The first episode of new music documentary and live performance format The Live Revival premieres this week (Thursday, May 20) on Sky Arts.
Produced by CC-Lab, the three-episode series shines a light on hard-hit small music venues and features artists including Paul Weller, Amy Macdonald, Frank Turner and Sleaford Mods giving one-off performances in the venues they gigged in at the start of their careers.
Other artists interviewed for the series to recall the impact these venues had on their careers include Noel Gallagher, Paul Weller, David Gray, Sharleen Spiteri, Skin, Ben Lovett (Mumford & Sons), Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols), The Fratellis, Pauline Black, Tom Grennan and James.
The series' premiere is timely given indoor venues were permitted to reopen on the UK, subject to capacity restrictions, on Monday.
UK live music industry figures such as George Akins (DHP Family), Geoff Ellis (DF Concerts), Danni Brownsill (Stoke Sugarmill), Jeff Horton (100 Club) and Beverley Whitrick (Music Venue Trust) also appear to give insight, while iconic pubs, clubs and music venues such as 100 Club and Omeara in London, Thekla in Bristol, Rock City in Nottingham and King Tut's in Glasgow will all feature.
The Live Revival airs on Sky Arts on May 20, May 27 and June 3 at 9pm.
If there were no grassroots music venues, it's not that you wouldn't have stadium and arena-level acts, they'd just all be chosen by someone like Simon Cowell
Frank Turner
Here are 10 of the standout quotes about the grassroots scene to listen out for in the first episode:
"If this [music venue] was a theatre or a ballet or something, it would have a preservation order on it and it would be government-funder. But because it's 'only music' there isn't that opportunity. But I think we've got to preserve these places and look after them because there's so much history here. There's so much cultural history that's attached to these places."
Paul Weller
"Music is of the utmost importance to people - people live and breathe it."
Noel Gallagher
"I think of the years I hammered away on the small gig circuit and now I can reflect on that period as a sort of apprenticeship."
David Gray
"We develop the artist, we lose money on the first few plays while we're building the artist and then they're gone because they're too big to play at this capacity anymore and sometimes we don't make that money back. We don't care, we realise that's just the way it works."
Danni Brownsill, The Sugarmill, Stoke
"You're spitting out the words, there's sweat dripping off you, it's literally... sexual."
Sharleen Spiteri, Texas
"We had David Bowie play here in the mid '90s, The Cure at their high, Blur at their high, so a lot of bands that had gone beyond Rock City came back to play here. And a lot of them cite the intimacy of the way we're set up."
George Akins, Rock City, Nottingham
"If there were no grassroots music venues, it's not that you wouldn't have stadium and arena-level acts, they'd just all be chosen by someone like Simon Cowell."
Frank Turner
"There's been live music here, in this basement, since 1942."
Jeff Horton, 100 Club
"There's nothing wrong with great pop music, but it cannot just be that. If we don't support those little venues we're just going to see the quality of British music begin to, very slowly, degrade."
Skin, Skunk Anansie
"The problem that grassroots music venues have had is a lot of the time they're perceived as bars that do some music. I've never been in a theatre or arts centre that doesn't also have a bar. So why aren't they bars that do theatre?"
Beverley Whitrick, Music Venue Trust
