There was a ray of hope for Leicester's deprived music fans this week as plans for a 1,700-capacity venue were announced. Lee Marlow reports.

There was a rare moment of good news for Leicester's beleaguered music fans this week. The University of Leicester announced grand plans for a £15m, 1,700 capacity venue which, all being well, will be open in just over a year's time.

For a city punch drunk and reeling from the closure of several notable live venues, this could be the much-needed shot in the arm that Leicester needs, reckons Graham Ross, services officer of the university's Students' Union.

The plans for an all-singing-and-dancing new live venue were hatched more than five years ago, says Graham, and form a central part of the university's £1bn redevelopment plans.

But, crucially, this is not just good for the university. It's good for Leicester.

"We think it will make the University of Leicester a more attractive proposition for students," he says.

"But we want to reach out and provide something for the greaterLeicester community."

The university can point to a proud history of bringing some of the biggest names in music to its old Percy Gee building.

The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Genesis, The Jam and The Smiths among the bands to have played there.

But the list of big names seems to run dry in the late 80s and 90s as the university and Leicester as a whole, as a destination for live entertainment was overtaken by its rivals.

At the university, the student's entertainment committee has struggled to attract today's bigger names to their venue, admits Graham.

There's an obvious reason for this, he explains. "We desperately needed extra capacity and better facilities," he says.

"The Percy Gee building is 50 years old. It has served us well, but it's time for change. It was not built to cater for a university with 12,000 students.

"Bands coming here have had to use meeting rooms as changing rooms, the stage is small. The facilities have just not been up to cope with the challenges we face.

"Our aim is to attract better bands to Leicester and more of them. We'd like two or three top quality gigs a week. There is an obvious gap in the market in Leicester for a quality 1,700 capacity venue, staging quality acts. We hope we can help to fill it."

The inconvenient truth, however, is that this obvious gap on the city's music map is so large, it's unlikely that one venue – regardless of how good it may well prove to be – could hope to fill it.

In the past decade, far too many well known music venues have dropped off the Leicester gig list.

Granby Halls was bulldozed in 1999. De Montfort University's Arena, one of DJ John Peel's favourite venues, was closed in 2003. It still stands there, empty, although the university says it is being used for "academic reasons."

The Magazine, arguably one of Leicester's finest pubs and a much-loved live venue, closed in the late 90s and The Charlotte finally gave up the ghost earlier this year.

The curtain comes down at the council-funded Phoenix Arts Centre for the final time later this summer.

Campaigners are hoping that this well-liked little venue is not added to the growing list of Leicester's lost venues.

Julian Wright, 62, is an acoustic guitarist who played at the Phoenix's Sunday Jazz club when it was first formed in 1981.

"And it's still going strong," he says. "It's a great venue; a good-sized, perfectly functioning little arts centre that caters for all sorts of musicians who love it. It would be madness to close it."

But when the new £21m Digital Media Centre opens in the autumn, there are – presently – no council plans to keep the Phoenix alive.

Another respected and much-loved venue will be lost. The people of Leicester would be foolish to let that happen, says Julian.

"This is where we want to step in," says Julian. "We have support from the civic society, we have a petition with 800 names and we are determined that it should not close.

"We now have a social enterprise company, Leicester Stride, who want to take the centre on, widen its remit, use it to train youngsters in all sorts of disciplines and keep it as a live venue.

"It's early days but it sounds like a great idea to us. I hope it will work and the council will hand the venue over to them and the people of Leicester."

Leicester Stride is a social enterprise initiative that helps vulnerable youngsters. Boss Dave Brazier told the Mercury they would do all they could to keep the Phoenix open.

"We think the council will find it difficult to sell the Phoenix – as they found it difficult to sell the Haymarket – and we would be willing to run it, pay rent and business rates, and open the centre to a wider range of people but still retain it as a venue for performing musicians."

When the Charlotte closed down in February this year, there were rumours the venue would eventually reopen under a new guise, still featuring live music and showcasing up and coming bands.

That looks distinctly unlikely now. The pub's owners, Punch Taverns, which owns dozens of pubs in and around Leicester, has admitted to the Mercury it is now looking to offload the building.

"After efforts to re-let The Charlotte, a decision has been taken to put the property on the market," a spokeswoman said.

Meetings were held earlier this year with a couple of interested parties, but they came to nothing, she added.

Andy Wright, the former landlord at the Charlotte, is unsurprised. He's now promoting music nights at Sumo in Braunstone Gate and working on a new project in Frog Island – including a bar, a live venue and rehearsal rooms. The rehearsal rooms – run by Stayfree, which has moved from its Conduit Street base – are up and running now. The venue should be open later this year.

Leicester has a vibrant music scene, let down by a lack of decent venues, says Andy.

"Objectively, if you look at Leicester, we just don't have the infrastructure that nearby cities like Nottingham and Birmingham already have," he says.

