with The Guardian published the following day. ‘They shut down anything if you try to make noise. I’ve been in studios where these guys come with meters and tell you to get out. It’s a city for tourists and rich, middle-class people, it’s not made for people to be creative.’ Then they declared they were off to Berlin to make the follow-up to DEAD.
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It might be easy to get sidetracked into a debate about how Edinburgh looks at Glasgow with envious eyes, sizing up its booming small, medium and large music venues, and regards its own mismatched selection of outlets with dismay. To do so wouldn’t be smart, though. Promoters, musicians and gig-goers in the east don’t want to live in Glasgow With A Castle. They want to be a part of a scene that succeeds on its own terms, and they want help in doing that. Not help, even – just an awareness from those who set the boundaries that proactively encouraging a vibrant music scene in the city creates tangible benei ts in terms of the economy and visibility of a city, both nationally and internationally. A couple of weeks later, the City of Edinburgh Council’s Culture and Sport Committee held Live Music Matters at the Usher Hall in an attempt to hear
10 THE LIST 11 Dec 2014–5 Feb 2015
‘Edinburgh’s status as Europe’s artistic centre in August needs to bleed across the year’
the thoughts of those on the city’s scene. To read some online talking points aimed at the subsequent Music Is Audible (dreadful name, granted) task force illustrates where the problems lie. Witness last month’s move to remove advertising hoardings from the Queen’s Hall because a ‘lone complainer’ objected to them, and the constant refrain that noise complaints are continually upheld, especially those from new developments that are built in the knowledge a venue exists nearby.
Plus there was a decision to rubberstamp the sale of the former Picture House to JD Wetherspoon – a private sale to a business with a degree of architectural respect for its properties, certainly, but one that leaves us wondering why venues that form part of the city’s creative infrastructure aren’t protected by planning decisions. Shortly after writing this, a privately organised mini- conference entitled Desire Lines will have been held at Summerhall, involving some of the wider arts organisations in similar discussions about Edinburgh’s artistic future. It’s to be hoped that someone in the council is listening to the recurring complaint that Edinburgh’s status as Europe’s artistic centre in August needs to bleed across the year, and that fostering such success needn’t cost money. All they need to do is arrive with the mindset that a healthy music scene is good for the city, then listen, discuss and facilitate from there. They might i nd those they engage with know how to run when they aren’t being continually tripped up.
David Pollock is a music and arts writer based in Edinburgh.