Last week, it was announced that Manchester music venues The Deaf Institute and Gorilla, both own by the company Mission Mars, would be closing their doors permanently due to financial complications caused by the coronavirus crisis. “We would encourage any industry and music entrepreneurs who might be interested in this as an opportunity to please get in touch,” Mission Mars CEO and founder Roy Ellis had told Manchester Evening News.
Now, both venues have been bought by venue group Tokyo Industries and consequently saved from closure, the BBC reports. According to a statement, staff at both The Deaf Institute and Gorilla will be able to keep their jobs, while the venues will continue to operate “in much the same way as they have done in the past”.
Tokyo Industries founder, Aaron Mellor, added that it is “vital venues like Gorilla and The Deaf Institute are kept alive, [as] the cultural fabric of our city centres depends venues like these”. He said that he had “put together some great ideas” along with event promoters SSD Concerts and the Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess to help “save both venues and their existing operating style in a post-Covid world.”
The Deaf Institute has been operating for more than a decade, while Gorilla opened its doors in 2012. Despite the government’s recent £1.57 billion fund for venues and cultural spaces, many artists and venues are still facing the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
