The arts in crisis: “I’ve already seen some of my favourite UK musicians looking for work in supermarkets”

Award-winning saxophonist Phil Meadows is perhaps best known for his brilliant Engines Orchestra project, but in response to Covid-19’s devastating effect on the music industry, he and tuba player Chris Barrett are campaigning via Musicians’ Movement: “a UK-based organisation here to discuss, plan, and implement vital change within our industry’s infrastructure”. Together they lobby and campaign for positive change, facilitate a forum of 16,000 members and offer services and support tailored to the needs of the industry. Recently the movement has published an open letter to the Department of Digital, Culture, Media & Sport demanding urgent action to support the arts and freelance musicians...

How are freelance musicians coping?

I think they’re going through an incredibly tough time at the moment. Many of us see our work as a vocation and without the ability to perform or to work behind the scenes, feel completely lost.

Often our contribution to the arts is a major factor in how we identify and define ourselves, with music and personality often inextricably linked. It’s not always obvious to those who enjoy live music from outside the industry, but in March, tens of thousands of people lost the majority of their work overnight and are now struggling to make ends meet. Both the mental health and financial issues are growing by the day. It’s worrying!

What are the biggest issues facing the members of the Facebook group?

There’s such a myriad of issues coming from our forum members. Performers want to get back on stage, crew want to get back to work, teachers want to be able to go back into schools to teach face-to-face and venues want to open their doors. Despite the passion to return to work, the overwhelming message is that whatever happens, it must be done safely.

I would say that the single, biggest issue we face is the mothballing of our arts sector. The government’s £1.57 billion support package for the arts was unprecedented and we are thankful our industry has been recognised. The fund is intended to last until the end of March 2021, but unfortunately the majority is being spent on streamlining and sustaining organisations through various ‘Cultural Recovery Funds’, repayment loans and capital investments, rather than developing and adapting with the freelancers in the sector to respond to the ‘new normal’. In turn, this is keeping the lights off, the doors closed and leading to more job losses by the day.

Are self-employed musicians and professionals getting the help they need?

Right now? Not at all. Many have received little to no financial support for six months and without direct support, those who create and perform live music may not be able to weather the storm. I’ve already seen some of my favourite UK musicians looking for work in supermarkets and as delivery drivers (and most of the time not making the shortlist for interview).

Others are looking at conversion courses into other trades. There’s a level of despair growing and people’s belief that they will be able to return to work in the music sector is fading.

How do you think venues and musicians can work together to benefit the live sector as a whole?

The longer Covid-19 affects our lives, the closer artists and venues have to work together to create a sustainable future. Personally, I think this comes from a joint rally for a new government scheme that doesn’t support one over the other and encourages forward thinking approaches for the ’new normal’ rather than mothballing in the hope of returning to how it was before.

Grass-roots venues have been successful in achieving £2.25m of emergency funding for some 150 venues that faced closure by the end of 2020. This is brilliant news, but we now need to work together to lobby and campaign for a way to get performers back to work inside those venues – something in line with the ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme [for restaurants] would be ideal.

If performers can take to the stage, the lighting and sound engineers go back to work, front of house can serve again, venues can make money and promoters, agents and managers can help the scene to thrive again - allowing our currently collapsing ecosystem to regenerate.

As part of our campaign we’ve set out a proposal for this that is scalable beyond music and across the arts sector.

What response have you had since publishing your open letter?

Since we published our #musicunitesthekingdom letter we’ve had responses from all four of the UK’s devolved arts councils. We’ve also had hundreds of forum members write directly to their MPs, with many receiving positive responses in support of our proposal for a scheme to support freelance performers. The letter has been raised directly with front bench politicians by their colleagues and raised with government departments by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. Further to this, we’ve had some wonderful national press coverage, public engagement and support from the ISM (Incorporated Society of Music) and MU (Musicians’ Union).

It’s still early days and we have not had a direct response from the DCMS (Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport) but we are hopeful that they will respond before it is too late for the tens of thousands of freelancers, who have been left with no hope of returning to work for the foreseeable future.

How can Jazzwise readers help?

By writing to your local MP with a copy of the letter (available for download on our website) and donating to our crowd funder to help the work of Musicians’ Movement are the two quickest things you can do to help. We’re a small team of volunteers, headed up by a tuba player (Chris Barrett) and a saxophonist (me).

If you enjoy live music, please support and share the letter. We would really appreciate it.

Further information can be found at www.musiciansmovement.co.uk  and musiciansunion.org.uk