Club backs 'Taylor Swift tax' to help small venues

Smaller venues want a levy on shows by major stars such as Taylor Swift

A jazz club has backed calls to support struggling grassroots venues through a “Taylor Swift tax” on major stadium and arena shows.

Jordan Vincent, from Matt and Phred’s in Manchester, said a £1 per ticket levy for bigger shows could be used to pay artists at smaller venues.

He said the Northern Quarter venue, which puts on original music gigs for free, could not afford to “give back to creatives”.

The tax has been named after the global superstar because of the cost of tickets at such big acts’ shows.

The idea of the levy came after the Music Venue Trust found more than 125 small venues closed or stopped putting on live music in 2023.

The charity’s Jay Taylor said its £1 levy proposal would help grassroots venues like Matt and Phred’s, which were finding and “creating those artists of tomorrow”.

“If they want those arenas to have anything on the stage at all apart from holograms, they need to sort reinvesting in the grassroots sector,” he said.

Mr Vincent said Matt and Phred’s would give the money “straight back” to the musicians, adding the Oldham Street club was “not here to sell beer”, but “to get music out there to the masses”.

A spokesman for the AO Arena in Manchester said grassroots venues form the “building blocks to the success of arenas like ours”.

He said the arena had offered marketing support to independent local venues like Band On The Wall, New Century Hall and The Snug in Atherton.

The arena was actively supporting local musicians through fund raising and “opportunities to play on our stage”, the spokesman said.

Royal Northern College of Music graduate and musician Ellen Beth Abdi said venues like Matt and Phred’s were “absolutely essential” for artists like her.

She said grassroots gig spaces were a “really important springboard”, and the costs involved in putting on gigs was “very tricky” to manage.

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