More than 1,000 pubs, bars and restaurants across the UK will host music events as part of a new nationwide festival backed by The 1975’s Matty Healy, who has warned about the talent pipeline drying up.
“Local venues aren’t just where bands cut their teeth, they’re the foundation of any real culture,” the frontman said in a statement.
“Without them, you don’t get The Smiths, Amy Winehouse, or The 1975. You get silence.”
The Seed Sounds Weekender will take place in September in small “seed” venues like those where many big names start out. But like much of the UK’s nightlife scene, they are facing “unprecedented economic challenges”, organisers said.
They gave examples of seed venues including the Grapes pub in Sheffield, where the Arctic Monkeys made their debut; Rayner’s Hotel in Harrow, north-west London, where Amy Winehouse played her first show; the Buffalo Bar in Cardiff, which hosted an early Adele gig; and The Castle Hotel in Manchester, where The 1975 appeared.
Kit Muir-Rogers, co-founder of live music platform GigPig, which is organising the festival, said it would be “a moment to unite and celebrate what we think is the most exciting and probably the most vital step on an artist’s journey”.
“The stark reality is that it’s a challenging time out there for the hospitality sector, and it’s a challenging time as an artist out there,” he told the BBC.
More than 370 pubs are expected to close in 2025, according to the British Beer and Pub Association, which blamed high taxes and bills.
Mark Connor, head of operations for the Head of Steam pub chain, whose flagship Newcastle venue hosted early shows by The 1975 and the Arctic Monkeys, said live music is “massively important for us” at a challenging time.
“It actively brings people into our venues, and it helps them stay for longer, get that second or third drink, which is vitally important for all businesses,” he said.
Dedicated grassroots music venues have been vocal about their importance and the risks they face, but pubs and other locations on the first rung of the live music ladder have been underappreciated until now, according to Mr Muir-Rogers.
“No-one’s really pulled it under a banner before. It’s never really been called anything.
“Now it’s widely being called seed music and seed venues, which really does paint that picture incredibly well – you plant those first seeds to watch them grow into the Glastonbury headliners of tomorrow.”
Healy, whose band graduated from playing pubs and clubs in the early 2010s to headlining Glastonbury this year, isn’t performing at the new event, but is its ambassador.
His statement added: “The erosion of funding for seed and grassroots spaces is part of a wider liberal tendency to strip away the socially democratic infrastructure that actually makes art possible.
“What’s left is a cultural economy where only the privileged can afford to create, and where only immediately profitable art survives.
“The Seed Sounds Weekender is a vital reminder that music doesn’t start in boardrooms or big arenas; it starts in back rooms, pubs, basements, and independent spaces run on love, grit, and belief in something bigger.”
The Seed Sounds Weekender will take place from 26-28 September.
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