And indeed we review venues! This is a piece written by Stephen Hunt on his favourite place. It ran first in Green Man Review.
Of all the “cool venues” listed here at Green Man, my local music venue must surely be the coolest. That’s not an idle boast, but merely a statement of fact, as the temperature at The Rum Store is at a constant 10 degrees C! The reason for this is due to the venue’s rather unorthodox location…
The Rum Store is part of an the underground complex of three man-made slate caverns, set in 6.5 acres of wooded hillside a few miles from my home town of Liskeard. Its name comes from the fact that The Rum Store cavern was used by The Royal Navy in the Second World War to store their supplies of rum. These days it’s a fully equipped performance space which seats an audience of 400, is 90 meters long, 20 meters wide and between 4 to 6 meters tall. The exact seating plan varies with each gig, depending on where the trickles of ice-cold water decide to emerge from the fissured rock ceiling!
There’s a strong emphasis on folk music at The Rum Store, and recent and forthcoming acts include Bert Jansch, Ralph McTell, Dalla, Lindisfarne, Cara Dillon, Gordon Giltrap and Maddy Prior. Other events include rock, pop and classical music, Cornish choirs and community arts projects.
Anyone more used to the facilities offered by conventional, “up-country” music venues may find The Rum Store rather Spartan — as a wise man once said: “we ‘ave our own ways down ‘ere.” Cloak room? No need, you’ll want to keep your coat on (and a pair of extra socks, too). Catering and bar facilities? There’s a makeshift bar constructed out of trestle tables where you can get a decent pint of Cornish ale straight out of the barrel. What more could you want?
Ultimately, The Rum Store is all about “atmosphere.” If the idea of visiting a subterranean lake, meeting friends in a floodlit fairy sculpture garden and walking through to see what, say, Maddy Prior & Friends can do in a huge cave with a good PA and lighting system appeals to you, I’ll see you there!
Visit the Carnglaze Caverns web site here, and click on The Rum Store to see the current gig listings.
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