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The Independent is continuing with its Main Stage initiative to support grassroots music venues, this month with a spotlight feature on Voodoo in Belfast.
Instantly recognisable for its black and crimson red exterior and matching decor inside, Voodoo has been managed by Micky Brown since its launch in 2011, with Ciaran Smyth as owner.
Smyth originally worked in engineering and property development before becoming involved in another music venue.
“It was a steep learning curve,” he recalled. “I wasn’t in management, but I saw potential doing that elsewhere. This was at a time when live audiences had died away, a lot of stuff was closing… so maybe it was mad to try working somewhere else, but the community I was in still loved live music.”
He described music in Belfast as “the great leveller, where people from all different communities could come together, and that to me really appealed.
“Because our staff come from everywhere and are all into music, I was reasonably confident that I could make a success of it,” he added. “It wasn’t a good area but it had potential.”
Smyth said that the downstairs bar “comes alive” whenever a live show is taking place: “There’s a community of people who love music here. Everyone works very hard, and a lot of the staff are musicians themselves.
“Two very important genres in Belfast are punk and metal, and while we try to vary our genres to keep our reach as wide as possible, that’s kind of where we came from.”
The area around Voodoo was “pretty rough” when it first started, he explained, but eventually took on a “whole different light”.
“We’re almost a victim of our own success because we don’t own the venue,” he said. “It is a big concern, because our lease is up in 2028, so I have to start figuring out our options. The problem is, my own family put a lot of money into this place to build it up, and it’s worked out well, but we’re trying to get another place going.
“The Music Venue Trust is an incredible organisation. When I first started there was nobody, so I was very quick to jump on board when they came along. The grassroots music scene doesn’t make money – what makes money is the social thing, everyone coming into the bar and having a drink – that funds everything.”
Voodoo recently launched a new scheme calling for new bands to apply to perform at the venue: “Something like 35 or 40 new bands have applied, and we put this on on a Wednesday night – the first one started last week. That’s a recent initiative we’re doing, because apparently we didn’t have enough to do already!”
Launched in association with the Music Venue Trust, the charity organisation founded in 2014 to help protect and support Britain’s independent music venues, the Main Stage project comes after warnings that the sector is in the middle of a “full-blown crisis”.
Grassroots music venues (GMVs) frequently serve as a launch pad for up-and-coming talent, with virtually all of the UK’s biggest acts starting out on some of its smallest stages. Artists including Ed Sheeran, Lewis Capaldi, Wolf Alice, Coldplay, Arlo Parks and Stormzy all started out performing in grassroots venues.
Despite this, a damning report by the MVT published in January showed that an average of two grassroots music venues closed permanently every week in 2023, marking what industry figures branded the “most challenging” year in a decade.
In its year-long initiative, The Independent will highlight one grassroots venue from each of the 12 UK regions, and speak with the people who help to run it to highlight the struggles and successes they have experienced.
Honorary mentions go to:
The Black Box, Belfast
Oh Yeah Music Centre, Belfast
The Duncairn, Belfast
The Courthouse, Bangor
