Co-op's plea after demolition threat

Don't take the music away

By INGRID KENT

A MUSICIANS' Co-op, which is unique in England, is preparing to fight city council demolition proposals.

Bands from across the North are rushing to defend the Lancaster Musicians' Co-op and recording studio, which could be shut down if the city council makes a controversial move and supports plans for a new road, supermarket and 'big box' retail developments.

The bands and musicians are worried that they will lose a valuable and irreplaceable resource.

The city council had originally proposed to include the Musicians Co-op, at Lodge Street, as part of a 'Cultural Quarter' development, but there are fears that this has been abandoned in favour of commercial retail units.

More than 200 people a week are estimated to pass through the doors of the Musicians' Co-op and use its services.

Users include people from as far afield as Merseyside and up towards the Scottish border. People as young as 12-years-old and musicians in their 80s have used the Co-op over the years.

Currently the Co-op is conducting a survey of its users for research purposes.

MA student Trish McGrath is conducting the survey and the responses have been flooding in. Messages of support from bands, musicians, parents and members of the public have also been pouring in.  

lan Dicken, one of the workers at the Co-op, explains: "Ideally we would like to buy the building and then we would be eligible for grants. "We have a lot of ideas for developing the business. "We'd like to create an upstairs venue with a bar and we'd like to create a bigger recording space. "If we were able to develop the business we could create more jobs."

The Co-op currently employs three people and it is open from 1pm to 10pm seven days a week. lan says the Co-op could open earlier in the day if they were able to employ more people. It is a non-profit-making business and it is about to celebrate its seventeenth birthday.

"We get bands from as far afield as Penrith and Manchester," says lan. "We got an enquiry from Bedford in the south of England the other day."

There are about 30 recording studios in the north of England and only three have a website - the  Musicians' Co-op is one of them.

The website - http://lancastermusiccoop.users.btopenworld.com - is a fantastic resource for bands. It contains all kinds of useful information and can even help them get work through booking agents. It has had 4,000 hits in its first five weeks of existence.

lan says it would be better if the Co-op could stay in the centre of the city so that everyone  from schoolkids to unemployed people who don't have cars, can easily access it.

It is a safe, clean place so parents can let their children go there without worry.

It's also great for young bands in the sense that lan and his colleagues can offer advice and show musicians how to set up a PA system, microphones and so on.

The Co-op was behind the Octoberfest and March Madness festivals at the Yorkshire House in Lancaster which gave bands a chance to play in front of new audiences.

Ian also has an interesting idea for the old Mitchell's Brewery in Lancaster next to the Co-op.

"They've got the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal - Why not have the Brewery in Lancaster?"

He says there is a lack of "joined-up thinking" in Lancaster when it comes to planning decisions.

"We are passionate about this place," adds Ian. "Some people's idea of culture is just to have more pubs. Lancaster's cultural life is slowly being eroded. We don't want to lose this place."