A crowdfunder for the publication of Sweaty Ceilings, a book celebrating London’s independent music venues, has been launched.
The book is a celebration of the city’s grassroots music venues such as The Windmill, 100 Club, Roundhouse, Moth Club, Koko, Seabright Arms, Cafe Oto, Shacklewell Arms and many more.
Spearheaded by multidisciplinary artist and designer Sophie Mo and music manager Tash Cutts, Sweaty Ceilings will go behind-the-scenes of 30 landmark venues, showcasing interviews and stories from writers, musicians and cultural figureheads, all of whom shed light on the venues’ history and cultural importance. It will also include an additional spotlight feature on venues that have closed down.
The book will feature a foreword by The Libertines‘ Carl Barât as well as exclusive interviews with musicians, bookers, photographers and many more.
In a press release, Felix White, of the Maccabees and 86TVs, said, “There will never be a better or more important time to document and celebrate independent venues across London. Even reading the list of the featured venues for Sweaty Ceilings is like a flashback of meeting lifelong friends, or seeing all kinds of special bands for the first time. I’m sure every music fan will feel the same.”
The book will also feature design and illustration work from Simon Hayes, as well as photography from those who are at the heart of the scene such as Holly Whitaker, Bridie Cummings, Nicole Osrin, Nina Radel, Alice Backham, Lindsay Melbourne, Tom Ham, Marilena Vlachopoulou, Jake Lewis, Ed Norton, Anna Louise Yorke, Danny North, Beth Knight and more.
Sweaty Ceilings will be available to pre-order via Indiegogo here. Funds will go towards the creation and printing of the book.
Fans are also encouraged to send their favourite venue stories and photos of any gig memorabilia to archives@sweatyceilings.live which will be collated for the book. Visit SweatyCeilings.live for more information.
Each sale of the book will go towards supporting Music Venue Trust, a UK charity that protects, secures and improves grassroots music venues. It was reported that 2023 was the worst year for venue closures and saw 125 grassroots venues shut down – causing a loss of 4,000 jobs, with 14,500 events no longer possible and 193,230 opportunities lost to musicians.
At the beginning of this year, a report was published showing the “disaster” that struck the UK’s grassroots music venues in 2023, and called for the increase of a ticket levy on larger arenas and investment from the wider industry.
“Across the FAC’s artist community, there is growing discontentment about this issue – and the lack of acknowledgement from the wider industry. There are many artists who have built significant fanbases for their recorded music, but who cannot make the economics of domestic touring stack up. They either have to scale back the ambitions of their live shows, or rely on favours just to cover costs,” he explained.
“These decisions are often occurring at the most crucial moment, when artists are just breaking through and building ‘momentum’. It leaves them snookered, and struggling to pay musicians to present their music properly in a live setting.
As well as stifling the development of new talent, it also stunts the development of new audiences – an essential factor to the future success of the UK’s live music sector.”
Various figures from the UK grassroots live music scene spoke to NME about how 2023 was the “worst year for venue closures”.
Having made an impassioned plea at a government hearing into the call for a levy earlier this year, Lily Fontaine of English Teacher –the 2024 Mercury Prize winners for their debut LP ‘This Could Be Texas‘ – previously told NME of her joy at the DCMS’ call for a long-term response to help artists survive and thrive.
“It’s a relief that the enquiry has resulted in recognition at a governmental level that not only is the music industry ecosystem is in crisis, but that saving it and bettering it is important,” she said.
Elsewhere, the Music Venue Trust recently spoke to NME about how “Coldplay are providing a lifeline for new talent” in their effort to donate 10 per cent of all profits from their 2025 UK stadium shows to save the grassroots.
“The reason that Coldplay have done this is because they understand it. I booked them to play in my venue in Tunbridge Wells, The Forum,” Music Venue Trust’s CEO Mark Davyd told NME. “I saw them go out and meet everyone to sell their t-shirts so that they could afford their hotel rooms or put petrol in their van. They understand it, the message got through to them and they did something about it.
Coldplay frontman Chris Martin also spoke to NME about the decision to donate a percentage of the band’s profit to the Music Venue Trust and said: “The truth is that playing live is an important connection. It doesn’t bother me that there might not be another Coldplay, but it does bother me that there might not be acts that are free to start on the bottom rung and work all the way up – so that by the time they get to stadiums, they are really good. You can’t just jump into that.”
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