Horsham's Rec Rooms in fight for survival

Now, along with scores of music venues the length and breadth of the country, the Rec Rooms are fighting for their survival.

Their best hope lies in the #SAVEOURVENUES crowd-funding campaign launched by The Music Venue Trust. The campaign is backing more than 550 small music venues across the nation which are at risk of permanent closure. Through the campaign, the Rec Rooms are hoping to raise £12,500. You can support them at https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/savetherecrooms.

Nick McDowell, co-founder of the Rec Rooms, said: “It is a difficult time. We have had to borrow money from the government loan scheme, but we are doing the crowd-funder as well, and I am hoping it will raise enough for six months’ worth of over-heads for the venue. We have got a sports bar and a music venue and a 12-lane bowling alley, and there are a lot of over-heads. There is still electricity ticking away.

“I was hopeful. But it has fallen off a bit recently. You have peaks and troughs. The difficulty is that everyone is in the same boat. There isn’t an industry which has escaped this. It is difficult to ask for money in this environment especially when you are having to deal with a lot of people asking for refunds and we are rescheduling gigs for July which we will potentially have to reschedule again.”

One possible scenario is a staged release of the lockdown, with perhaps 50 people allowed to attend gigs. Such numbers would clearly be uneconomic for the bigger bands. The venue has a 350 capacity.

“But we should be OK until October/November and then we would have to live off borrowed money which would be annoying especially as we were just beginning to break even. This has pulled the rug from underneath us. I think February was our best month, and then we were told to close. But prior to that Boris had told everyone to avoid restaurants and bars, and so we lost something like 90 per cent of our revenue the week before.

“But I am not going to give up. This has been two years of my life. What we have done to counter all this has been live streaming. The first weekend a band could travel to the venue and we live-streamed from the venue and that went really well. But then bands couldn’t travel and we have started live-streaming from the artists’ homes. We have done one from New York. We have done one from Germany, and we have started to gain a following from people in the US and in Australia. We are starting to build a global audience… in a small way at the moment. I started the actual venue 18 months ago and now I am building a virtual music venue. You just have to rebuild from the bottom up again, but the good thing about streaming is that you are keeping the brand alive but you are also keeping artists going. The artists need a building to perform and so they support us, but we are also supporting them. The way we see it is that we have got to support each other. We want the venues to survive, and the musicians want the venues to survive because they need somewhere to come and play.”

Nick has continued with the live streaming – and he expects he will continue with it post-lockdown. He doesn’t believe it will deter people living close by from actually turning up in person: “I think actually attending the gig, if you can, will always be better than sitting watching it in your front room. That will always come second to actually being there. “

Nick stressed he was happy to help other venues with streaming technology.

Why running is my lockdown release

Chichester Singers combine musically in isolation for beautiful video

Lockdown Laughs 4 Parents switches online for comedy in your own home

Why walking is what we all need at the moment - especially in glorious Sussex

Shakespeare’s Globe makes productions available to watch for free during lockdown

How you can still enjoy Sussex delights... from the safety of your armchair

Up close but safe: enjoy collections online at Royal Pavilion & Museums in Brighton

Chichester orchestra records its own lockdown song

Coronavirus: top ten tips for boredom-busting during quarantine

Singer and pianist Joe Stilgoe live-streams daily message of hope during the coronavirus crisis

Music "more important than ever" in our time of crisis, urges West Sussex Music

Coronavirus: live streaming for Sunday morning services at Chichester Cathedral

Coronavirus: Festival of Chichester 2020 cancelled

*************

A message from the Editor, Gary Shipton:

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news, I am asking you to please purchase a copy of our newspapers.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspapers.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

Stay safe, and best wishes.

Gary Shipton

Editorial Director