The Brexit debate amongst musicians and the UK government has hotted up again this week as the eleventh hour Brexit deal botched together by Boris Johnson shortly before the New Year is ringing out like the hangover none of us wanted. Since a petition to negotiate a post-Brexit arrangement allowing visa-free travel for musicians in Europe reached over 200,000 signatures, government ministers have been forced to respond and the issue is due to be debated in parliament. The Government’s response to the petition was that they had ‘tried to secure better conditions for UK touring musicians during the Brexit negotiations, but its proposals were rejected by the EU.’
These claims were, however, called into question when The Independent published an article which included claims from an unnamed EU official that ‘It is usually in our agreements with third countries, that [work] visas are not required for musicians. We tried to include it, but the UK said no.’ This directly contradicts the previous claims made by UK officials that plans to include musicians in certain businesses which will be exempt from visa requirements was rejected by the EU, and points the blame squarely at them. A UK official has since told the NME that ‘this story is incorrect and misleading speculation from anonymous EU sources,’ and going on to claim that ‘The UK pushed for a more ambitious agreement with the EU on the temporary movement of business travellers, which would have covered musicians and others, but our proposals were rejected by the EU.’
Unbelievable, actually, completely believable ! https://t.co/GepTItyW4U
— LILYALLEN2.0 (@lilyallen) January 9, 2021
With so many contradicting claims from both sides musicians and their unions are left not knowing who or what to believe but still desperately concerned about the state of their industry. After a year which saw the live music sector in Britain decimated by the coronavirus pandemic and a desperately short-handed approach to cultural relief from the government, musicians are rightly worried about the future. Names as big as Lilly Allen have taken to social media to vent their frustrations with the government following the Independent article and expressed disappointment, but not surprise as they have become used to Johnson’s cabinet’s total disregard for the music industry throughout his term as Prime Minister so far. Despite being an industry that ‘contributes around £5.8bn to the UK economy,’ this doesn’t seem to be a priority for Rishi Sunak who controversially suggested musicians find other jobs while they were struggling in the aftermath of lockdown one but was happy to bail out the hospitality sector with the extremely misguided eat out to help out scheme.
As it stands, musicians will be required to apply for visa’s to work in the EU which will push costs of touring in Europe out of reach for many smaller bands and artists who are already on a very stretched budget. Despite their protestations and blame shifting, it does sadly seem to be that our government are quite happy to see live music become the domain of only the super rich who can afford multiple visas on top of travel costs and extra fees for transporting bulky items by plane. According to Elle Giles, a music manager who spoke to NME, she told of how high the costs could be, ‘Based on a band of six on a four-day tour, requiring visas for three different countries, she estimated it would cost nearly £3,500.’ Considering a tour of Europe is usually the next step taken by emerging artists to go beyond gigging in their home country, and how such bands are often unsigned or receiving limited advances from indie or major record labels, spending the best part of 4 grand on a tour which only lasts four days its something quite obscene.
