Tale of two venues hoping to draw the crowds as live music business booms

For the last few years, York Barbican has stood white-elephant like just a short stroll from the city’s historic walls and medieval streets.

It closed back in 2004 and even before the water had been drained from the development’s swimming pool and the doors of the auditorium, which had once played host to the likes of Pulp and Paul Weller, shut for the final time, the campaign to save it had begun. In the intervening years there were proposals for it to be taken over by a community trust, and at one point it looked like the site would be turned into another anonymous flat development, but as many wondered where it had all gone wrong, the property market crashed and the Barbican redevelopment looked set to be another victim of the economic downturn.

Built for £15m, the Barbican had opened in 1991 with the grand aim of revolutionising leisure in York. It was an ambition it never quite lived up to. While it boasted two swimming pools, dance studios, an outdoor bowling green and a concert hall – the largest in the city – the Barbican may have been a jack of all trades, but it was master of none.

As new housing developments sprang up on land close to the centre, it seemed inevitable that the Barbican would soon be levelled and the millions invested in its short 13 years an awkward footnote in the city’s history.

However, while the building itself – which close up looks as though it was made from giant Lego blocks – was never going to compete architecturally with the Minster or the Shambles, many York residents had formed an emotional attachment with the place. It was where they went each year for the Lord Mayor’s Christmas Carol Concert, it was where they had seen Ronnie O’Sullivan triumph over Ken Doherty in the 2001 UK Snooker Championship and a dedicated few clung to the hope that it could once again be a venue for some of the biggest names in music.

For a while it seemed unlikely, but then, somewhat out of the blue, City of York Council, which still owns the building, announced it had agreed a 30-year management deal with the sport and entertainment company SMG (UK) Ltd.

The firm runs a number of venues across the country, including Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall and the Journal Tyne Theatre in Newcastle, and over the last few months it has invested £2m into the venue. The swimming pools may be no more and the dance studios are gone, but on Saturday night the Barbican will be back on the map when the BBC Philharmonic perform the official opening gala concert.

“It’s been a long time coming,” says Nick Reed, chief executive of the Bridgewater Hall and new business development manager at SMG. “It’s fair to say that the Barbican has had a complex history, but York needs and wants a large entertainment venue.

“Alongside the city’s residents, it’s also home to a large student population and of course a significant number of tourists, which creates a perfect demographic for a venue like the Barbican to thrive.”

In a nod to the Barbican’s previous community commitment, as well as reinstating the carol concert, its new managers will welcome back the annual Festival of Remembrance, but the success of the venue’s reinvention will ultimately be about ticket sales.

When it was announced Morrissey would be among the first artists to arrive in York, the gig sold out within 15 minutes and the council is hoping the Barbican will bring between £9m and £11m. With all authorities facing tough economic times ahead, that cash injection could not come at a better time.

“We have already announced concerts by the likes of Paolo Nutini and David Gray and the response has confirmed what we already knew – there is a real appetite for live music. There has been a trend in recent years that as sales of singles and albums have declined, interest in live tours has increased.

“Any programme is about knowing your audience and ultimately we hope the Barbican will play host to 250 events every year which will cater for a wide spectrum of interests, whether that be classical music or the latest chart acts.”

In a coup for the venue, just ahead of its opening, it announced that the UK Snooker Championships would also be returning to York where it was held for six years up to 2006.

“A lot of hard work went on behind the scenes, but there was a real desire from those who run the game to come back to the city,” says Nick. “With any venture like this, it’s about getting the word out that we are not only back, but that we can provide the very best facilities. The fabric of the building has remained largely unchanged, but we have improved the access areas and given the box office and foyer a facelift. The foundations of a successful venue were there, it’s our job to build on it.”

SMG are also behind the new Leeds Arena, an altogether bigger project than the Barbican. Plans for a large venue in the city have been rumbling on for as long as most people can remember, but finally this February the diggers moved onto the site.

While Clay Pit Lane may not have the same glamorous connotations as Madison Square, the honeycomb design, featuring kaleidoscope lights which will change colour and pattern to reflect the mood of the event taking place inside, will undoubtedly be a striking addition to the Leeds skyline.

Work on the 13,500-seat venue, near to the Merrion Shopping Centre, is due for completion late next year, with SMG optimistically predicting it will become one of the top 10 places to play in the world and the council hoping it will add around £25.5m to the economy.

When the artist impressions for the Leeds Arena were first unveiled and the plans finally looked set to move off the drawing board, it was greeted with wide approval in the city. However, a few miles down the road in Sheffield, the mood was not so buoyant.

The project, largely funded by Leeds City Council, received an extra £10m from Yorkshire Forward, before it emerged the Government-backed regional development agency was to be wound up. Inevitably, there have been questions over whether public money should have been spent on a venue which could emerge as a direct rival to Sheffield’s Motorpoint Arena – opened in 1991 in time for the World Student Games with no public subsidy.

It’s a familiar argument and one which has also been raised back in York. The city’s Grand Opera House relies largely on stand-up comedy and music shows and it already has two smaller music venues, Fibbers and The Duchess.

“There is absolutely no point in us setting ourselves up as a rival to existing venues,” says Nick, who spends his spare time running ultra-marathons and competing in Iron Man challenges. “We always see ourselves as just another part of the jigsaw, able to offer something new and that complements what is going on elsewhere. Leeds already has the O2 Academy which has been successful, but if you look across the country there are many cities which easily sustain a number of large venues. Times may be tough economically, but investment in venues in both Leeds and York should reap their own rewards.

“Wherever we go we always work with, not against, other venues. It doesn’t make sense to do anything else.”

For the moment at least it seems the music and the show will go on.

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