Posts Tagged
Coronavirus

UK Petition raised as Brexit Trade Deal largely ignores Heavy Metal over Fishing
The UK Government (and many UK tabloid newspapers) have been using the Fishing industry as a popularist stick to batter through the basic agreement for the UK-EU trade deal. Musicians and other creatives have largely been ignored and were not included in the visa free short term business trip provision negioations. …

Culture Secretary distances himself from campaign on day Arts Funding announced
The Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has distanced himself from the “crass” Government campaign which aims to encourage people to retrain to a career in cybersecurity. This comes on a day where the Arts Council have announced the 1,385 English venues which will share £257 million distributed by the Culture Recovery …

Rishi Sunak / “The Aunt Mimi of The Government”
Rishi Sunak, The Chancellor of the Exchequer, has been under fire over the last couple of days, as his recent message seemed to suggest that those in the creative industry should retrain and find other jobs in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. The message from ITV News on Twitter …

War Of The Worlds / 2021 Tour postponed to 2022
In disturbing Concert related news, Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War Of The Worlds – Alive On Stage will now tour the UK in 2022. Originally planned for March/April 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic has been blamed for the rescheduling and it remains to be seen how this will affect …

Government Culture Fund / Grassroots venues receive £3.36m as streaming generates £771k per Hour
The UK Government has split the £3.36m portion of the Culture Recovery Fund allocated to grassroots venues between 135 venues, with four companies receiving the maximum £80,000. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are managing their own emergency funding, with £188m to be divided across the entire arts sector. The news …

Elles Bailey / Talks performing on Whispering Bob’s All Stars ‘Help Musicians’ project
With 2020 marking ‘Whispering’ Bob Harris’ 50th year in broadcasting, the legendary presenter is to gather a group of musicians together to record his favourite single ‘Stand By Me’ in a fundraising move supporting the charity Help Musicians. The original track was recorded by Ben E. King on 27th October, 1960 …

Breaking News: Status Quo forced to cancel Backbone tour
Status Quo have this morning issued a statement confirming the cancellation of almost all of their 2020 tour, originally planned for the last quarter of this year. The only dates to survive are the three French November dates, though these must be in serious jeopardy too. The statement reads: “It …

UK Government postpones indoor performances
The Prime Minister has delayed the return to indoor performances in England due to the increase in rates of COVID-19 infection in hotspots in parts of the UK. In an address to the nation today, Boris Johnson said “We are postponing changes for at least a fortnight. Indoor performances will …

COVID-19 / Germany is researching the safety of live gigs
The eastern German regions of Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt are using funding of €990,000 to identify a framework for how gigs and other events can be held “without posing a danger for the population”. The regions, where capacity for events is limited to 1,000 people, is to allow events with no …

COVID-19 / MPs slam UK Government Culture response and call for Streaming investigation
The DCMS (Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) has released a report which criticises the UK Government response to the impact on the UK culture sector of the COVID-19 crisis, saying it was “vague and slow-coming.” The report states that Boris Johnson’s Government failed to recognise the size of …