by SomeDriftwood
by Mira66
by Friar's Balsam
CUC to close in 2012
We’ve had a lot of bad news to impart of late - and we’re sorry to have to be the bearers of bad news again.
The Masque and Jacaranda have been landmarks in Liverpool’s nightlife scene, but the impending closure of Greenland Street’s Contemporary Urban Centre (CUC) has floored us.
The CUC will close its doors on 3 January 2012, with the loss of over 30 jobs, just a matter of weeks after the triumphant closing night for Liverpool Music Week that seemed like such a validation of the venue and its place in the city’s music scene.
The CUC, run by communities charity People Can, says that cuts to its public sector funding - combined the now seemingly inevitable double-dip recession that is likely to put increasing strain on the leisure sector - mean that the CUC can no longer continue.
The stumbling regeneration of the Baltic Triangle area, looking ever more isolated from the rest of the city to our eye, cannot have helped. But that peculiar location - and utterly stunning, labyrinthine, multi-faceted venue - was also something of a positive; a venue that was geographically, as well as tonally, alternative.
Management says that alternative venues for gigs booked for the new year will be sought - and the planned programme of Christmas events will go ahead
We hope it goes out on a high - and mourn the loss of the city’s most intriguing musical space.
Anyone with questions relating to gigs should call 0151 708 3510.
RELATED » Announcements : Ready for the week end: Liverpool Music Week’s closing party
Bad news, but let's be honest - it can't be that surprising! The CUC was very badly managed - almost zero effort with marketing, and hardly anything interesting going on there most of the time. A place that big should have events going on all the time, 7 days a week. The cinema should have been a "proper" cinema, working 7 days a week, etc etc. The whole thing was just a wasted opportunity - waste of money and of space.
As ever, people in Britain are over-reliant on public funding...I don't agree withthe tories budget cuts but so so many venues in the UK seem to be badly run precisely because they only rely on public grants, so dont really make more effort to connect with the public the way a real business HAS to do.
Mark my words - it's gonna happen again; it's just a matter of time until the Black-E closes, considering it's also a badly run, not at all well-used space.
Now if Merseyrail reopened Saint James station... and the brownfield opposite the cathedral were developed on by Urban Splash as promised... it might be a little easier for businesses in the triangle to keep things on an even keel...
Devastated - my fiance and I have been planning our wedding at CUC for the last couple of months, we were so excited about it. Sorry for all the fantastic staff who will be out of a job too.
LouiseClipson hope you didn't lose a deposit!
Quite shocking news. I was hoping to go to the TEDx Merseyside event there in February. Didn't it host an episode of Question Time earlier in the year too?
Real shame.
Sad, though saying 'The stumbling regeneration of the Baltic Triangle area' is a bit extreme. The former A Foundation has just re-opened as Camp and Furance and a new series of creative business spaces are about to open in the area. People are so keen to make sweeping doom-laiden statements without really thinking about what they're saying. Gutted CUC is closing, but it stuggled from day one to fill its massive space. I think Elevator behind them will end up taking the building on. I'd be suprised if Masque and Jacaranda didn't have new operators by the new year also. They're good venues crushed by the debts of their former parent company.
Painful news :-(
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