I’m pretty sure everyone has been affected by the touring disaster that was 2020 and 2021, every artist on the planet had their well-laid plans either postponed or cancelled or if you were unlucky maybe even both. What this means is that you’ve got every working mind in the music industry ready to go on tour, new material on the brain, or at home with nothing to do other than write new music. Plans for new tours became almost universal amongst musicians.

This does however raise a few concerns. First of all, the introduction of new COVID-19 restriction could force another situation like what happened earlier in the year. Artists setting themselves up for shows months in advance that either get cancelled or work as socially distanced shows from the get-go. The only issue with this is that, according to Chief Executive of Trade Body UK Music Jamie Njoku-Goodwin, “It just doesn’t work”. Without offering any reason why it just doesn’t work, Njoku-Goodwin did go on to explain, “We’ve been encouraging people to get tested and vaccinated – we want people to know that if they go to a music event, most people are being responsible”. This acting as an alternative to socially distanced shows seems like a logistical nightmare or something that can very easily be fooled. Only time will tell.

2022 now has an absolutely massive back catalogue of pretty much every artist in the zeitgeist at the moment trying to put on a show. Billie Eilish, Coldplay, Dua Lipa, Elton John, Stormzy, Alicia Keys, Lady Gaga, Harry Styles, Olivia Rodrigo and many other massive names are all set to hit the road in the new year. This may sound like good news, but there is now looming speculation that the backlog could cause a shortage in everything required to actually make these shows go ahead; stage equipment, transportation, crew, even venue staff could be a little short. This may prove to be completely unfounded, but it could well happen.

Njoku-Goodwin also mused that “there may be an audience trend where people aren’t wanting to book months ahead but will see how they feel on the day,”. This does seem to be affecting some, as a recent study shows that around 40% of punters actually aren’t arriving at gigs they have tickets to. But other evidence shows quite the contrary as Adele and Sir Elton John’s slots at Hyde Park’s BST Festival sold out in minutes a few months back.

Ignoring the ever-present issue that is the Omicron variant, if things kick back into gear soon London’s O2 Arena will host a total of at least 110 different artists next year. So, get boosted, wear a mask, and these things might actually happen.