Edinburgh music promoters pull plug on regular gigs and plans for year-round venue

House concerts and Traverse Theatre shows have been shelved

Long-running music promoters in Edinburgh have pulled the plug on a decade-long hunt for a year-round venue and hit out at a lack of support from the city for their vision.

Soundhouse, who have been staging gigs in the Scottish capital for the past 21 years, have also announced they are scaling back their activity in Edinburgh.

Founders Douglas Robertson and Jane-Ann Purdy are shelving their weekly concerts in the Traverse Theatre and regular "house concerts" at their home overlooking Holyrood Park.

Singer-songwriter Dean Owens has been the among the acts programmed by Edinburgh promoters Soundhouse. Picture: Douglas Robertson

The pair have pledged to continue programming Tradfest, the city’s biggest celebration of traditional music, which is held every spring.

However, their last regular show will be from Leith singer-songwriter Dean Owens, who staged the first house concert in 2002 at the former shop on Royal Park Terrace, which he turned into his own photography studio.

Mr Robertson was engaged in a lengthy dispute with the city council as word spread about the house concerts.

After resisting attempts to shut down the intimate gigs, which featured the likes of Michael Marra, Michelle Shocked, Lau, Lankum and Eliza Carthy, Mr Robertson and Ms Purdy launched The Soundhouse Organisation in 2013 to stage gigs in public venues and search for a permanent base.

Jazz-funk outfit Fat Suit have been among the acts to play Soundhouse gigs at the Traverse Theatre. Picture: Douglas Robertson

The first Traverse gigs were staged the following year when Soundhouse launched what were to become regular Monday night shows. They took over the running of the Tradfest event four years later.

Soundhouse bounced back from the pandemic with an 18-strong series of outdoor shows organised in collaboration with the Edinburgh International Festival. A pop-up Fringe venue created by Soundhouse this August saw the reopening of the Rose Theatre at the west end of Rose Street.

Mr Robertson said it had been a “tough decision” to pull the plug on the venue vision and the regular staging of concerts. But he added: “You can only bang your head against a wall for so long.”

In a letter to supporters, he said: “Since 2013, Soundhouse's fundamental goal has been to establish a permanent quality venue in the city for acoustic music. This would ideally have been the 300-400 seat space that Edinburgh is sorely lacking.

Shooglenifty have been among the acts programmed by Soundhouse.

"During this period, the council set up and enabled various discussion groups to address the increasing lack of live music venues in the city.

“My argument at these meetings was that the council had to ‘put their money where their mouth is'. It is not sufficient to express concern over this problem whilst continuing to sell every potential venue at the highest price to property developers."

Mr Robertson questioned the decision of the Scottish and UK governments, and the city council to commit a total of £25 million to a new 1,000-capacity concert hall of St Andrew Square, which he described as a “vanity project”.

He said: "Personally, I’m disappointed that ten years down the road we’re not a millimetre closer to achieving our goal. The appetite for student flats and new hotels seems undiminished, so it’s highly likely that developers will continue to gobble up the city.

“All evidence suggests there is a hunger for this kind of facility here in Edinburgh. Sadly we live in a world where very often ‘greed’ takes priority over ‘need’."