Our Political Patrons

The Music Venue Trust has support from all three major political parties. We are working with politicians, local authorities and national agencies to create a legal framework that protects and secures the future of live music venues. Our political patrons are Kerry McCarthy, The Labour Party, Mike Weatherley MP, Conservatives, and Lord Tim Clement-Jones, Liberal Democrats. Each of our Trustees and Patrons has written a special message for us explaining why they want you to support this project and what live music means to them. 

Kerry McCarthy MP (Labour)
The establishment of the Music Venue Trust comes at a critical time. There has been a worrying decline in small music venues and the irreplaceable loss of classic venues, such as the Bull & Gate in Kentish Town. Just recently in Bristol, there are signs that Government changes to permitted development rights to change use of buildings from commercial to residential are causing problems for some of the city’s best-loved venues. Small venues have always played a fundamental role in breaking and nurturing new music – their survival is important for ensuring that successful bands continue to emerge from the grassroots (from “a bunch of guys” getting together with “some shitty old instruments”, as Dave Grohl puts it), and not just from the X-Factor or the BRIT school. They also help maintain Britain’s thriving and diverse alternative music scenes, for those bands that may never play to larger audiences. But critically, they also help sustain the cultural scenes and creative economies of many towns and cities, creating employment and attracting people into city centres. I am very pleased to help support the work of Music Venue Trust in its innovative plan to help small music venues to carry on, as part of a protected network.

Mike Weatherley MP (Conservative)
I was delighted to become a Patron of the Music Venue Trust. Small venues are essential for new talent to launch careers and, quite simply, great fun to attend. As the founder of Rock the House, a Parliamentary competition to raise awareness of the importance of Intellectual Property and live music, promoting small music venues is a core part of the initiative and vital to a thriving British music industry.

Lord Tim Clement-Jones (Lib Dem)
I am delighted to have been asked to be a patron of the Music Venue Trust. Small venues are the bedrock of live music industry and the incubators of new talent. My Live Music Act was designed to clear away some of the red tape tape which surrounds them but if they are allowed to disappear it will all have been in vain. The Music Venue Trust is the start of the preservation fightback.  

Become your local Venue Champion. We can give you the tools and work with you to protect the place you love and ensure it stays a music venue. Contact us today at  musicvenuetrust@gmail.com