The Jazz Cafe's lockdown crisis: 'The danger is, artists will go backwards – they'll lose fans'

The managers of Britain’s embattled music venues could be forgiven for thinking this government’s motto is: “Always kick a man when he’s down.” After enduring a six-month lockdown from mid-March venues were then allowed to re-open, to begin the process of rebuilding their shattered finances and reconnecting with audiences.

But after a mere six weeks this fragile recovery has been stopped dead in its tracks by a new four-week lockdown which sees all but essential shops in the dark, despite the fact that a compelling piece of recent research from a test event in Germany with 1,200 attendees suggests indoor concerts have a “low” impact on infection rates, so long as they are well ventilated.

All concert venues have suffered during this dead period, but the sector that has been hit especially hard are those 93 per cent of music venues – around 800 of them – that are mostly unsubsidised, don’t own their venue, and have to pay hefty rents to a landlord. They are hugely important to Britain’s globally important music scene, as they act as the seed-bed for new talent, giving the all-important first gig to new acts.

One of the best-known is the hugely popular Jazz Café in Camden Town in North London, which offers an eclectic mix of jazz, soul, R & B and electronica. One night you can join the sweaty crowds downstairs and fist-pump the air to a storming R & B act like Roy Ayres, the next take a seat in the gallery upstairs to enjoy the more refined sounds of Sun Ra or the Art Ensemble of Chicago, while enjoying the restaurant’s signature corn and blackbean gumbo.

The head booker Ruari Frew has the deep, croaky voice that in a previous era would have been put down to a life of chain-smoking, but now is more likely due to sleepless nights wondering what the future holds. When I catch up with him, he’s just emerged from a rare get-together with the office staff.

“Everyone’s working from home, with the offices actually shut,” he says, “but I thought it was important to meet up.” It’s a typical sentiment from the man who refers constantly to “the community” of the Jazz Café, by which he means absolutely everybody; the fans, the bar and restaurant staff, the ushers and of course the artists.  He recalls how the music scene started to fall apart well before the lockdown actually began. “We had musicians who became ill with the virus while they were out on tour in Europe, and had to cancel shows here as a result. Then we had a lot of US acts who were terrified of travelling well in advance of lockdown and just cancelled. The whole scene was falling apart before the venue was told to close."

The effect of the lockdown was brutal and instant. “Our landlords did not give us any rent relief, and what with furlough contributions, and various bills coming in, and absolutely zero income, we were losing between ￡35 and ￡40,000 per month. That was with zero income obviously. What made it especially difficult was that there was no date towards which we were working, which we could offer to contractors or the bank and say, look, we will be earning again from this date. We were honest about this with our fans, and they were enraged with our landlord on our behalf. But really it wasn't the landlord’s fault, this is happening to every venue around town and all round the country that doesn't own the building. It's not as if we were particularly hard done by.”

Fortunately the venue was able to turn the fans’ concern to good use. “We’re a venue that stands proudly on its own two feet,” says Frew, “and we are in normal times a very viable, well-run business. We were very keen not to ask for charitable donations from our community. So we asked our long-term supporters to buy a ticket for a gig that can be cashed in any time later, when the venue is back up and running. They could even buy themselves drinks at the bar to be cashed in in the future. It was a very well-received scheme, it kept the community together, and although we are sacrificing future profits it got us out of a really difficult cash flow problem during the summer.”

Frew’s other favourite word alongside “community” is “resilience”. The Jazz Café reopened on 18 September with candle-lit tables downstairs in place of jam-packed crowds to ensure social distancing, and until last week was in full swing – though still losing ￡20,000 per week. Frew is full of pride for the way his and other venues have survived in impossible circumstances, but nevertheless he’s worried about the effect of the lockdown on musicians, especially the younger ones.

“So many have suffered real setbacks. We were keen on a young soul act called Pip Millet, she sold out the venue in a heartbeat in April of this year. We had to move the date of her show back twice, then because we didn't want to move it for a third time we try to moving her to a bigger venue. It’s upsetting because this should have been her year, her debut album is out, she's really on a roll, but all that's come to a stop. This shows the danger that artists can go actually backwards, they lose their fans. She’s just one example out of hundreds."

Though Frew is determined to be up-beat, he’s also clear-eyed about the long-term damage the lockdown has caused. “We know that we will be back, so I'm feeling infinitely more positive today than I was in mid-March. Luckily we’ve had the furlough scheme extended, and it’s now extended to quite a few freelancers as well, so there's a bit more of the safety net that there was before. But I think the real fallout has yet to come. I think we will see catastrophic losses within our sector unless government support is extended into next year. And the toll in terms of people’s mental health is bound to get worse. It’s terrible to be constantly given little slivers of hope which are then dashed.”

For the Jazz Café’s winter schedule visit thejazzcafelondon.com