I’m sure the news of Mojo’s decision to pull live music has reached you by now but I would just like to go over a few things. This article is about larger venues…

The scene is getting smaller by the second with continuous closures cropping up around the city. Now as with all things, this has it’s pros and cons but as the pros take time to kick it’s hard not to dwell on what is happening. The Masque closes, CUC announces closure, now Mojo is stopping live events? These are the venues that provided us with some of the best gigs of 2011. Of course there are other venues like the Lomax and the Kazimer but how long will these last? It was only a matter of days a go we counted Mojo as one of our Masque alternatives. Saying that, I suppose the chances are that our remaining venues will have a better chance of survival than the ones fallen due to the amount of investment consequently put in them. The what seemed to be spread thin music scene will now become condensed to a handful of venues. But what I loved about this city was the variety.

First off, I am just talking about larger venues here. Venues with a potential for larger independent gigs. All I see as options now are the absolutely fantastic venues that are the Kazimier and the newly re-opened historical venue, the LoMax. The Kazimier has turned me down for putting a gig on based on the nature of the event. I’m not saying, their choice is a bad thing, they have to keep an image to a certain extent but regardless of this, how many of our bigger gigs can we expect the Kazimier to be the home to? I’m just saying that if we need an alternative venue of a certain capacity, all we are left with now is the LoMax on the other end of town or the expensive O2. Masque and Mojo used to provide middle ground venues for promoters with small budgets and big dreams.

Mojo provided us with a clean cut, smart venue that encouraged people of all walks of life to come watch music. Not just us smelly musos. I know people can be very protective of the scene but if we want people to turn up to gigs isn’t it obvious we need to expand our reach to everyone in Liverpool? (Except angry scallies, no one needs angry scallies). I saw one suggestion amongst a list on a facebook status that we need to have a dress code against chinos? What would that do? It’s this kind of snobbish out look towards others that has an effect. The idea of segregation that separates people. The whole point is we need to bring people together. I wear chinos, Ever Island wear chinos, loads of active people on the scene wear chinos. If it wasn’t for chino wearers things would be a lot worse! People are saying we constantly need to cut certain things and certain people out in order to expand but it’s the exact opposite! We need to be inviting people from all walks of life in to our musical community.

We keep everything close packed, small and select and then complain when people don’t turn up. None muso locals would go to Mojo at the weekend and because of this would be more inclined to pay to see someone live there. It played great music in a mainstream friendly place. The scene is just too small and Mojo was our gateway to the rest of the city and vice versa. It was a venue that attracted big names that the whole of Liverpool would like to see as well as played host to Club Lazy Genius, Liverpool’s best local band supporting night. Now it’s turned in to another Baa Bar or Revolution.

Now that there are just a few venues left and the scene is more proportionate maybe things can start to thrive again. But we need to remember music is for the people, all people. That’s how we get the scene thriving again.

Words: Joe ManGone

Image: Three Trapped Tigers @ Mojo. Music Week 2011.

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