Music
Brexit: Bookings of UK acts at European festivals have fallen by 45 per cent
The number of British acts appearing on the bill at European festivals has fallen by almost half post-Brexit, according to new research.
Campaign group Best For Britain – which is “pushing for closer relationships with Europe and the world” – shared the figures today (July 21). They showed that the number of British artists scheduled to perform in Europe as part of this year’s festival season had decreased by 45 per cent when compared to 2017-2019 (pre-Brexit).
Naomi Smith, CEO of Best For Britain, explained of the findings: “The Beatles famously made their name in Europe and it’s on tour that many musicians gain the formative experiences and audiences they need to take off.
“With their dud Brexit deal, our lame duck Government has not only robbed emerging British talent of these opportunities abroad, but has also made international acts think twice before including Glasgow or London in their European tours.”
Chief Executive of the Incorporated Society of Musicians and UK Trade and Business Commissioner, Deborah Annetts, added: “Previous witnesses to our commission have described how, if you’re a festival organiser in Barcelona who needs to fill a last-minute slot, British bands will be at the bottom of your list due to new barriers created by this botched Brexit deal.
“Whoever ends up replacing Boris Johnson must commit to removing this needless bureaucracy which is stifling the prosperity and creativity of the next generation of British musicians.”
Earlier this year, artists, management and politicians spoke to NME about the ongoing issues of performing live in Europe post-Brexit.
It came over one year on from the music industry essentially being handed a “No Deal Brexit” when the UK government failed to negotiate visa-free travel and Europe-wide work permits for musicians and crew. As a result, artists attempting to hit the road again after COVID found themselves on the predicted “rocky road” for the first summer of European touring after Britain left the EU.
White Lies were forced to cancel the opening night of their 2022 European tour in Paris this April due to “Brexit legislation” causing their equipment to be held up for two days. The band’s drummer Jack Lawrence-Brown told NME that the situation was “incredibly frustrating”.
“We’d done our best to ensure that we’d be prepared in any circumstance,” he said. “It’s very frustrating when you prepare for as long as we have to then rock up to the first venue and find that your equipment has been stuck in a 25 mile-long queue on the M20 through not fault of your own, and no fault of the trucking company either.
“It wasn’t the plan that we’d worked hard to get right.”
Lawrence-Brown largely blamed Brexit-related red tape regarding visas and carnets (a document detailing what goods and equipment are being taken across borders) for the setback.
“Prior to Brexit, this kind of tailback was never an issue,” he told NME. “There’s now a huge amount of paperwork for bands to deal with if they want to get themselves into Europe.”
In January 2021, European festival bosses expressed their concerns over Brexit potentially preventing many UK acts from being booked to play live events on the continent.
Eric Van Eerdenburg, the director of Lowlands Festival in the Netherlands, told NME that the additional costs and requirements needed to tour in Europe would prove “horrible and very limiting” for UK artists.
The new findings from Best For Britain came ahead of today’s cross-party UK Trade and Business Commission. It is taking evidence related to the post-Brexit challenges facing the UK music industry during the first festival without COVID-enforced restrictions.
Meanwhile, Elton John has warned that smaller, less established UK acts risk “being stranded in Dover” if Brexit-related travel issues are not resolved with the European Union (via Sky News).
Daryl Hall is set to perform at the 2023 BST Hyde Park festival later this summer, as a special guest headliner Billy Joel.
The Hall & Oates singer will join the singer-songwriter onstage for his live appearance at the London Festival, which is set to take place on July 7. Tickets are available now.
As previously announced, BLACKPINK will make their UK festival debut headlining their own day at British Summer Time, as well as Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band playing two nights, alongside headline appearances from Guns N’ Roses, Take That and P!nk, supported by Gwen Stefani.
Alongside his guest appearance with Joel, Hall is also set to perform at a newly-announced headline show in London. Taking place at Hammersmith’s Eventim Apollo on July 9, the show will see the singer perform alongside his House Band and special guest, Todd Rundgren. Tickets go on sale at 10 am this Friday – available here.
Last year, Elton John performed at the event as part of his ongoing Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour, as well as The Rolling Stones, who returned to the event for two sold-out shows and paid an emotional tribute to late drummer, Charlie Watts.
Adele, Eagles and Pearl Jam also appeared as part of the line-up, as well as Duran Duran, who treated the London crowd to a run of their greatest hits.
Last year, Daryl Hall also confirmed that he was once asked to sing for Van Halen – as a potential replacement for frontman David Lee Roth.
“I knew those guys really well,” he said. “David [Lee Roth] had just left the band, and Eddie [Van Halen] asked me, ‘Do you wanna join Van Halen, man?’
He continued: “He was half-joking, but I think he was serious. I really do believe he was serious, and I took it seriously. I said, ‘Man, I think not. I think I’ve got my own shit going on.’”
Radiohead‘s drummer Philip Selway has said that the band will release new material “of some sort” in the “next couple of years”.
- READ MORE: Radiohead’s ‘A Moon Shaped Pool’ – The Biggest Talking Points
In January, Selway said that he and his bandmates would be meeting up early this year to start putting things in motion. “We’re going to get together at the start of [2023], and I’m sure we’re going to start looking at other ideas for what comes next,” he said.
Now, the drummer has told Prog Magazine [via MusicNews]: “We’re always talking about stuff. But in terms of an actual kind of collective project, beyond the ‘Kid A’ and ‘Amnesiac’ stuff that we’ve been doing [2021’s ‘Kid AMnesia’ reissue project and interactive exhibition], it’s kind of further down the line for us when that will happen. We’re talking about that, but at the moment everybody’s doing their own thing.
“When the pandemic happened, we’d always planned to take a veer off from Radiohead around that, so we could get on with other stuff. But that just meant that those other projects kind of grew, so we’re allowing time for all of those projects to go where they need to. But yeah, we’ll get together soon and in the next couple of years there will be something there, of some sort.”
Radiohead’s last album was 2016’s ‘A Moon Shaped Pool‘.
Elsewhere, the drummer, who recently released his second solo album under his own name, ‘Strange Dance’, revealed that he’s already working on its follow-up.
Asked if the next record is taking shape, he said: “It is, actually. You get to the end of one project and can’t see beyond that for a little while, but it’s led by the ideas that you’ve got coming as well. To do a solo record you need songs and they are starting to happen a bit more now. So yeah, I would love to.
“When I first started doing the solo stuff, I was just thinking of it as a trilogy of records and didn’t really project beyond that.
“I certainly didn’t think I’d end up doing soundtrack work or any of the other stuff. And in some ways, I guess ‘Strange Dance’ feels as though it’s completing that initial cycle. And it feels wonderful to be at that point.”
Last summer, Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien discussed the band’s future, saying: “It might happen, but the other thing is… it might not. And does that matter?
“There’s no Radiohead at the moment,” he added. “There’s a truth to what we do, so we’re not going to be one of those bands that gets together for the big payday.”
In other news, a mash-up of tracks by Ice Spice, PinkPantheress and Radiohead has gone viral after being shared on Twitter.
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