How a Georgian Cloth Mill Became a Major UK Open-Air Music Venue

Noel Gallagher calls it “an epic venue,” Jessie Ware thinks it’s “just like Venice,” and Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst proclaimed it “my new favourite spot.” Which glamorous stop on the international music circuit are they talking about? Halifax in West Yorkshire.

In the 18th century, the Piece Hall was the centre of the Yorkshire textile industry, a vast 315-room building constructed around an Italian-inspired courtyard, where hundreds of weavers and merchants would gather to trade pieces of cloth and woollen goods – hence its name.

Now, 225 years after the building opened in 1799 in the heart of Halifax – and with a couple of close shaves that almost saw it demolished in the intervening years – the crowds gather in even greater numbers and with no less of a clamour, but for a different reason.

The world’s only surviving Georgian cloth hall, the Piece Hall has now become one of the UK’s most successful live music venues. International artists are eagerly lining up to play gigs over the summer, and it’s on track to sell out its capacity of about 200,000 tickets for the season.

This week alone sees comedian Bill Bailey, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, former The Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft, and punk survivors the Stranglers taking to the stage. The rest of August will feature gigs by Jess Glynne, nu-metal giants Korn, Status Quo, Pixies, and Fatboy Slim. Since the summer season started in June, there have been performances by Blondie, Sheryl Crow, Rick Astley, and Underworld.

Ticket sales for this summer’s 34 events have topped 180,000, surpassing last year by 50,000. Organizers say this means that outside London, only the Glastonbury festival and Liverpool’s Anfield stadium (thanks to Taylor Swift) will welcome more gig-goers to outdoor shows than the Piece Hall.

So how did this beautiful building, almost torn down in the 1970s, become the go-to venue for the world’s biggest musicians?

That’s largely down to Peter Taylor, who has made it his life’s work to bring international megastars to somewhat unlikely places. He’s the co-founder with Dan Cuffe of music promoters Cuffe & Taylor. Together they have turned their native Lytham on the Lancashire coast into a major summer gig destination and revitalised the North Yorkshire resort of Scarborough, partly by securing Britney Spears for a gig at the open-air theatre in 2017.

“I’d heard about the Piece Hall being renovated and had often wondered about it as I drove to Scarborough and back for our gigs there,” said Taylor. “Then, in 2021, our Lytham Festival shows were cancelled due to Covid and I had a chat with the trust that runs the Piece Hall.”

“They’d been trying to market it as a gig venue but not quite making it a success. They weren’t making any money from it and the promoters who came in insisted the shops and bars close down for the duration of the gigs, which upset them. So I said, why not put the gigs on yourself? We started a 50-50 venture where they would provide this amazing venue and we would source the artists. In the first year, we put on 12 gigs, and now in our third year we’re doing 34.”

The Piece Hall is populated by local independent businesses, which Cuffe & Taylor encourage to stay open to take advantage of the 6,000 people who fill each sold-out gig. The venue attracts what Taylor calls a “hyper-local” clientele.

“The success is down to the local people who have supported it,” Taylor said. “The majority of the audience comes from within 10 miles of the venue, which bucks the trend for gigs of this size. Halifax isn’t necessarily the most affluent area, and on paper this should just not work. But that’s why economists don’t organize live music events.”

“For every ticket we sell, we generate £100 for the local economy, and that comes at no cost to the taxpayer. Because it’s a partnership with the trust that runs the Piece Hall, the profits aren’t all pocketed by the promoters. What the trust makes goes back into the Piece Hall for the 330-odd days that we aren’t there putting gigs on.”

In 2012, Calderdale council, which is the Halifax local authority, announced a refurbishment of the Piece Hall, which had fallen into decline. The council received £7m from the Heritage Lottery Fund towards the £19m cost of revitalising the building, which opened in 2017. A charitable trust was set up with a 125-year lease to operate the site, of which Nicky Chance-Thompson is CEO.

A Londoner, though married to a Halifax man, Chance-Thompson recalls first walking into the courtyard when being shown around her husband’s hometown. “I just thought … wow. This place is incredible and it has so much potential.”

Chance-Thompson spoke of a unique quality that bowls over both artists and gig-goers. “There’s just something about the old building and the proximity of the audience to the artists that creates this energy I’ve never seen anywhere before,” she said. “If I could bottle it, I’d be a billionaire.”

Source: The Guardian