The 1975‘s Matty Healy has warned against the consequences of losing indie music venues.
The singer made the remarks in support of the Seed Sounds Weekender, a nationwide, multi-venue festival that will run between from September 26 and 28 this year. It supports “seed venues”, which often support emerging artists – and early shows by household names like The 1975 themselves.
Healy, who is acting as this year’s festival ambassador, said in a statement (per the BBC) that “local venues aren’t just where bands cut their teeth, they’re the foundation of any real culture. Without them, you don’t get The Smiths, Amy Winehouse, or The 1975. You get silence.”
He added that “the erosion of funding for seed and grassroots spaces is part of a wider liberal tendency to strip away the socially democratic infrastructure that actually makes art possible. What’s left is a cultural economy where only the privileged can afford to create, and where only immediately profitable art survives.”
The Weekender, Healy concluded, is “a vital reminder that music doesn’t start in boardrooms or big arenas; it starts in back rooms, pubs, basements, and independent spaces run on love, grit, and belief in something bigger.”
Healy has previously shown his support for grassroots venues; he reportedly tried to buy the flat at the centre of the Night & Day Cafe noise dispute in an effort to help save the venue.
The Manchester venue was hit with a noise complaint from a resident who had moved to Manchester during the lockdown, with the partner of the complainant telling the court that he’d become a “recluse” and lost 30kg due to stress.
In an Instagram post shared by Night & Day in 2022, the frontman also wrote that the venue’s potential closure “CANNOT happen,” adding that “the council need to drop the case.”
However, Healy’s interest in buying the flat reportedly cooled upon learning that the council could still pursue action against the venue despite his potential purchase. It was eventually ruled that Night & Day could continue as a music venue and nightclub.
In a report from the beginning of this year, the Music Venue Trust shared that the UK was losing one grassroots music venue every fortnight.
As the Trust shared their findings at the Houses of Parliament in January, patron Kate Nash also said that many artists could simply not afford to tour – something she described as “a fucking disgrace”.
Combined with grassroots venues having closed at a “disastrous rate”, a “complete collapse of touring” across the UK has been afflicting small venues across the country – with the Music Venue Trust demanding a “full, long overdue reform”.
With the government’s backing of a levy on tickets to gigs at arena level and above to support smaller venues, it appears as though 2025 could be a game-changing year for funding the UK grassroots.
Elsewhere, Denise Welch has commented on Matty Healy’s split from Taylor Swift: “Being her mother-in-law is a role I’m glad I lost”.
