Yahoo Sport 
Nine London music venues are still at imminent risk of permanent closure, says Music Venue Trust
The Waiting Room in Stoke Newington
(Carolina Faruolo)Nine London music venues are still at imminent risk of permanent closure — two of which have been newly deemed “critical” by the Music Venue Trust (MVT).
The Black Heart and the Fiddler’s Elbow, both in Camden, are the latest venues “in need of urgent help”, says MVT, the charity that has campaigned on behalf of hundreds of grassroots music venues across the country during the pandemic.
The capital’s venue’s currently on the organisation’s “red list” are:
Alchemy, Croydon
Egg, King’s Cross
Spiritual Bar, Camden
The Black Heart, Camden
The Fiddler’s Elbow, Camden
The Lexington, Islington
The Post Bar, Tottenham
The Waiting Room, Stoke Newington
Windmill, Brixton
According to MVT, there are 11 other venues from around the country also on the critical list currently. Mark Davyd, the charity’s CEO said: “The crisis is nearing its final lap but we need to make sure these venues finish the race.
“With the support of artists and audiences, we have fought our way through the last 11 months venue by venue, case by case, trying to make sure that we are able to Reopen Every Venue Safely.
“These six newly highlighted venues need urgent help, and we still have 14 venues that were on our original Red List that we can’t yet guarantee will survive to bring live music back to our communities. We are completely determined that they will.”
Many of the at-risk venues were deemed ineligible for the Arts Council’s Culture Recovery Fund — the £1.57bn bailout package for arts organisations — or were only partially funded. Significant confusion remains around these refusals; some venues claim it is because their business structures don’t match the criteria set out in the applications, while others say they were given no reasoning.
All the venues have been running online crowdfunding campaign as part of the MVT’s hugely successful #SaveOurVenues campaign, which has raised millions of pounds for venues across the country — although more is still needed to ensure their survival.
For more information and to donate, visit crowdfunder.co.uk/save-our-venues-red-list
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