Chelsea’s 606 Club has been ‘the jazz hangout’ for half a century

‘Seeing people coming to the Club who don’t usually go to live music venues having a great time and learning to appreciate just how exciting live music can be is very rewarding’ - (Tatiana Gorilovsky)

“Financially fragile.” Those are the words used by the Music Venue Trust (MVT) last year to describe the state of the UK’s grassroots music sector in its annual report. The findings were damning (if, depressingly, not all that surprising), with more than half of the UK music scene’s grassroots music venues (GMVs) failing to turn a profit. 30 venues shut over the course of the year, with 6,000 jobs amounting to 19 per cent of the work force being lost.

While big-name supporters like Sam Fender, who donated his Mercury Prize winnings to the MVT, have highlighted the struggling state of independent music venues, not enough has been made of the scale of the problem and the threat this poses to the wider UK music scene. That’s why The Independent has teamed up with the Music Venue Trust and relaunched the Main Stage programme.