Southbank Centre heads UK?s top 100 music venues

According to new figures revealed by PRS for Music, London’s Southbank Centre currently heads the list of the UK’s top 100 live music venues.

Throughout 2011, the Southbank Centre, which comprises the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and the Hayward Gallery, held 422 musical events – attended by more than a million people. Jude Kelly, Artistic Director of Southbank Centre, said: “What a marvellous accolade to win this prestigious award for the second year! We are excited by the chance to present all forms of music across our entire 21-acre site and to work with the world’s great and emerging musicians. It’s a tremendous and exciting challenge – so thanks for this vote of confidence in what we’re doing.”

As an organisation that collects royalties for songwriters and composers, PRS for Music analysed data from over 10,000 live music events last year. And in a year whereby the key focus is on sporting venues, the organisation’s report celebrates the value of all venues, reinforcing the fact that music remains at the heart of Britain’s creative industries.

The music business is worth £3.9bn to the UK economy and live music is an essential contributor to growth. Robert Ashcroft, chief executive, PRS for Music commented: “I am thrilled to see so many cultural centres featured in the analysis, from the newly opened Kings Place in London and The Sage in Gateshead to the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. These venues have very diverse and exciting programmes that appeal to many different audiences. It is an enormous accomplishment to run a successful live music space and in spite of economic challenges, the British live music scene is still strong.”

The PRS for Music research also showed that the nation’s top 100 venues put on a total of 13,781 concerts last year, with the top five venues in 2011 putting on more than 1,829 concerts between them. Furthermore, London accounted for 30 per cent of the top 100 live music venues.

Other top concert locations were Glasgow (8), Manchester (5), Birmingham (4) and Bristol (3).

The top 10 UK venues are:
Southbank Centre, London
The Sage Gateshead, Tynne and Wear
O2 Academy, Birmingham
Stables, Milton Keynes
Ronnie Scotts, London
O2 Academy, Islington
King Tuts Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow
Kings Place, London

Click here for a full rundown of the top 100.

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