Bristol has long been renowned for its music. The city is packed with gigs, club nights, and festivals. Recently, the rise of technology and streaming has seemed to thwart the connection between artist and audience. Information is instant, it has never been easier to find music, and all of our nights out are perfectly documented by our phones. Yet what does authenticity look like for Bristol’s music scene today?
Bristol University was once a hub of independent artists and bands. The Anson Rooms in the Richmond Building has welcomed the likes of Fleetwood Mac (1969, 1971) David Bowie (1972), The Smiths (1984), Radiohead (who performed multiple times in the early 90s), to Massive Attack’s four night stint in 1998, Coldplay (2000) and even Amy Winehouse (2004). After looking through the SU’s musical archive I (and I imagine most people reading this) can’t help feel immense jealousy and regret that I did not in fact come here 50, 40, 30 years ago…
Since 2016 the Anson Rooms have remained quiet, with no more major headliners gracing the SU. Why has this changed and how does this reflect the current student music scene?
Part of the answer lies within shifting priorities and tighter budgets, which we have recently seen from a loss of student nightlife. Yet, in an era of Spotify algorithms, Tik Tok trends, and live music streaming, accessibility has gone digital. Now our feeds are so individually curated, the way we find and attend events has changed. Gigs are still going on but the path to them starts in the online world.
To understand what the university music culture used to be like, I interviewed Mark Sutton, who studied in Bristol from 1988-1992. Mark said that during his time: “[Music was] really important and we pretty much had a nightclub playing different types of music every night of the week… Music was a big part of my night out – even just at the Jukebox at the Cadbury House!
“I remember attending quite a few [gigs] during fresher’s week each year and then I probably attended a gig every couple of months.”
When asked about the comparison to today’s music scene he added that: “It feels like there aren’t quite as many bands playing Bristol Uni/UWE as there used to be, which is a shame, but probably comes down to smaller events teams and budgets, but there are still some great venues and lots of fantastic bands playing live and I think that will always be the case. What’s nice to see is the city refurbishing venues like the Beacon and St George’s church to host gigs for the future.”
To get a better understanding of what things are like now, I asked a current University of Bristol student Jacob, who enjoys going to concerts in the city, what he thought had changed within the music scene.
He said: “It is so expensive and inaccessible to see live performances now due to a lack of sales made from streaming. As a result, artists have to charge lots of money to make up for the loss of sales from the decline in vinyl, CD, and tape. This places tickets to see artists live out of reach from students.”
When asked how more students would get involved in Bristol’s live music scene, he responded: “Hopefully we can get cheaper gigs and events perhaps in spaces such as the SU. So many students would love the opportunity to see bands and artists live.”
The future of music in the city looks different but is far from bleak. Sure, Fleetwood Mac won’t rock up at the SU for an impromptu gig, but Bristol’s music scene is still at the heart of the city, just in different ways. Going digital can open so many more doors. The connection between artists and audiences is there, it’s just mediated through sending posts, likes, and comments.
Nights out are still about the music, they just begin online. Technology has simply reshaped our music scene. Our phones and perfectly filtered timelines have changed how it’s found, shared, and experienced. There is so much out there to discover, but the real challenge is keeping that sense of real connection alive and making the most of the endless opportunities now available to us.
