Last week, the Music Venue Trust revealed that 67 venues had closed so far in 2023 and the trust estimates that 100 venues will be closed by the end of the year, constituting for 10 per cent of the independent venues in the country.

The Music Venue Trust have been pushing big music industry players like major record labels and the country’s arena venues to pump more money into the independent music venue industry.

With this open letter, the Music Venue Trust has doubled down on this push by asking the UK Government to extend business relief for its members.

MVT CEO Mark Davyd told NME “Between us finishing our report at Friday at 5pm and coming back at 10am on Monday morning, two more venues closed,”. The venues reference were Jimmy’s in Liverpool and The Brass in Hastings, two venues which closed across the weekend.

Davyd continued, saying: “Our report shows that we’ve gone from 960 venues in October of last year to 835 that are actually operating. That’s 125 less and a 15.7 per cent decline. Venues haven’t just closed down, but some of them have also given up putting on live music. The only way that they could afford to survive was to stop putting on live music and start selling pizzas.”

“On top of that, there is the current relief of 75 per cent off business rates. That’s due to end on March 31, which means that venues will go back to paying the business rates they were paying in 2018. Without a doubt, that will see the sector collapse because there is no way that they can afford to pay it. That’s £15million in extra costs.”

Davyd is also pushing for the wider music industry, especially in the live music scene, to have a “major intervention” regarding the extreme issues independent music venues are facing. About this he said: “There’s going to have to be movement from the industry itself too. They can’t just sit around making oceans of money and declaring this to be the greatest year ever for live music, all while venues are closing down every day.”

“There have been 120 emergency response cases so far this year, and there are 60 live cases today from venues that are at risk of closing down. I don’t think people have really understood. When this happens, the impact rolls out everywhere. If there are 20 per cent less venues to play in next year, then that will mean that some tours just can’t happen.”

“These venues are all over the UK, and everything is in complete free-fall. It’s as dire as it can be. It’s not possible to exaggerate it at this point.”

Following Sinead O’Connor’s tragic passing in July 2023, Cyrus has reflected on the feud she had with the Irish singer-songwriter following the release of the “Wrecking Ball” music video a decade ago. Cyrus gained notoriety for the video in which she was shown swinging on a wrecking ball, naked. As of 2023, the video has over 1 billion views and marked a clear departure from Cyrus’s Disney Channel beginnings.

O’Connor penned a scathing open letter to Cyrus in 2013, despite writing “it is said in the spirit of motherliness and with love.”

O’Connor said, “I am extremely concerned for you that those around you have led you to believe, or encouraged you in your own belief, that it is in any way ‘cool’ to be naked and licking sledgehammers in your videos. It is in fact the case that you will obscure your talent by allowing yourself to be pimped, whether its the music business or yourself doing the pimping.”

She continued, “Nothing but harm will come in the long run, from allowing yourself to be exploited, and it is absolutely NOT in ANY way an empowerment of yourself or any other young women, for you to send across the message that you are to be valued (even by you) more for your sexual appeal than your obvious talent.”

In her ABC documentary appearance, Cyrus has addressed how she felt at the time, saying, “At the time when I made ‘Wrecking Ball’, I was expecting for there to be controversy and backlash, but I don’t think I expected other women to put me down or turn on me, especially women that had been in my position before.”

Cyrus had shared in 2013 that O’Connor’s music video for her 1990 hit “Nothing Compares 2 U” had inspired her, and responded to the open letter by mocking O’Connor’s mental health issues following the backlash.

Cyrus has now shared, “I had no idea about the fragile mental state that she was in.”

She continued, “I was also only 20 years old. So I could really only wrap my head around mental illness so much and all that I saw was that another woman had told me that this idea was not my idea. Even if I was convinced that it was, it was still just men in power’s idea of me and they had manipulated me to believe that it was my own idea when it never really was. And it was. And it is. And I still love it.”

Cyrus concluded that she was making “my own choices and my own decisions. To have that taken away from me deeply upset me.”

Cyrus ended her reflection on the feud by saying, “God bless Sinéad O’Connor for real, in all seriousness” before performing her track “Wonder Woman” with “Dedicated to Sinead O’Connor” written across the screen.

Having been apart for 35 years, tensions still remain unresolved between the band’s two lead songwriters, Morrissey and Johnny Marr. Morrissey published an open letter on his website yesterday, pleading Marr to stop mentioning him in interviews.

Called “a polite and calmly measured request“, throughout the 380 words Morrissey criticises Marr for talking as if he were “my personal psychiatrist with consistent and uninterrupted access to my instincts“. He says Marr blames him “for everything … from the 2007 Solomon Islands tsunami to the dribble on your grandma’s chin“. He notes how their days together were “many lifetimes ago, and a lot of blood has streamed under the bridge since then“, and that Marr should “take responsibility for your own actions and your own career, with which I wish you good health to enjoy“. The message ends with “Please stop. It is 2022, not 1982“.

Despite the harsh words, Marr doesn’t seem that put off, replying briefly with a tweet saying “Dear @officialmoz. An ‘open letter’ hasn’t really been a thing since 1953, It’s all ‘social media’ now. Even Donald J Trump had that one down. Also, this fake news business…a bit 2021 yeah ?“

Dear @officialmoz . An ‘open letter’ hasn’t really been a thing since 1953, It’s all ‘social media’ now. Even Donald J Trump had that one down. Also, this fake news business…a bit 2021 yeah ?#makingindiegreatagain

— Johnny Marr (@Johnny_Marr) January 26, 2022

Seeming determined not to appear rankled by it all, he also posted a picture on Instagram of himself lying in a hammock for good measure.

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Johnny Marr (@johnnymarrgram)

Marr had recently talked in an interview about how Morrissey was the only ex-bandmate with whom he wasn’t close to, citing their tensions as being due to them being “so different“. He likened being in a band to “a bit like army buddies or being in a submarine“, saying that loyalty was paramount for dealing with the stress and tensions that often come up.

Looking back on it all, Marr said “Everyone I’ve worked with has been great. The only thing that turned to shit was The Smiths. Which is a shame, but shit happens. I hate talking about the group I formed in those terms, the group I loved. But, you know, let’s get some perspective.“

Despite Morrissey and Marr seeming unlikely to be on stage together any time soon, you can still enjoy their solo work. Marr has a new album out February 25^th, titled Fever Dreams Pts 1-4, having already released the single “Night and Day“. He’ll also be going on tour with Blondie this April. Morrissey also has some dates coming up in America this May, but his album Bonfire of Teenagers (which was announced last year) is still in the works for a proper release.