Phil Selway backs Independent Venue Week and recalls the Jericho Tavern

Radiohead's drummer Phil Selway is lending his name to the first Independent Venue Week, which runs from 28 January to 2 February 2014 in 18 small venues across the UK, each putting on its own programme. One of them is the Jericho in Oxford.

In Oxford, we grew up wanting to play at The Jericho Tavern, and were lucky enough to be signed after one of our shows there.

Philip Selway¹

The concerts are for newer acts, with musicians, promoters and record labels behind them, and the BBC is taking part on its national service and 40 local stations. Sybil Bell, one of the organisers, is quoted by the Spanish site efeeme saying that bands on small incomes find touring harder as its costs rise.

The struggle to compete with the big venues and to find a sponsor makes this a hard and challenging time for the independents.

Sybil Bell²

Rooms that size keep British music going, Selway says, and for a young band a first booking at the local one is an achievement in itself. Frank Turner, also backing the week, argues that without small venues there would be no small bands, and so no big ones.

The 18 venues