Why must yet another venue in the 'City of Music' make way for 'luxury' flats?
'It’s hard to shake the feeling of hopelessness that many in grassroots music circles are feeling right now'
By Laurence Thompson
The continued existence of certain things, against all odds and expectations, is so surprising we can scarcely believe it: like goblin sharks, gainfully employed millennial journalists, or Liverpool’s reputation as a music city. The endurance of the latter flies in the face of all the venues that have closed or stopped hosting gigs since Liverpool was named Capital of Culture in 2008: the Magnet, the Kazimier, MelloMello, the Wolstenholme, Sound Duke Street, Phase One, Drop the Dumbulls, Static, Nation, The Well, Studio2 Parr Street, Fall Out Factory, Buyers Club, and Constellations.
And it's not just clubs – last May, the world-famous Parr Street Studios were forced to move to Kempson Street after a proposal to turn the original venue into apartments and aparthotel units. Then, in September, independent radio station and music venue Melodic Distraction – which served as a nucleus for so many of Liverpool’s DJs, musicians, graphic designers, and videographers – shut down for good.
A rising star in this dying artistic firmament was Quarry (technically styled QUARRY), opened in February 2020; the project was explicitly a response to the demise of vital clubs and venues in the previous decade and the resulting lack of musical diversity. Their goal was to spotlight experimental acts as well as live theatre, while also serving as a collaborative hub for diverse artistic practice in the city. Quarry has been instrumental in booking under-the-radar or up-and-coming acts, both from around the world and locally.
Alas, after doing so much to reverse the trend, now Quarry, too, is under threat. And as with the Kazimier, the Wolstenholme, Parr Street and others, the looming danger is property development. While Quarry aims to successfully relocate, the situation throws the state of Liverpool’s music scene into sharp relief.
“It definitely feels like there are fewer alternative events in the city than there were 10 years ago — those that cater to particular musical tastes or let people be themselves in a safe and judgement-free environment,” Chrissy Connor, Quarry’s co-founder, tells me. “We have fond memories of going to the Kaz, MelloMello, Sound, and Drop the Dumbulls week in week out — we were spoilt for choice back then. By the time we opened Quarry, none of these spaces still existed, and this presented a gap for us to fill.”
And fill that gap they did. In the past few months alone, Quarry has welcomed Japanese neofolk group Mitsune, Swiss post-rock act Hubris, and London’s black feminist punk band Big Joannie. Quarry provided an experience few other venues in the region — let alone the city — can match. And it wasn’t just eclectic international artists they booked, but local ones too.
“As I DJ myself, I had my first few proper sets there with Plush, Ollie Cash’s collective,” says Tash Evans, herself a founder of Queensway Collective, a platform for underrepresented artists and DJs within the electronic music industry. “And then in the last year I’ve been putting on a club night there called WETT, that explores queer and kink-positive culture.” With the dearth of these kinds of spaces in the city’s nightlife, we discuss what a loss Quarry would be. “I have every hope, to be honest, it will reopen,” Evans says — the alternative is too frustrating to contemplate.
The physical venue, 17 Love Lane, was a vital element of Quarry’s project. Set into a disused railway arch, the intimate gloom lent Quarry an atmosphere unlike anywhere else. “It's just got a really special, unique energy about the place,” says Evans. “It's very dark alternative – you know, punky kind of vibes.”
“The industrial setting of the north docks is an almost perfect backdrop for a DIY venue,” Connor agrees. “If you look at the history of DIY and underground nightclubs, these kinds of locations are always present, probably as a result of cheaper rents and fewer neighbours.”
He adds that there is “something to be said about the audience experience of travelling to a venue on the fringes of the city that is special. Our audience is there because they want to be there.”
So why has Quarry been forced to close its doors? On Instagram, the CIC claimed that planning permission to turn the venue into a luxury apartment complex, applied for by Network Rail in partnership with a property developer, has just been approved.
A spokesperson for Network Rail told The Post: “A new residential and commercial scheme is being planned for the Ten Streets regeneration area in Liverpool that is being delivered by Cheshire based developer, Sourced Development Group. This is following planning permission being granted by Liverpool City Council that involves 507 new apartments. We fully appreciate that people and organisations need time to plan. This is why in advance of any work on site, tenants will be informed of any changes to their location.”
Sourced Development Group are responsible for several other “luxury” developments around Liverpool and Manchester, including the dystopian 56 at Westminster Park building, which offers “investors the opportunity to optimise their returns with short-term lettings”. Looking at their brochure, it’s not clear what’s particularly luxurious about even the two-bedroom flats – perhaps it’s the “fully carpeted bedrooms”. The group are also behind the proposed £70 million Scholars Court off Paul Street, the designs of which look like a game of Tetris played badly. We reached out to Sourced Development for comment, but they also did not reply.
