“It’s about putting Luton on the map, really making this venue a live music staple,” says Ben Barry. “I hate to use the phrase: use it or lose it — but that is where we are at with grassroots music at the moment.”
The words of the co-conspirator from Vandalism Begins at Home – the local music promotion collective – are not dressed up for effect. They reflect a reality facing venues across the country, but also a moment of opportunity in Luton.
From Wednesday January 28 to Sunday February 1, Independent Venue Week returns to The Castle for the third year running, with five consecutive nights of live music that will provide an acid test on the appetite for gigs, but commitment to keeping a music scene alive.
James Alexander, the owner of The Castle, has seen first-hand what happens when that commitment disappears.
“Luton’s been decimated over the last 20 years. Pubs, live music venues have all gone,” he says. “So it’s really important to keep supporting this.”
That sense of urgency sits against a stark national backdrop. According to the Music Venue Trust’s latest annual report, more than 53 per cent of grassroots music venues across the UK made no profit last year, while those that did averaged margins of just 2.5 per cent. Around 30 UK venues closed permanently in 2025 and roughly 6,000 jobs were lost across the sector. Touring has contracted too, with 175 UK towns no longer regular stops for artists, shrinking opportunities for new acts and local audiences alike.
In that context, The Castle’s progress stands out. This third annual instalment of Independent Venue Week in the Luton hot-spot is the latest milestone to showcase its now fully-fledged transition from pub with occasional gigs into a recognised grassroots music venue.
That recognition matters. It places The Castle within a national network at a time when many towns are losing their last remaining live spaces. It also suggests Luton may be quietly bucking the trend, not because it is immune to financial pressures, but because momentum is finally building rather than draining away.
The programme for this year’s Independent Venue Week reflects that ambition. Promoted collaboratively by Vandalism Begins at Home, Dark Party, Castlefest UK and The Castle Live, there is a show every night from Wednesday to Sunday.
Alien Chicks bring their punk-rap-jazz collision on the opening night, followed by Vandalism Begins at Home’s explosive night of post-punk featuring Big Trousers, SOURDOUGH and Fierce Fierce Tigers. Then there’s the confessional indie rock of Ugly Ozo, the grime-punk intensity of PENGSHUi and a genre-blurring finale from Flip Top Head.
It is deliberately broad, aimed at nurturing a scene rather than chasing a single audience. The Castle has an outdated reputation for being a metal pub. It’s not. There’s a sign hung permanently inside the venue, which declares: ‘The Castle is Luton’s most ass-kicking alternative venue’.
The Castle’s own messaging has been candid about why advance support for all gigs matter. In an email to subscribers this week to promote Independent Venue Week, it also warned that tours are being cancelled nationwide due to low ticket sales and rising costs, with venues absorbing immediate losses as a result. Buying tickets in advance of shows, the message made clear, is no longer a nice gesture but a necessity.
That plea takes on added significance given what is happening elsewhere in Luton. The town centre is in the early stages of a major physical regeneration. Piling has this month begun at Power Court ahead of construction of Luton Town’s new stadium, while The Stage development is now under way on the old Bute Street car park.
Both schemes will include larger live performance spaces, signalling confidence that Luton can sustain bigger audiences in the years ahead, like when Stockwood Park hosted the three-day extravaganza that was Radio 1’s Big Weekend in 2024.
But history suggests that confidence cannot be taken for granted. In the 1960s, Luton hosted the Beatles multiple times at venues like the Odeon and the Majestic Ballroom. But in the 1960s and 70s, however, Lutonian live music fans increasingly travelled out of town, next door to Dunstable.
The California Ballroom, known locally as The Cali in its heyday, and The Queensway Hall, both in the Luton’s smaller neighbour, became two of the most important venues outside London, hosting acts ranging from David Bowie and Stevie Wonder to punk and post-punk bands that defined an era. Those venues disappeared in 1979 and 2000, respectively. Luton, largely bypassed by major artists of that level then, is still largely overlooked now.
The town is trying to build from the ground up, but live music scenes do not thrive by accident. They depend on smaller rooms feeding bigger ones.
That is why Ben Barry’s argument matters. Grassroots venues are not just places to grow as stepping stones for artists, but training grounds for audiences. They teach people the habit of going out for live music, of buying tickets in advance, of supporting new acts before they are famous. Without that culture, expecting crowds to materialise for larger venues at Power Court and The Stage in three to five years’ time looks optimistic at best.
Luton’s biggest contemporary pop music success story for the last 40 years has made that point on a national stage. When Myles Smith accepted his Rising Star award at last year’s Brit Awards, in a speech broadcast to the world, he asked: “If artists selling out your arenas and your stadiums started in grassroots venues, what are you doing to keep them alive?” It was a question aimed at the industry, but it lands just as sharply at local level.
For now, The Castle is one of the few places in Luton keeping that grassroots flame burning for alternative live music, alongside The Bear Club’s thriving jazz and blues programme, while new night spot Mason’s, in the old Pizza Express, hosted UK garage stalwarts DJ Luck & MC Neat on its grand opening night just over a month ago.
In its New Year’s Eve message to supporters, The Castle thanked not only those who packed out gigs in 2025, but also people who simply popped in for a drink on quieter nights, acknowledging that survival depends on everyday choices as much as headline events.
Nationally, grassroots venues remain financially fragile and many towns are losing their connection to live music altogether. Locally, there are signs of resistance to that decline, but only if support continues.
Independent Venue Week, then, is about more than five nights of live music. It is a snapshot of whether Luton’s cultural revival has substance behind the cranes and concrete and ambitions of renewal.
Spaces where culture breathes are no less important than building football stadiums and performance centres.
The Castle has been flying that flag for a few years now, but if Luton wants to be a place where music lives, where artists thrive and communities connect, then supporting The Castle and it’s collective of music fanatic gig pushers in the week ahead, by buying tickets in advance and turning up next week, is about showing the same seriousness about culture.
Because if Luton wants a future where big venues thrive, it first has to protect the small rooms where it all begins.
As Ben Barry puts it, without softening the message, this is where things stand. “Use it, or lose it.”
You can get tickets to all of The Castle’s Independent Venue Week shows at: www.gigantic.com/venue/luton/the-castle
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