A little too often these days we report on London cultural venues being under threat, like Leicester Square’s Prince Charles Cinema.
At the End of the Road festival we had the chance to chat to the band Squid about one of the kinds of venue worst affected over the last decade: the music venue.
Why Squid? They are a band who have been pigeon-holed into an unusual sub-genre, one linked to a specific venue: the Brixton Windmill. Bands also found in that category include Fat White Family, the now-dormant Black Midi, and Black Country, New Road.
Squid have just wound down a tour for their cracking 2025 album Cowards and they've spent a lot of time in venues this year up and down the country.
If you’ve never been, Brixton’s Windmill is a 150-capacity venue that puts on gigs up to seven days a week. You won’t find a windmill there but you may spot one of the venue’s famous “roof dogs” who have peered down on those queueing for well over a decade.
Squid say they played the venue up to around 20 times in their early years.
“[Brixton Windmill] was a really important space for us when we were starting out. It's a really important venue in that part of London,” says Squid guitarist Anton Pearson.
“It’s up for giving younger bands a punt, which is the most important thing. It’s a good size, it has a good vibe and people come down even if they haven’t heard of the bands. So it’s an important part of the ecosystem.”
It’s the kind of venue that still offers a plainly published email address new bands can use to pitch for a gig spot. Like many of the country's venues, the Windmill narrowly dodged closure when after, in 2020, it was among 30 venues cited as under "imminent risk" of permanent closure by the Music Venue Trust (MVT).
Thankfully, it's still going strong in 2025.
However, these days Squid are years on from their Brixton Windmill days, with the band's members spread across Bristol, Brighton and London. But those areas aren’t of course immune either.
“It’s really sad to hear about,” says Pearson of closures in Brighton.
“They keep threatening to shut the Prince Albert in Brighton, which is where I live. That’s a really important venue as well. We did a few shows there — playing in bands when we were younger.”
“It does feel like the smaller the venue, the more they are in the firing line. And the smaller the venue, the more important it is for emerging artists”
“The Five Bells used to be good as well, but that’s closed down, in New Cross,” adds Squid drummer-singer Ollie Judge.
The Five Bells still exists as a pub following a 2019 refurb, but seemingly hasn’t hosted band-based gigs since then.
It’s not all bad news, though. London, and many cities in the UK, are still major hubs for live music — albeit better suited for bigger artists with major label backing. We’re getting a mini Radiohead residency at the O2 later this year, after all. So we also asked Squid for their top venue recommendations.
“There’s a venue in Bristol I actually DJ’d at the other day called Cube,” says Ollie Judge.
“It’s a volunteer-owned and run cinema and event space, one which is very important in Bristol.”
Upcoming shows you’ll find there include prog-influenced jazz group LED Bib on September 16th and the atmospheric electronic music of The Utopia Strong on October 10th.
But back to London.
“I saw Gavin Byrars at Cafe Oto a few months ago and that was great,” says Pearson.
“I think it’s a really cool venue, really nice and intimate with a nice level of informality. It doesn’t feel too hierarchical between the performer and audience. Toby Jones was there too, I felt amongst cool company, which is good for my ego.”
What’s next for Squid themselves? There’s “almost nothing on the horizon,” according to singer Ollie Judge.
But you can of course check out their February 2025 album on all the usual streaming services, while Anton Pearson is playing his first ever solo show — as a more electronic act — at the George Tavern in Stepney, London (one of Shortlist's favourite pub-slash-venues), on September 28th. We'll see you down the front.
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