![\"Jill](\"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/jill-lorean.jpg\")
<\/a>\u00a0<\/h2>\nWhere’s the life line?<\/h2>\n
This is a long time for The Glad Caf\u00e9 to survive with an integral part of its business model taken away \u2013 and this is a place that, although it is an important artistic hub, isn\u2019t entirely dependent on the live music industry to bring punters through the door.\u00a0 What about the places that are devoted entirely to the previously ceaseless cycle of touring acts and local shows? What about nightclubs? While there have been some successful crowdfunding campaigns to help (The Hug and Pint <\/a>were quick off the mark, and the support shown worldwide for the Subclub <\/a>was astonishing, such schemes are solutions only in the short-term, temporary measures – helpful and potentially life saving to be sure \u2013 but temporary. Government support is essential, which is where the Music Venue Trust has proven its worth.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018Without their lobbying, advice and support most of your favourite venues would already be throwing in the towel,\u2019 Smillie says of the MVT, \u2018and the Government would not have stumped up the money you\u2019ve heard about.\u2019 The Glad are set to benefit from what Smillie describes as \u2018a fraction of the millions the Scottish Government have to spend on cultural venues\u2019. This will help keep The Glad afloat, but Smillie continues to look out for more funding schemes, such is the precarious position he, and his venue, are in. It\u2019s stressful and often frustrating. \u2018The Grassroots Music Venues Stabilisation Fund has only just opened for applications even though the \u00a397m was announced at the start of July! That isn\u2019t really good enough. Things have to move quicker so more businesses don\u2019t go bust.\u2019<\/p>\n What will remain of the live music industry when it\u2019s safe to open the doors to venues, either as socially distanced operations or – a distant hope \u2013 as they once were? Will there still be an appetite for shows? Or will we be so accustomed to entertaining ourselves in the comfort of our own homes? I ask Smillie if this is a concern: \u2018I think people want to get back to seeing live bands again,\u2019 he laughs. \u2018There is something incredibly special about being in the crowd, watching an act that you love, looking over at someone you don\u2019t know, watching them cry and joining in! I love the Sopranos but it\u2019s not the same, is it?\u2019<\/p>\n Ronan Kealy, better known by his stage name Junior Brother, spent the first half of the year gallivanting around Europe with The Murder Capital, before a run of his own headline gigs took him up and down the UK. His Glasgow show in February took place slapbang in the eye of Storm Brendan, a lifetime ago, and on reflection a comparatively benign force of disruption.<\/p>\n He was grateful for some down time, if anxious about the virus and its impact. As well as chilling out, Kealy\u2019s used the last six months to finish recording the follow up to 2019\u2019s Pull The Right Rope, <\/i>his brilliantly idiosyncratic debut album that, along with a captivating live show marks him as one of his country\u2019s most exciting folk musicians. \u2018I was up in Analogue Catalogue (Julie McLarnon\u2019s vintage recording studio in County Down) recording the next record,\u2019 he says, \u2018we were in the middle of it when the lockdown hit. So by the time things lifted and I went back in, we got pretty much everything tracked – such was the time I had to tweak all the arrangements during quarantine!\u2019<\/p>\n I\u2019m curious to talk to Kealy.\u00a0 He’s the only person I know, who has played a gig in recent times \u2013 a socially distanced double header in Cork back in July. Could this be a viable option for Scotland? Something that could give venues a shot in the arm while we wait for the fabled vaccination and the all clear for business as usual?\u00a0 Kealy is positive about the experience.\u00a0 \u2018I did two shows in one night in the Kino, a fantastic converted cinema. The Good Room, who put the show on, really did an amazing job keeping everyone safe and sticking to the guidelines. So much so, you would wonder why live venues have not been entrusted more to put on more shows, given how successful these ones were.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n Closer to home, Carla J Easton is celebrating the release of her most recent album WEIRDO, <\/i>now one week old. Two years in the making, it was more or less ready for release when lockdown hit. \u2018It’s become so ingrained in me that you have to perform live in order to promote your work and make people aware of it, especially after the work has been released,\u2019 Easton tells me. \u2018My big worry is what life my album will have in this strange new world. I spent two years working on it and getting it to the point where I thought \u201cthis is finished and I am ready to share it\u201d. Touring or performing a record once it’s released is part of the celebration of a finished body of work – for me anyway. Like exhibiting a piece of art. It leaves the studio and takes on a life of it’s own and in new spaces takes on new meaning. My album won’t have that.\u2019<\/p>\n Easton is a resilient character.\u00a0 While not being able to play live has obvious downsides, she\u2019s launched a fanclub called Dreamers on the Run<\/a> \u00a0where fans are able to support her financially in exchange for merchandise, exclusive artwork and invitations to intimate listening parties. \u2018I was quite honest in my reasons for doing it,\u2019 she says. \u2018When you are DIY, though it is a lot of hard work, you quickly realise that you aren’t alone and people want to help you and support you.\u2019<\/p>\n It\u2019s something, but it\u2019s not the real thing, and no substitute for the highs and lows of live performance.\u00a0 \u2018I miss drums,\u2019 she begins. \u2018 I miss that a lot. I miss being in a tiny studio with my band rehearsing. I miss ringing ears after a show and being euphorically tired. I miss the community of live music \u2013 all the people that make it happen and all the people you meet. I miss going to a gig and making friends with someone and the only basis for that friendship starting is that you were in the same room at the same time celebrating the music you love.\u2019 And the bad? \u2018I don’t miss the constant promotion and worry of how many tickets I’ve sold. Or the financial stress of whether or not I lose money, break even or turn a small profit from performing \u2013\u00a0 usually I’m the latter. But mostly I miss being able to do my job. Which is to get on stage, plug in my synth and sing for people.\u2019<\/p>\n Kealy\u2019s testimony excites me. There\u2019s no end in sight to COVID19.\u00a0 No definite end point. There are predictions based on science, and hard work being done in that community, but nothing is agreed and nothing is guaranteed. We continue to play the waiting game. In the interim it makes sense for there to be some sort of solution. The Eat Out To Help Out was a great boost to the hospitality industry, albeit making a larger dent in Rishi Sunak\u2019s budget than was expected. Is there an option for a similar scheme to boost venues? Or is there no money for such a scheme (with it all sitting in the accounts of tech billionaires who, you know, think we should all just work harder). The socially distanced show won\u2019t work for everyone \u2013 but it would work for many. Even if venues like The Glad Caf\u00e9 are only able to welcome 30% of their usual crowd, it would get the ball rolling, gets engineers working, get musicians like Carla J. Easton doing their jobs again.<\/p>\n Kealy says nobody criticised him or anyone at the Kino for embarking on their endeavour to navigate the choppy waters of a public health crisis and find a solution. \u2018The venue did such a great job distancing everyone and presented the space so well that in any footage or photos, it was quite clear all regulations were being followed,\u2019 he says. While the experiment was a success, it\u2019s not quite become the norm yet in the Republic.\u00a0 \u2018There haven’t been many gigs, no,\u2019 Kealy admits. \u2018Some socially distanced gigs are starting to happen though, most recently in Dublin, with a max of fifty people indoors I think. You’d like to think these kinds of shows are a stopgap to keep the industry going until things get back to normal. The optimist in me says that will be the case.\u2019\u00a0 The optimist in me yearns for something similar.<\/p>\n Junior Brother – Full of Wine \u00a0httpss:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=B0i6Ojm9P5c<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\nIn the eye of the storm<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Dreamers on the run\u00a0\u00a0<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nLet’s get the ball rolling<\/h2>\n
Further viewing<\/h4>\n