The Bear Club to close as ‘financial sword of Damocles swings overhead’

The Bear Club
The Bear Club. Photo from @the_bear_club on Twitter

An internationally renowned Luton jazz and blues music nightspot is set to close, with the owner saying the “financial sword of Damocles swings overhead”.

In 2019 The Bear Club was voted one of the top 25 jazz clubs in the world in a poll by All About Jazz, a publication for fans of the music.

The venue is also a home to the Happy Shark Comedy Club which has played host to top-class comics such as James Acaster and Ed Gamble.

But in 2020, owner Justin Doherty announced the closure of the Mill Yard club before the Covid pandemic struck, only for lockdown to lead to a change of heart once restrictions were lifted last year.  

The Kitty La Roar Trio at The Bear Club
The Kitty La Roar Trio at The Bear Club

Mr Doherty, who for ten years co-ran the town’s popular Filmstock festival, has now confirmed that The Bear Club will close at the end of 2022, saying that financial pressures have proved the final straw, as venues across the country face the energy crisis.  

In an email to supporters, the owner wrote: ‘As you know, 2020 was going to be the finale of The Bear Club, and what a rip-roaring finale it was going to be. And then we all know what happened next. 

‘It felt important to be here when the world started opening up again. We longed to see you, and you all came back to meet, drink and fill this place with music again. 

‘The last 13 months have been special. For those that have been witness, the music and atmosphere has been second to none. But it has also felt temporary… a stay of execution… and all those ‘2020 closure’ reasons that I buried in the ground during Covid, are sprouting, growing and strangling. 

‘Personal reasons and problematic local reasons always topped the list of closure explanations, money was never it. But right now, a financial sword of Damocles swings overhead. Swinging to the beat at least, but making every week make or break. I won’t pretend we are alone in that, but it of course completes a pyramid of reasons. So….This is the final season.The Bear Club will close at the end of the year.

The Bear Club has come close to closure before when in 2015, a year after opening, it was served with a noise abatement notice by Luton Council following complaints from residents nearby.

Jazz Jam at The Bear Club
Jazz Jam at The Bear Club

Fans of the venue crowdfunded £9,400 to pay for sound-proofing and the club was able to continue. 

But the end looked imminent in 2020 when Mr Doherty announced the venue was to close on May 24. 

He said at the time: “It is not one single reason. Environmental, financial, attendance, practical and personal aspects all play an equal part in this being the way it plays out.”

Mr Doherty added: “I’ve always believed in going out strong, like a TV series that knows when to stop, before the sets look tired and the plot lines go thin. ‘Fawlty Towers’, not ‘Friends’. That’s the way to go.”

Covid struck soon after the decision to close was announced and subsequent lockdowns and restrictions on live music meant that the final three-month farewell of shows could not be completed. 

The pandemic saw Mr Doherty have a change of heart and  In November 2020, the club received a £57,000 grant from the Cultural Recovery Fund, from the government’s £1.57billion investment in England’s arts and culture organisations.

Despite announcing the ‘beginning of the end’, a programme of almost 50 events is already underway, and Mr Doherty wrote: ‘It’s a celebration, not a wake. I know most of us are having to think about where we spend, what we keep switched on and not to mention where our precious time is spent. But we hope you’ll come see us. Keep us busy until the end and keep a shirt on the Bear’s back. It’s gonna be beautiful. See you around jazz town’.

Find out what’s on at The Bear Club before it shuts for good.

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