Glass Animals back campaign to save The Wheatsheaf

Glass Animals played live shows at The Wheatsheaf in their early days

Indie-pop band Glass Animals have backed a campaign to stop one of the last remaining grassroots gig venues in the centre of Oxford from closing.

The owner of the Wheatsheaf pub has submitted a planning application to convert the gig space above it into student flats.

The application said live music at the venue was "unsustainable".

But Edmund Irwin-Singer, from Glass Animals, urged Oxford residents to get behind the "very important" venue.

The keyboard and bass player is the latest musician from the city's music scene to back the "Save the Sheaf" campaign.

He said: "We played many gigs at The Wheatsheaf when we started out and we're really worried that The Wheatsheaf is under a lot of threat now from closing.

"It's one of the last venues in the centre of Oxford and we would urge our fans and anyone who is from Oxford to try and stop it being closed down, because it was very important for us and we would be really sad to see it go."

Edmund Irwin-Singer described The Wheatsheaf as a "very important" venue

The 150-capacity venue, off the High Street, has been closed since the first coronavirus lockdown last March, and the current tenant has given notice to leave.

It has hosted live bands for 20 years, including Oxford acts Foals and Stornoway before they became better known.

The application was submitted by owner Glen de Unger, and proposes replacing the venue with nine student rooms, a kitchen and common area.

Within days it received more than 1,000 objections.

Campaigner Micaela Tuckwell subsequently told a council meeting that Oxford was "at a crisis point in terms of the erosion of the critical infrastructure that our city's music scene needs for it to survive".

In response, Mary Clarkson, cabinet member for the city centre and culture, said: "It's important for Oxford to have a live music scene."

She said a passion for live music was shared "very much" by councillors.

In a statement on behalf of the applicant, Riach Architects described the venue as "cramped with poor ventilation" and said with the lower overheads the pub's long term future could be secured.

The Wheatsheaf has been closed for a year because of coronavirus restrictions