About Us
Newport's Latest and Leading Live Music Venue
The Corn Exchange on Newport’s High Street is a 500-capacity live music and performance venue, giving bands and performers a large capacity venue in the city – and providing South East Wales with a mid-size venue.
As a gathering space for people of the city since it was first opened in 1878. In more recent times this cornerstone of Newport’s history has served the city as a nightclub and an office space.
From the beginning of 2024, it has once again become a hub for gatherings in the city, bringing a heritage venue back to purpose in Newport’s city centre, while at the same time adding another story to the city’s rich cultural history.
The venue attracts bands, comedians and other artists who have outgrown Newport's smaller capacity venues but aren’t yet ready to sell the capacity of venues such as the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff or the O2 in Bristol. It brings bands and performers back into the city centre, attracting audiences from the greater Gwent and Bristol area – audiences and visitors we would have otherwise lost to Bristol or further afield.
Excellently positioned in the city centre, surrounded by well-established places to eat and drink, as well as accommodation and excellent transport links in and out of the city, its previous life as a nightclub lends this space perfectly to a new life as a live music venue - a place for the community, and a place for our city, and a new place for visitors and tourists to experience in Newport. Hey, it even has a giant mirror ball!
The space is also available for commercial use such as celebrations, corporate events, conferences, and other such large-scale gatherings, offering a new and unique space in the city centre for events of this nature.
Over two floors, it also offers space for other amenities and projects, which would feed into a core ethos of promoting and nurturing local culture and talent; keeping Newport’s music scene threaded through the next generations and raising aspirations for young people from all communities right across the city.
It is incumbent on us as a cultural community to continue to nurture music in the city in the name of our cultural heritage, as well as to support future generations of musicians and artists.
Key highlights of the space:
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500 capacity venue
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Excellent travel links
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Great access for bands and load-ins
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Accessible
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In an already established nightlife area of the city centre
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Room to eventually establish a Newport music museum, celebrating our city’s history.
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Alternative uses for weddings, conferences, and other such gatherings, providing a new and unique space in the city centre for corporate and private events
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A high-spec community space
Our Story
The roots of Newport’s place as a culturally significant centre for live music and musicians run deep, far into the beautiful mixing pot that is this city, reflecting the Port's wonderfully diverse and rich culture that runs back centuries.
In the 90s, the Newport music scene became particularly prevalent with the dawn of Brit Pop and the nationalistic vibe of the Cool Cymru movement. Propped up with an exquisite mix of live music venues like TJ’s and Le Pub, Newport Centre also played its part, catching bands on the rise to stardom, offering not only support opportunities for local bands, but much like the grassroots venues, offering inspiration for budding musicians from Newport and the wider south Wales area.
As the new century dawned, many of the bands that were spawned from the city were retreating to their day jobs and as record deals ran their course. Still, the music scene continued to grow and evolve, with the children of the kids of the 90s passing on their cultural heritage, creating the next generation of bands, performers, and artists.
Still standing from the grassroots venues of the 90s remains Le Pub. Now in a bigger home, as a 120-capacity live music venue, its part in the continuing growth of the Welsh music scene as a live venue and a place championing and giving space to local bands and talent is almost unquantifiable. It continues to provide a venue for national and international bands on the rise, for local bands both new and established and a welcoming space for the arts community of Newport and the wider Gwent area.
It's grassroots venues like Le Pub that have kept the music scene alive, and from this, we now see a new burgeoning music scene here in Wales – a new era of Cool Cymru, with a new generation of bands springing up in the principality.
However, these bands and so many others from across the UK and further afield are getting too big for Le Pub, drawing audiences of 300-500 at every gig. Of course, there are still plenty of bands to fill the calendar of Le Pub, but keeping and attracting these well-known bands with larger audiences is important for Newport for so many reasons both culturally and economically – so, let us introduce you to Corn Exchange, Newport.
Meet The Team
Sam Dabb
Steering Group Chair
Sam Dabb has been working in and managing Le Pub for 25 years. Under her guardianship, it has become renowned as one of the top venues on the UK touring circuit and has been nominated for many awards including NME Small Venue Of The Year, in which it finished third overall and first in Wales. In 2016, when faced with closure due to the sale of the building Sam set up a co-operative and launched a Community Share Offer, enabling Le Pub to move to much bigger premises and become a multi-use artspace, as well as a venue. In 2022 Sam was awarded the Music Venue Trust - Outstanding Achievement Award and Association Of Independent Music - Local Hero award.
During the pandemic, Sam worked as Welsh Coordinator for the Music Venue Trust helping venues negotiate the intricacies of funding and regulations during the Covid 19 pandemic.
Since the pandemic, Sam has been concentrating on running Le Pub and working on exciting new projects. She is looking forward to taking on this new challenge.
Emma Stowell-Corten
Communications Officer
Em’ has lived in Newport forever. Having been a music obsessive from childhood, she spent her youth listening to records and reading the Guinness Book of Hit Singles and Smash Hits.
Having started her media career in 2000, Emma went on to be part of the team behind Voice, bringing an entertainment magazine to Newport, interviewing Amy Winehouse, Arctic Monkeys and others, and organising events such as TJs in the Square, a celebrity golf day with Howard Marks and the Dirty Vegan, and Love Spreads with Sam in 2023.
Still a comms professional and a member of the city council, it’s her love for Newport, its culture and her nostalgic obsession with Newport’s 90s heyday that brings her joy. She is incredibly excited to be part of the team bringing this venue to life.
Stacey Alford
Events Officer
Stacey Alford is an award-winning DJ based in South Wales with almost two decades of experience in the events industry.
Over this time, she’s developed her unique brand, creating bespoke, remarkable experiences for clients on all scales and budgets, nailing every detail perfectly – whatever the event.
Having earned her reputation working with brands such as BAFTA Cymru, BBC, Cardiff Rugby, FAW, House of Vans, Nando's, Progress Productions and WRU alongside her events work, Stacey’s reputation as one of the finest DJs around has earned her residencies and gigs across the UK, with 2023 seeing her warmup for the likes of Noel Gallagher, Anne Marie, Queens of the Stone Age and Madness on her mission to world domination… where there’s a mirror ball, there’s Stacey!
Elisha Djan
Live Events Officer
Loved by every band she books for Le Pub, Elisha recently graduated from Uni with a degree in Music Business and Events Management and is currently the Events Manager at Le Pub, overseeing every stage of the live music scheduling from the initial booking and promotion, right through to running the event on the night and tying up all the details afterwards
As the drummer in up-and-coming Welsh all-girl sugar-punk band, Murder Club (who are currently touring the grassroots circuit), she experiences live music from all sides, which gives her a unique perspective in her role.
Using her knowledge and experience, Elisha is working on creating a diverse and appealing programme of events for Corn Exchange.
Eleri Gray
Diversity Officer
Eleri Gray is a third-year student at the University of Bristol writing her dissertation around working-class accessibility to the arts in Wales. She has worked as bar staff at LePub for three years which has allowed her to witness and understand the importance of music venues to communities like Newport.
Her love for the local music scene and passion for diversifying the arts make her extremely excited to be a part of this amazing project!
Emma Jones
Treasurer
Emma Jones is a proud Newportonian and avid gig-goer first. She’s worked for more than twenty years as the financial controller of a successful Newport business which has recently sold to a FTSE 250 group. Educated to degree level, she has been mentored in business finance and accounting under a government-backed Business Angel scheme.
She’s proud and excited to be involved with this amazing project, with such a passionate and talented team, which will deliver a well-deserved cultural and economic boost for the people of Newport