MUSIC INDUSTRY

ADVICE FOR asPiRIng tour managers

Want to be a Tour Manager? Interested in what the role entails? A sadist who likes to laugh at the misfortune of others? This one’s for you

Music Industry Conferences Suck

Ten suggestions to make conference seminars more inclusive and less boring.
They could start by inviting less middle-aged white men

Why I Need to Pay More For Music

Things aren’t going back to the way they were in the 90s; we need to take personal responsibility for the consequences of how badly we’re paying artists

Artist Visas: The Fog of War

Separating the rhetoric from the facts on just how difficult it is for UK Artists to obtain U.S. Work Visas, and why they need to think very carefully before trying to crack the most difficult (and lucrative) music market in the world

Mainland European Festivals 1 – 0 UK Festivals

In both Production and Hospitality standards, mainland European festivals trounce
their UK counterparts UK. Why?

10 Things That Need to Change to Save Small Venues
(for The Quietus)

In the wake of conversations surrounding the Live Music Act, let’s look at what needs to be done to finally give the UK a small venue circuit it can be proud of, instead of the global laughing stock (with some exceptions) that it is

Life on The Road With East India Youth
(For The Line of Best Fit)

From Sicilian gelato, to festival-destroying lightning storms,
there’s rarely a dull moment as a Tour Manager

The Great North American

For those who enjoy music, road trips and long reads, here’s 27,000 thousand words
on the story of East India Youth’s first North American tour in the summer of 2015;
a cautionary tale for any artist considering a trip to the most unforgiving music market there is

The Hopes and Dreams of a Tour Manager:
on The Road With Savages

At 35,000 words this is a (very) long read and in-depth insight into just how hard it is to tour with the hottest band in the world across the small venues of mainland Europe. Essential reading for those who’re keen to get into Tour Management

 

 

ARCHIVE

Thoughts on the Music Venue Trust’s
Small Venues Report

The UK’s grassroots venues have finally spoken with one voice. Here’s an analysis

In Support of Mark Davyd and Venues Day

As Venue’s Day commences, we salute Mark Davyd and those he leads,
for they have a long and arduous fight on their hands

I’m a 43 Year Old Man: I Can Buy My Own Lunch

Interview with Inertia about my 26 years in the business

THE MUSIC OF MY LIFE IN ONE DAY

I kept a diary of what I listened to on 12 July 2016 for Harkive. Turns out it wasn’t much

Wanted: Nine Million Affluent Gig-Goers

A take-down of The Live Music Act: a piece of legislative bullshit that threatens the existence of some of the UK’s small venues, as it seeks to remove ‘red-tape’ and create more live music spaces

The Uphill Battle of International Touring

Interview for Consequence of Sound on whether or not UK Artists should
spend time and money attempting to tour the U.S.

British Treasure or a Bit of a Stink? (for The Guardian)

As another Independent Venues Day approaches,
I wonder if some of the UK’s small venues are worth supporting or saving

Remembering Nick Talbot of Gravenhurst

Reflections on the art, life and sudden death of a great British musician

£200 on Food and Drink AND Eight £15 Buy-outs?
Fuck Off
(for CMU)

My thoughts on the Live Music Act, how we should be funding small venues, and why the government and some of the UK’s industry bodies don’t know their arse from their elbow

10 Years After The Station Nightclub Disaster,
Have We Learned Nothing?

“People went to the bathrooms looking for windows, they fell unconscious, then others crawled on top of them to get to the windows. Their bodies were found in piles almost two metres high”

Beat Surrender?
The Grassroots Live Music Industry is Self-Harming

Sure, it’s tough to run a small live music venue and there’s plenty the music industry can do to help

We Have Lost One of Our Beacons of Integrity
(for Drowned in Sound)

Andrew Hung of Fuck Buttons writes passionately about the closure of The Luminaire

RIP The Luminaire (by Howard Monk)

London-based promoter and friend of The Luminaire reflects on its passing