The good news is that Quarry is not giving up. “In terms of recreating that atmosphere, what makes Quarry what it is cannot only be attributed to the building itself,” Connor says. “We've always said that 17 Love Lane is simply a tunnel with a great sound system — what's made 17 Love Lane Quarry is our team and the community standing firmly behind it.”
“The outpour of support we have received since announcing the closure of our beloved venue has meant the world,” the CIC behind the project posted on their Facebook page. “We are working hard towards securing a new venue to open in 2025. Many have reached out and asked if there was any way to help or donate, so we have decided to open this crowd fundraiser.”
For a “dark” and “alternative” project, the CIC’s optimism is edifying. But the fact that a costly move is necessary at all is an indictment of Liverpool’s priorities. And, truthfully, these problems extend beyond the city limits. In Leeds, the nightclub and music venue Cosmic Slop is under threat from a planning permission application from global investment fund Cheyne Capital, which would see 310 flats built adjacent. Wire and Sheaf Street also permanently shut in the last year, leaving residents fearful about the future of Leeds’s nightlife. A viral yellow poser that recently went up in Manchester could easily describe Leeds and Liverpool too:
Perhaps it’s parochial to believe that Liverpool should be any different in avoiding commercialisation, kitsch nostalgia, or voracious landlordism in favour of a vibrant contemporary arts scene.
The value of projects like Melodic Distraction and Quarry is that they encourage DIY participation. This subculture and ethos originally grew out of and transcended punk. Put simply: if Sid Vicious can play bass, you can publish a zine, release a record, start an underground film festival, run a gallery, or host your own guerilla gig.
Liverpool’s scenes have often benefited from that attitude: this is how Bill Drummond and David Balfe made Zoo vinyls in the late 70s – driving back and forth between Liverpool and London to record the band; master, cut and press a record; print sleeves; and sell copies to record shops themselves. It’s the kind of philosophy that once thrived at the Armadillo tea rooms on Mathew Street, where bands would form round the tables before going to play at Eric’s up the road.
Consciously or not, Quarry is part of that tradition: “Recently, we commenced our Next Step programme, providing funded opportunities for young promoters and event producers to develop their practices without financial risk,” co-founder Connor says.
At a time when arts funding has gone down and the cost of living has gone up, the arts can seem completely inaccessible to young and working-class people. Spaces that enable a creative ethic – as well as encourage cultural cross-pollination – are more important than ever. This kind of artistic praxis is how a genuine counterculture can be made possible – and perhaps that’s why the zones that engender it can apparently expect no protection.
“There are still many producers and event promoters working hard in the city to continue providing these unique experiences,” Connor says. “Strike A Pose, Moonfrog, Eat Me, Plush, Amorphic Music, Tits Out to name a few. But the fact is that it often isn't financially viable. Many events, including our own, are operating on the basis of breaking even as a best-case scenario.”
Ollie Cash, founder of the Plush events that hosted Tash Evans’s early gigs at Quarry, is consolidatory. “I think it’s important to acknowledge the state of affairs we’re living in,” Cash says. “And how integral it is that venue owners establish working relationships with the council.” Having been frustrated by Melodic Distraction’s departure, Cash warns of the importance of contingency — “having strategies in place to ensure the future of these places are accounted for.”
The appetite for projects like Plush, Moonfrog, or Tits Out will continue regardless. But even those ventures need spaces to host them. As a city, we need to offer a better choice than “move or die.” And Connor says it’s not just alternative or DIY spaces that could do with more support.
“For a healthy and exciting music scene, we need enough spaces to cater for all kinds of performances and audiences,” he says. “We've seen so many music venues permanently close for similar reasons since Liverpool was granted the European Capital of Culture status in 2008, and this just feels totally at odds with the city's current Music City branding.”
Regardless, Connor is optimistic, citing the Music Venue Trust's newly approved arena ticketing policy, and other funding opportunities becoming available. “But until these changes are felt it will be hard to shake the feeling of hopelessness that many in grassroots music circles are feeling right now,” he says. “Hopefully over the next five years these changes will be felt, and we'll be in a much different position. Whatever happens, we're not going anywhere.”
In addition to their crowdfunder, Quarry will be hosting a fundraising gig on Friday 13th December. Keep an eye on Quarry’s website over the coming weeks for more details.
It's not just the music scene, the Maritime and International Slavery Museums will soon join the Tate, the Piermaster's House, Wirral Transport and U-Boat Museums as closed for long term renovations. If tourism is so important and our culture and heritage is a major part of that, you'd wonder how the Albert Dock is managing to attract visitors. Of course, the fact is we're placing shallow, identikit and antisocial experiences at the centre of our tourism offer.
Good luck with the new Quarry project....it's great that they're not just giving up. It's been a perennial issue in most cities unfortunately even in the so-called hey days of of the 60's and 70's/80's.