Exeter’s Cavern, a cool cauldron of alternative events, once boiling over the brim with energetic gigs, faced an undisclosed period of repose in March of 2020. Now, with potential dates for reopening to eagerly await, the city’s oldest independent music venue can steadily prepare itself for long overdue celebrations.
Unaffiliated with Liverpool’s Cavern Club, its namesake stems purely from its cavernous composition; a sunken sphere of old brick and mortar, situated in an alley between the Gandy Street cobbles and pavements of Queen Street in Devon’s capital city centre. With a capacity just shy of 250, the venue gives instant intimacy between stage and spectator. By day it doubles as a quaint café specialising in artisan drinks and vegan dishes.
Sadly, celebrations for its recent 30th anniversary have been sorely missed. The Cavern opened its doors for the first time on Valentine’s Day in 1991, playing host to US post-punk band Quicksand. In the years since, the likes of Muse, Elbow and Coldplay, to name a few, played here before finding global success. Two of my favourite musicians, progressive pioneers Damon Albarn and Thom Yorke, have also descended downstairs early in their respective careers as part of obscure bands.
Talking via email, the venue’s founder, David, gave me the lowdown on the Cavern’s early days, glory days and despondent ones too.
“Running a music venue has always been more of a vocation than a money-spinning business idea, so we’re used to making ends meet in tough times. Over the years cultural and economic shifts force venues to be adaptable, and I guess that’s part of what you’re trying to do anyway: terraform a cultural environment in which to exist.”
In an ideal scenario, who would be headlining your dream line-up at a sold-out night at the Cavern?
“I was always inspired by the DIY punk scene, so in the old days my favourite shows were by bands like Washington DC’s Fugazi (who we put on at the local Uni a couple of times.) My favourite band as a kid was The Cramps. I first came across them walking to school through Aylesbury cemetery. They were having a photoshoot for a local magazine called ZIGZAG and the way they looked blew me away, like they were something from a Stephen King novel (I was reading The Stand at the time). I used to love travelling to see them all around the UK, so they would be on my ‘dream lineup’.”
It’s fundamentally a space for all kinds of music, but indie rock, punk and other alternative genres are at the fore. Have other genres (hip-hop/R&B/reggae/jazz/electronic) been represented?
“It’s true that our roots are in the DIY punk/indie scene, but we’ve also hosted other genres. When we first opened we were in bands ourselves that needed a local platform, which is partly why we started the Cavern. But we were also the first venue to put drum & bass on in Exeter in the mid-late 90s (Ed Rush, Optical, Digs & Woosh, Nicky Blackmarket etc.) Hip-hop and breakbeat cross over quite a lot with indie, and we’ve had great shows from the likes of Afrika Bambataa, Ugly Duckling, People Under The Stairs and the Scratch Perverts. EDM has been popular at the Cavern for the last few years in the form of House DJs, too.”
Do you see the Cavern expanding more into these fields or remaining closer to its indie rock roots?
“I think we would like to focus more on our live band roots over the next phase of the Cavern… I guess because that’s been our main currency really, and what makes us stand out from other venues in Exeter. We had a great era in the mid 90’s with the emergence of Brit Pop, and also in the mid 2000s when we were programming bands like Explosions in The Sky, Favez, The Evens, The Hives, Hundred Reasons and Four Tet.”
Which acts have proved the most well received over the years?
“The perfect show for us is when we book a band when they’re unknown and they’re front cover of the music press by the time they play Exeter. The other type of classic show is when a band ‘underplays’ – for example when The Good, The Bad and The Queen wanted to do a warmup for a show at The Albert Hall the next day. That band had Damon Albarn from Blur in it and Paul Simenon from The Clash on bass. There was a frantic scramble for tickets. Recently the Frank Turner show sold out in about ten minutes.”
I remember hearing the news of the devastating fire in 2016. What changed following the repair and refurb of the building?
“Yes, the fire started in the kitchen and completely destroyed the venue – it had to be reconstructed from scratch, all the walls (apart from the brick ones) and the plumbing and wiring, the floors, the bar. All new. The reason it looks the same as it used to is that if we kept everything in the same place the local authority could rubber stamp it as ‘redecoration’. Otherwise it would have taken months to pass through!”
BBC Radio 6Music’s Steve Lamacq has been championing grassroots spaces throughout the latest lockdown period, and Pippa from the Cavern outlined the venue’s lockdown schemes live on the airwaves.
I saw you on 6Music’s Twitter! I’d like to know more about the crowdfunder.
“We organised this in conjunction with the Music Venues Trust. They made some ‘Save Our Venues’ tee shirts which we could add as an incentive. Local people also did benefit gigs on Zoom and sold merchandise. Frank Turner kindly did a live stream that was pretty successful. The (once local) band Muse made some tee-shirts with Cavern posters on which are being sold to raise money to keep the venue afloat. Frank’s gig actually helped keep us financially viable, but we’ve also been involved in streaming events, for example Laura Stevenson streamed a show on our 30th anniversary that offered us some ticket revenue.”
It became clear very quickly during the first lockdown that the arts and hospitality industries would need an urgent source of income survive financially. While the sense of urgency was not on point, the UK government eventually announced the Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) to imburse businesses unable to trade due to enforced closure. According to the Music Venues Trust, 251 of 291 grassroots music venues proved successful in their applications. In total, £41.4m (from a pool of £334.1m) was given directly to venue owners.
“The CRF first part will keep us open until the end of March, but there is a round to that will pay the rent until the summer. Rent is our biggest bill at around £1200 a week”
Live music’s lull during the last year has left a seismic void in many people’s lives. Music fans have been reduced to housebound hootenannies and artists have been made to make ends meet without the vital income tours and live shows provide. Those hit hardest by the pandemic however, suffer in deprivation and are not heard. Music Feeds was a virtual festival in January, organised by the charity Everybody Belongs Here and supported by Co-Op to help fight food poverty.
Tell me about the #MusicFeeds / FareShare event and the Cavern’s role with the initiative.
“The Music Feeds event in January featured Fenne Lily, Emily Barker and others playing at the Cavern, plus performances from Fontaines DC and Blossoms from other parts of the country. Events like this keep our profile up and give us moral support for continuing the live aspect of what we do. It was devised by Saul from the band James, who played a version of his hit song ’Sit Down’ with local band Sound of the Sirens.”
As independent British venues go, you’ll be hard pressed to find anywhere as cherished by punters as Cavern. Visions of bouncing in a crowd with your pals, sipping and spilling drinks and flirting in the smokers seem like memories of a past life. Indulging again can’t come soon enough and we have some serious lost time to make up for. I can safely say I’ve never looked forward to standing in a queue before, but the rowdy hubbub and divine sound of live music will be surely worth the wait.
Support the Cavern by dropping them a follow on social media to keep in the loop and book tickets. Also, please consider supporting the Music Venue Trust. After all, the return of live music will be monumental but only possible through the work of those in the industry.
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Featured image via Flickr
First image and logo graphic via exetercavern.net
*This article was first published in March 2021*