On Thursday night last week, Sea Power played a headline gig at the Roundhouse in London, a Grade II-listed former engine shed. A beautiful space and an important centre for youth arts education, it’s one of live music’s success stories.
A week later, the band will play at Sheffield’s Leadmill, the centre of a bitter row after the venue’s landlords issued a notice of eviction. Arctic Monkeys, Pulp and the Kaiser Chiefs have all joined a campaign to save the Leadmill, in the vein of dozens of similar efforts over the years to save famous venues, from Manchester’s Haçienda to London’s Fabric nightclub and CBGBs in New York. Many smaller venues have shut after these battles failed. The Bull & Gate, where I first saw Sea Power play 20 years ago, was a pub just up the road from the Roundhouse, and is now closed, a fate shared by many rooms they’ve haunted during their long career.
