A collection of reviews by me

Adam Smith talks The Square and what’s missing in Harlow since it’s closure.

Getting on a train back to your hometown can be unnerving at the best of times, but knowing there is a safe space with a community that will welcome you with open arms can make all the difference. Anyone who lived in Harlow, Essex before 2017 will remember that safe space as our former local music venue ‘The Square’, but music promoter and event organiser Adam Smith, 38, has been working tirelessly ever since The Square’s closure to keep this community alive and provide the people of Harlow with music based events where they can feel free to be themselves.

Walking into Redchurch Brewery, for one of the said events, felt like coming home. Although the venue may be different, the energy and the atmosphere remain the same, proving that The Square was always more than just a building, it was a community. I was greeted by a big banner with ‘The Square’ logo which evoked immediate nostalgia and had my brain flooding with memories. I walked in to see many familiar faces from my youth, but I was even more pleased to see that there were some new ones too. The only thing missing was the oddly welcoming smell of leather and beer that took many years to perfect.

Sitting down with Adam at a small table in the Brewery’s reception area, I asked him for a brief overview of The Square’s history: “It was a music venue that started off the late 70s/early 80s as part of an initiative run by Essex County Council, as part of their youth service they used to provide. The people who ran it at the time could see there was potential there for live music, comedy, cabaret nights, and different entertainment. Fast forward to the 90’s it was one of the places that any band that was on tour in the UK would pass through. Anyone who was on tour, if you looked in NME at any tour flyer, The Square would be on there.”

Essex County Council cut much of the funding for the youth service division in the mid-2000s and The Square lost its funding, but the incredibly dedicated staff refused to just let go: “I and four others got together that had been working there in various different roles and took over the lease of the place in 2007 to run it as a music venue, that lasted until 2017 when the land owners decided to not renew our lease and were gonna redevelop the site.”

The closure of the venue is a sensitive topic for anyone like me who spent their teenage years watching bands play in the beautifully dingy building, but Adam’s determination to keep it alive despite losing the building and the funding is helping to keep some of the charms that Harlow is severely lacking in recent years. 

The music promoter originally went to The Square as a part of his school work experience “I just got hooked on the place and started to realise that some of the bands that were playing there were bands that I recognised from magazines that I was reading at the time”. Recounting some of the first gigs he went to at the music venue, he recalls seeing Less Than Jake for the first time: “To see a band from America that were playing in our town, that opened up a whole other world for me of ‘it’s happening in our town’”.

Upon completing his school work experience, Adam continued to volunteer for various roles at the locally adored music venue until he was eventually given the opportunity to plan his own event: “I had this real interest in ‘how do you make things happen?’, so mid-2000’s I got really involved in that, there was a team of us that would book all kinds of music so the square catered for all sorts”.

 He soon became a familiar face for any regular visitors and that still continues to this day as people walk past us offering him an excited smile and a friendly wave. A slightly strange and clearly intoxicated man once told me “We’re all family here at The Square”, and it is heartwarming to see that this remains to be true. Adam described it best: “The Square was a place where if you were stuck at home on a Friday or Saturday night, you could just rock up there and you know you’d bump into someone that you know and if you didn’t know them very well you could get talking to someone.”

As much as it has been a devastating loss to have the building filled with all of our best and worst memories get knocked down and to no longer have the reliability of knowing you have somewhere to go every weekend, Adam does not think that this is the biggest issue to come of this for Harlow: “That opportunity that I was given is what’s missing for other people. So The Square’s been closed for 7 years now the kids that were 10-year-olds at the time when it closed wouldn’t know much about it, they’re now 17, at the point where they would be going out, so they’re going to the pubs in town, they’re not seeing what I saw which is a place where original live music was encouraged, a place where you could be yourself, it didn’t matter how you dressed, it didn’t matter about your political persuasion or your sexual persuasion, you could just go there and be yourself and you were given opportunities by the people that worked there, there was people there that would actively encourage you to get involved in stuff whether that be promoting or playing in a band, learning how the sound and lights work, working behind the bar, starting a record label, helping you start a magazine, whatever it was there was people there. You could rock up at any point and you knew there’d be someone there that would be welcoming. I don’t know how to go about this but I would like to see opportunities like that for people.”

Some may be disappointed to learn that there is “no masterplan” for the future of The Square, but he will continue to put events on at venues such as Redchurch Brewery and Harlow Rugby Club. Rest assured, Harlow’s sense of community and love for music is safe in the hands of people like Adam Smith.