Fatboy Slim helps to save 'lifeblood' music venue

Fatboy Slim helps to save 'lifeblood' music venueImage source, PA MediaImage caption, Fatboy Slim has invested in helping to buy the home of The Pipeline in Brighton, whose building is now owned by a community benefit societyByMark Savage, Music correspondent, Reporting fromin Brighton and Patrick Barlow, South EastPublished10 minutes agoThe home of a Brighton music venue is to become community owned as part of a £7m initiative backed by DJ Fatboy Slim and Andy Burnham dubbed the "National Trust of music venues".The Pipeline in Little East Street will become the 10th site owned by Music Venue Properties (MVP), a campaign which acquires the freeholds of music venues to secure their futures.Fatboy Slim, whose real name is Norman Cook, is among a number of people, including Burnham and Squeeze frontman Glenn Tilbrook, to invest in the charitable community benefit society.Cook said: "I love venues like this because they remind me of when I started out, that youthful excitement and feeling about having to perform."Image source, Lee London / MVTImage caption, Peter Cornforth, Fatboy Slim, and Thomas Evrenos outside The PipelineHe said: "Rooms like this are where dreams come true or where memories are made, and enormous acts learn their craft."Venues like this are the lifeblood of the music industry. "In this current economic climate it's quite hard for them to survive, so if MVP buys the venue, we can be the benevolent landlord that doesn't raise the rent, listens to them and gives them long term security."In June, Cook played the 60-capacity venue in a sold-out gig as part of the Everywhere at Once festival.Under the scheme, MVP raises funds through investors and the offer of "community shares", which allows it to buy music venues and lease them to the businesses, who often rent the sites rather than owning them.The group has so far bought 10 sites, including The Booking Hall in Dover and The Joiners i...