When Keiron Marshall was 15, he found his way out of a desperate situation with help from an unexpected source: Eric Clapton. The guitar great …
When Keiron Marshall was 15, he found his way out of a desperate situation with help from an unexpected source: Eric Clapton. The guitar great was host at the first gig Marshall ever went to, and he was joined on stage by Gary Brooker of Procol Harum, The Who’s Pete Townshend and Beatle Ringo Starr. Since then, London’s music scene has been a liferaft for Marshall, a musician who now runs a group of small concert venues with his wife. Growing up in south London, he’d endured racial slurs and regular beatings because of his Pakistani heritage. His uncle was killed in a racially motivated attack; his mother was a heroin addict. “Music for us is a really personal thing,” said Hannah White, Marshall’s wife. “It’s been totally life-changing.” But the music scene they know and love may soon be unrecognizable because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has plunged the U. K. economy into its worst recession on record. Live music venues have been forced to shut doors for nearly five months – and scores are at imminent risk of permanent closure. According to the charity Music Venue Trust, which represents 670 grassroots venues, more than 400 across the country are in crisis. One of those is Marshall and White’s south London venue group, The Sound Lounge. The British government announced that indoor and socially-distanced live music could resume on Saturday.
