Muni no more

The uncertain future of Gwdihw and Guildford Crescent has been dominating this blog of late, but elsewhere in South Wales venues are sadly finding the going simply too tough to survive. Those who run the Parrot in Carmarthen had already announced it would be shutting its doors at Christmas, and now the Muni Arts Centre in Pontypridd has suddenly closed due to financial difficulties.

Public Service Broadcasting played there at the tail end of October - a gig that seems to have been every bit as special as the one in Cardiff last year, and one that took latest LP Every Valley to the very people about whom it was written.

But the loss of the Muni clearly isn't merely the loss of a gig venue - it's also the loss of a vital community space, a hub for all sorts of cultural and artistic activity. Here in Cardiff, we can sometimes forget or at least take for granted how much we have right on our doorstep. Make no mistake: for Pontypridd, this is a tragedy.