Portsmouth's Pyramid scheme that had a 30 year musical pay-off

But when multi-platinum American rapper The Game performed there on January 31 no-one would have guessed that it could be the last ever show to be held at the distinctive seafront venue.

The spring touring season was just about to get underway – indie rockers Ash and The Subways, plus veteran punks Stiff Little Fingers were all due to play The Pyramids in March, with more on the slate.

But as March progressed and the Covid-19 pandemic took hold, tours began to be cancelled. And then when the government ordered all entertainment establishments to close and we went into lockdown, that was it.

Now with the news that owners Portsmouth City Council are looking to revamp it as a trampoline, soft-play and super-gym facility, scrapping the pools and The Plaza event space, it would appear the end has come.

With its unusually shaped structure, carpeted floor and whiff of chlorine from the complex’s neighbouring pool, The Plaza suite was never designed to be a concert venue – it was a more typically meant to be a conference hall or exhibition space.

Promoters Claire Davies and Ian Binnington stumbled across the hall when they were looking for potential gig sites as part of the Portsmouth Venue Campaign (PVC) in 1990.

With a capacity of 1,150 and being far enough away from residential areas not to cause noise problems, it looked promising. And so it was – among the acts to have played there, some of have gone on to become arena and even stadium fillers, for others this was as big as they got.

Muse notably played there twice just four nights apart in May 1999 as the opening act for 3 Colours Red and Feeder. The following May they returned as headliners – with the up-and-coming Coldplay. Whatever happened to them…?

Or the largely unheralded Scottish rock trio, Biffy Clyro opening for Hundred Reasons in 2004? Or Snow Patrol supporting quirky Americans Grandaddy in 2003 just as their breakthrough song Run was picking up steam?

At its peak it hosted up to 30 gigs a year, reflecting changing tastes and scenes, with indie, Britpop, punk, pop, dance-oriented acts and various shades of metal all represented.

The Pyramids became an established part of the national touring circuit and was a crucial local stepping stone for acts to progress from The Wedgewood Rooms to Portsmouth Guildhall.

When The Pyramids was last under threat in 2008, it had actually just had its busiest ever year for concerts, but repair and maintenance bills were stacking up. PVC helped fight a successful campaign to keep it open.

However, following an enforced closure of several months in 2014 for repairs due to flooding, it struggled to regain its place, and the number of gigs there has fallen off in recent years.

This writer’s first gig at The Pyramids was for Californian alternative rock act Faith No More in March 1995. Part of their King For A Day... Fool For a Lifetime tour, it was a chaotic affair. A stage invader knocked out the power to keyboardist Roddy Bottum’s equipment, and then part of the lighting rig – a tower – toppled over onto the front rows of the capacity crowd. To cap it all I got a nosebleed in the mosh during the encore performance of their biggest hit, Epic.

It was a ruddy great gig.

Since then I’ve seen dozens of shows there, through to Band of Skulls late last year.

Ian, of PVC, admits the announcement took him by surprise, but he is pragmatic about it and concerned for the wider implications.

‘I’ve never referred to The Pyramids as a music venue, I think that would be a disservice to a lot of other venues up and down the UK. It was a space which was intended to be used for a variety of events.

‘It’s the loss of this space which is the major concern because it's not just going to affect gigs, it’s going to affect a whole load of other events where there’s no alternative space for them.

‘With regards to music, though, once you lose that mid-range potential venue, you don’t have that stepping stone from your grassroots smaller venues to bigger civic halls.

‘For years we have always worked on that premise, being able to develop relationships with bands on that basis that there is a longer term picture and it’s not just about coming in, doing one gig and that’s it.

‘The fact we had that infrastructure within the city meant you could get that progression – bands came in at a certain level and worked their way through.

‘You had that consistency, and that was important from the band’s point of view because they knew they could build a fanbase in that area.’

And he acknowledges things have changed since they started promoting – and had industry backing.

‘The musical map is changing – it’s a far more competitive business these days, there’s more operators and more promoters out there and we’re all competing, and if what is being offered by one venue or operator is better than what you can offer, then you start to lose out.

‘I’m not scaremongering, but by taking out that level it potentially opens it up to others.

‘There are those, without naming names, who are not too distant from here who will be rubbing their hands at this outcome because it will open up far more options for them – you’re offering up an open goal for them, basically.

‘I would hate for things to go back to what it was 30 years ago when we started doing this.

‘What I like about Portsmouth is that it’s always about independence and the independents, but those corporate entities are waiting to move in, and they’re well-placed to do so.’

Councillor Steve Pitt, in charge of leisure and cultural matters at PCC says the decision to replace the pool and Plaza were tough financial ones.

‘I think Cllr Will Purvis summed it up best when he said it’s like asking people, would you like to go to Disneyland, The Bahamas or for a weekend in Cornwall? when you know you can only afford the weekend in Cornwall. It's disingenuous.

‘There is no alternative – we don’t have the money to keep it open as it is.

‘The building (which opened in 1988) is at the end of the life it was expected to have. We’re lucky to have it for a few more years, but whatever anyone does with it, it is going to have to be demolished in about a decade. There’s no avoiding that.

‘The whole thing is a horrible situation to be in, but it’s a number of factors colliding at the same time – coronavirus, the building coming to the end of life, years of not investing what the building needed – which was in turn driven by people knowing it was reaching the end of its life. Would anyone in their sane mind invest millions in a building knowing it’s got a finite lifespan?’

And he says it is also part of a wider plan to improve the city’s venues.

‘None of this is being done in isolation, but it’s only the bit about the Pyramids which is out there in public right now. But there is a wider plan to regenerate and improve our performance spaces around the city.

‘All of this has been blown away by coronavirus. The Kings (Theatre)’s regeneration has had to be scaled right back, we’ve had to park the regeneration work we were going to do on the Guildhall.

‘I understand a lot of people are upset about losing the pool or the music side of it, but then you look at some of the comments online and you realise they haven’t been there for years.

‘Nostalgia doesn’t pay the bills, unfortunately.

‘It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, less people come, less investment happens, so less people come, and so on until you reach the end of the road.

‘I think it’s a mistake to keep putting sticking plasters on it, when the situation is beyond that.​​​​​​​’​​​​​​​​​​​​​​