Yesterday I got the news that The Forum Music Centre is to close at the end of August. From what I can gather, previously agreed council funding has been pulled which, in turn, has put the skids on a second grant from One North East. I don’t know if the funding was pulled because of wider cutbacks from our beloved, barely-elected coalition government but it seems bit too much of a coincidence that a grant that was on the table suddenly isn’t post-emergency budget.
The Forum is the only institution in Darlington built specifically to cater to the needs of local musicians and artists. It provides furnished rehearsal spaces, a recording studio, a 250-capacity concert room as well as a warm, welcoming and reasonably-priced bar if all you want to do is hang out and get pissed.
Before the Forum there was very little. Finding rehearsal space was a nightmare. There was Syd’s room in the Art Centre. Syd’s a great bloke but the room was tiny, had no equipment, was rarely available and on the top floor of a building without elevators so shifting your amps and drum kits fucked you before you’d started. Other that you just had to know someone who had a mate whose boss’ son’s cat was willing let you use an office space or warehouse outside business hours. That or play in your house and attract the ire of your neighbours. Now we can just ring a number, or pop in and book the time for £7 an hour.
I’ve seen everything from dub reggae to Christmas carols on that stage. The sublime Pama International recently played the best gig I’ve ever seen in this town. I’ve also seen/been-in-a-band-playing complete toss but that fine because it means everyone can have a go even if they just want to prance around on stage doing Jagger impressions. It’s there for the community.
Beside gigs, there are workshops for people looking to pick up and learn – or improve at playing – a variety of instruments. Every fortnight they have the Newblood night which allows 14-to-17-year-olds to hang out, watch some bands and not get pregnant/spread STDs/key cars/happy-slap/drink cider. It also happens have been set up by or at the behest of Jenny Chapman – newly-elected MP for Darlington – and she certainly made of a point of mentioning it in her campaign literature.
More important are the people that work there. I can’t claim to know all of them intimately but I do know that they’re musicians who’ve been at the centre of Darlington’s music scene for years. They’re not just losing the facilities The Forum offers but the jobs they excel at and clearly love doing. They’re on the unemployment pile with vast experience doing something Darlington no longer supports. To continue doing the work they love they’ll either have to set up on their own or leave the town.
It has its problems. A 250-capacity is fine for local bands who just want to fuck about in front of their mates but they’re never going to attract bigger artists without massive appearance fees they simply can’t recoup. It’s squirrelled away behind what used to be a car showroom and out of sight of any major roads so marketing is a bit of an issue. Oh, and most of the bass amps in the rehearsal rooms need replacing (that’s more of a personal gripe). But it’s something and all things considered these are piffling whines when compared to the enormous amount of good the place does for the community.
I don’t have to balance the books at the council so the £80,000 previously promised may well be completely out of the question but I’d be interested to see how much council money is being allocated for other projects. I’d also be interested to see how much the town will be bringing in with the sale of the bus depot land and the mythical shopping centre should it ever get built. I suppose what I’m saying is that considering the council’s previous history of pandering to big high street companies to turn the town centre into a sterile retail hell, maybe an exception could be made, just this once, to do something for the benefit of the people of the town.
To care more about attracting big business than giving the community a forum for free expression is undemocratic and unacceptable. It’s in times of recession that we need the arts more than ever and we need them to be accessible to everyone. The Forum has been providing this to the people of Darlington in a way that no-one else has. To lose it over council funding is both a travesty and clear indicator – and, in my opinion, indictment – of the focus of our elected leaders. I’ll end with this from Dan, one of The Forum’s staff who sums up the situation beautifully:
“From the full time staff to the occasional gig goer, bin men to solicitors, call centre staff to councillors, teenagers to senior citizens – I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that thousands of people will, in some way, be negatively affected by the closure of The Forum. As an employee and an avid live music fan I urge whoever is in a position to do so to step up and try and reach a solution, before the borough loses one of it’s most valuable cultural assets. The staff will no doubt find other jobs – but will Darlington find another Forum? Sadly, I doubt it.”
Me too, Dan.
Probably the best piece I’ve read on the closure of the forum.
That’s not saying much. This was all written on the morning after finding out, with a hangover and based on a couple of Chris Davison’s Facebook updates. Everything in the Echo is tainted by the editor’s conflict of interest. I’ve since found out things that have tempered my support. Knowing what I know, if it wasn’t for the lack of a comparable service in town and a couple of friends working there, I doubt I’d have written it.
I would go more if they had real local bands playing, and stopped having the awful old men with beards AC-DC cover bands. I can’t help thinking the death of The Forum is in many ways tainted with the same brush as the death of the working men’s clubs. Once a stage for young talent, now just a quick few quid for a failed attempt at X Factor… Res ipsa loquitur