"We have a lot of good smaller venues – The Musician, Sumo, Firebug, which all hold around 200 or less. Then, slightly bigger, we have the Shed and The Y, which is about 350 capacity.

"But there's nothing between The Shed and De Montfort Hall. The new university venue will slot nicely into that gap but, in truth, that gap is so big that, by itself, it can't hope to bridge it.

"If we want to be taken seriously as a city that is serious about music, we need to do that."

So, what should we do?

"I'm not sure there's an easy answer," says Andy. "Geographically, we fall between Nottingham and Birmingham, which are bigger cities with more and better venues

"Both cities have venues to suit every kind of band at every level of their development. So if you're a band manager, a booker, a promoter, you are, inevitably, going to look at Nottingham and Birmingham before you look at Leicester."

At the top end of the live music scale, both Nottingham and Birmingham boast nationally renowned concert arenas, pulling in concert-goers from all over the Midlands.

Jim B is a promoter and booking agent who would only speak to us on the condition we didn't reveal his real surname or the top-end promotions/booking company he works for.

He knows Leicester well. He also knows that most big bands don't even think about Leicester when they are planning a UK tour.

"Twenty years ago, maybe they would have done," he says.

"But things have changed. The way bands tour today has changed. The big bands just tour the arenas. Their managers look at a map of the country and go: London, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow. Bang. Sorted."

If you're lucky, and the band are feeling particularly energetic, you might get an extra arena date in Sheffield. Maybe Cardiff. Maybe Nottingham.

But certainly not Leicester. "And why would they?" says Jim. "There are two perfectly good arenas nearby. Why build another one? There simply aren't the bands, the tours, possibly even the punters, especially in a recession, to sustain it. If you're asking me, Leicester has missed the boat there."

A campaign to rally support for an arena in Leicester seems to have run out of steam.

A petition demanding an arena-sized concert hall for Leicester was handed to the city council a year ago but even then Councillor Andy Connelly admitted that while an arena in Leicester would be nice, it was not a "top priority".

The Mercury left messages for the organisers behind an online campaign calling for a new arena in Leicester. No-one called us back.

As far as Leicester City Council is concerned, nothing has changed. It has no plans to build a 10,000-seater concert arena.

"If a private developer wanted to invest in an arena in the city we'd be pleased to work with them," the spokeswoman said. Unfortunately, there is not.

"In the meantime," she added, "we're delighted that the university is going to be providing this excellent new venue, which will really benefit the city."

Even the bands who play stadiums are happy to give Leicester a swerve.

The city might boast an impressive £35m football stadium – but the Walkers was not designed to stage stadium rock shows.

Although it can seat up to 33,000 on match days, the capacity would be reduced to less than 15,000 for concerts.

This, apparently, dates back to when the stadium was built in 2001 and the club cut costs on the quality of the ground's foundations.

Too many people, jumping up and down to the sounds of an arena-friendly rock band, could cause the Walkers Stadium to crumble.

The good news, says Jim the promoter, is that the university's new venue probably will benefit the city.

"I think that's where the smart money is going these days," he reckons.

"There are enough bands around to fill those circa 2,000-seater venues five or six nights a week. You can stage a big club night, a big rock night, and, if you do it right, you should be able to make good money."

In the meantime, Leicester looks destined to limp in behind Birmingham and Nottingham. It's a grim scenario spelled out by fly-posters in Frog Island.

The grubby bills that pockmark the derelict buildings which line either side of this inauspicious entrance to the city tell a depressing story.

Big gig in Nottingham, says one. Top event in Birmingham, declares another. Lots of great things coming up, they all scream. But not here; not here where the posters have been put up. In the week Leicester University announced it planned to open a great new venue, the general message in the city seemed to be: there's nothing for you to see here.

It's a needless state of affairs, says Matt Kirk, the owner of Firebug in Leicester.

Formerly the Lamplighters, Firebug in Millstone Lane, has managed to carve an individual niche in Leicester's live scene.

Last night, it staged a gig by Japanese all-girl indie band and former Kurt Cobain favourites Shonen Knife.

Matt, 37, is originally from Nottingham. He came to Leicester to study at university and never went home.

"This is my home now," he says. "I think Leicester is a better city than Nottingham.

Whether he says this to everyone he speaks to or just reporters working on his adopted city's daily paper, we're not sure.

"There is a brilliant live music scene in Leicester – but the city is missing a number of venues."

And yet for all this, Matt is more optimistic about his adopted home city than most of the people who have lived here all of their lives.

"I think we could have an arena in Leicester – why not?" he says.

"Geographically, we're in a better position than either Birmingham or Nottingham. We have better sports teams. We have a nicer city centre.

"Nottingham does have more and better venues. But there is no reason stopping us from having those venues. We could do it. The only thing stopping us is our lack of ambition."