‘An asinine conclusion from boardroom bores’

Start The Bus was was an important venue for the music scene in Bristol, and now it’s gone. Joe Hatt – Spectres frontman and co-owner of Howling Owl Records – is far from happy about it.

Start The Bus has closed. Another venue culled to cater for the culture-less. Another asinine conclusion from faceless boardroom bores whose primary purpose is to offer the 30- to 50-year-old affluents a place to piss their disposable income up faux-vintage walls. Another fallen bastion amongst the rising rubble of the UK’s live music circuit.

It had plenty of haters and it wasn’t perfect. This was primarily because of the owners’ impressive ability to solely employ management and bar staff who hated live music, but those who brought the music there really did care. It may have been tucked at the back of an establishment that didn’t really want it, but that stage still provided some of the most exciting shows in Bristol year after year.

I once formed a protective barrier in front of Metz’s pedals while beer and joyous sweat rained in. Another time I stood at the back wondering where on earth (or in hell) Fat White Family had come from. Hudson Mohawke obliterated everything. I missed Girl Band. Nozinja shook the dancefloor while we screen-printed record sleeves upstairs. Start The Bus had its moments.

A year before my band moved to Bristol, Start The Bus gave us a support slot which was almost impossible to get at the time as an out of town band, and a big deal for us whilst trapped in our North Devon purgatory. A couple of years later when we were comically blacklisted by a number of venues and promoters. Start The Bus – or in-house promoter Matt Aitken at least – saw through the guff and let us play shows and hold nights there with no meddling.

Start The Bus was a big part of our rabble’s formative years. Our label, as well as a number of other Bristol creatives, has been allowed to operate from one of the floors upstairs over the past four years for free. So yes, it had been good to us, but to plenty of others too. There were infuriating times for sure, but no more than any other place that puts on shows four or five times a week, and I don’t think it is going to take long for many people to realise they took the space for granted. 

Its closure is going to have a serious knock-on effect for Bristol’s music scene and also the UK as a whole. Countless bands have been given their first support slot there. Countless promoters have put on their first shows there. Touring bands know they have a venue at which they will be more likely to get paid, fed and watered than most places and, more often not, play in front of a crowd.

Who cares if this wasn’t a Genuine Independent Venue? The live music programmers – not the donkeys that kicked against us and the asses that pulled the strings – really did their best to present a diverse programme of music each month and blood some beginners in the process. Yes, it was owned by Mitchells & Butlers but everything is owned by someone, even if it’s never you. In the grand scheme of things Start the Bus was an important place to a lot of people and now it’s gone.

We should be used to this by now I guess. Just another little nick in the flesh of everything we exist for. When the doors reopen for this building that once housed vitality, and the tepid air flops on your face as you walk past, do try and remember the good times, because they are occurring less and less. 

Main photo: Joe Hatt (left) pictured with fellow Howling Owl co-owner Adrian Dutt

Read more: Interview: Joe Hatt, Howling Owl Records