Rising costs blamed for Birmingham music venue closure

Samuel Marks and Shannon Spreen opened the venue in August 2021

A live music venue that launched in Birmingham two years ago has closed, citing rising bills and running costs.

Jukeboxers, a cocktail and piano bar, said the expenses of rent, utilities and business rates, plus quiet week nights, had caused difficulties.

The bar is sited underneath the Utilita Arena.

An "astronomical" utility bill of about £80,000 forced couple Shannon Spreen and Samuel Marks, who ran the venue, to call it quits on Sunday, they said.

Although from the outside the business seemed to be thriving, it was impossible to continue, according to a statement on the venue's website.

The bar allowed customers to pick the music which was then provided by a pianist or live in-house band.

After smart metres were installed by their landlord earlier this year, the couple said they anticipated a utility price rise although the reality far exceeded expectations.

Although weekends were busy, they had already shut an extra night in the week to combat overall cost-of-living increases, but the utility bill situation could not be overcome and made continuing "untenable", Ms Spreen said.

The couple said it was important to them that they employed musicians coming out of the pandemic

"For the last two years I've played the piano in the bar from 1pm until 1am [on Saturdays] and it's been packed," Mr Marks said.

"We made 70 to 80% of our revenue from that, but that wasn't enough - business rates and utilities got us in the end."

The couple said it had been important for them to employ their three musicians and offer stability after the pandemic, which made the development even more sad.

"We've had some soft inquiries of maybe further investment and we'd give anything to stay open, but when you have these costs, what can you do?" Ms Spreen said.

The pair closed the bar as Sir Elton John performed a farewell tour concert in the Utility Arena above them, providing the venue with its busiest weekend ever, she added.

"It was the best and the worst night," she explained.

"We told the staff one by one and there wasn't a dry eye in the house."

The pair plan to focus on taking the business to more corporate events and weddings.

"As sad as we are, we hope the future is quite bright... we have a wealth of talent and the drive to go to events and work in the hospitality scene," Mr Marks said.

The venue closed on Sunday