peteb

BBC website (yesterday): Pressure mounts on UK government to resolve EU touring visas for musicians https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-55616860?fbclid=IwAR0IbSqB7guSxvx2WxSQd9DESLX5JG8MUS96JytEjZXESKlrWNhic9RGA3Q

I think that you are being as hopelessly optimistic as ever going for May, but the vaccine roll out will eventually pay dividends and hopefully we will be gigging at some point before next winter. Some friends of mine who were supposed to get married last year but put their wedding back to this May, have already been told by the venue that it is unlikely that they can have the full wedding reception / party. I do hope that you are right about May as the only gig I have in the diary that hasn't already been definitely cancelled is in May.

That could be the understatement of the thread…! This was never going to stop established ‘bigger’ bands from touring. For bands selling out theatre level venues, it is just another touring expense. Of course, they need to keep this additional expense down, so they are much more likely to use EU based crews rather than British guys. There are already UK based production companies who will only employ British techs if they have dual passports. The real problem is for musos who rely on smaller scale live work in the EU to make a living; be it on cruise ships, sessions, holiday seasons, a band tour or promo work, or often freelancers playing multiple tours / odd dates with a number of acts throughout the year. Multiple work permits, carnets, different visa requirements, VAT issues for merch, etc all add cost to make it almost impossible for to work in the EU.

My understanding is that although the City has lost some jobs to EU financial centres, it is not as many as expected and as you say, they may have created new jobs unrelated to Brexit. A lot of money has left the country to find a new home in the EU, but I am sure that the City will continue to prosper, just perhaps not quite as much as it would have done. Your point about AI is potentially massive for the finance industry, as well as for many others.

To be fair, this is an issue that is going to affect many people here, especially pros who depend on playing in the EU to make a living, but also semi-pros like me. Also, it is something that has come about as a direct consequence of Brexit, which obviously makes it difficult to discuss without talking about Brexit.

No idea if there is a similar petition process to ask the EU parliament to consider holding a debate, although you could always have gone to your MEP to ask them to put your case forward for such a debate.

Good God, that thread would last for twenty years!

Ironically, when I shared the petition on Facebook about half the people who signed or commented on it had openly voted Leave. This included the most vociferous supporters of the petition / critics of the Government’s handling of the issue. Of course, they all knew what they were voting for…

I've got a Samson unit in my live rack that looks very similar to that (except that it has kettle lead inputs rather than 3 prong plug ones). It does it's job well enough - gives a bit of protection and keeps things tidy.

That is correct. The visa offered to British musicians and turned down by the government would have got around these issues.

I understand that there may be a similar agreement in place with America? Certainly, my mate who promotes a big English blues festival has no problem getting acts from the America, but always seems to hit insurmountable visa problems the couple of times he has tried to book acts from the far east.

Very different genre, but basically the same thing

I am currently in two bands that each have a deal with a German record company to sell an album in Northern Europe / Italy (one a licensing deal, another a distribution deal). The only reason either of these bands exist is to sell very specific genre CDs to an existing market in Germany, Sweden and Italy. In previous times, if an album started to get a bit of traction then we might have hoped to be invited to play a festival and a few club dates in Europe. This would hopefully have broken even financially for the band and resulted in quite a few more album sales and raised the band’s profile. A good friend of mine did this a few years ago and did quite well out of it (as indeed has the guitarist / songwriter of both of these bands). This would be quite cool thing for someone who normally plays pubs and the tribute circuit, but it is lot more serious for a lot of my pro muso mates who regularly make money from playing small scale tours in Europe. Essentially this is make or break for them.

As Doctor J has just pointed out, this will also apply to those of us who work cruise ships, holiday seasons and other longer term residencies, etc.

For us, maybe not. I would imagine that there could well be an issue for dancers, classical musicians or those playing on longer term engagements (shows, etc).

Unfortunately there are a hell of a lot of musicians in this country in the same position as you.

That as well, but more to do with cashflow

And small shops just cannot afford to carry too much stock.

My mate runs a small music shop in a small town that mainly sells entry level gear with a few better guitars in stock. You would approve of his shop, it's a drive away but I sometimes drop in for a cuppa and a chat and maybe buy a set of strings. The gripe he has is that he can't carry the stock that he needs to be successful as he can't (for example) afford to buy 10 pieces of Warwick basses / amps from across the whole range, whereas if they were prepared to supply him with two Streamers then he could probably turn them around reasonably quickly. There are a number of well-known brands that do this to him; Warwick is a hypothetical example. He does carry a lot of Blackstar and Hartke as they are a lot more reasonable in this regard. I have just bought a branded hardcase (that he might have been able to get, but it would have taken him months and he couldn't have come anywhere close on price) and a few spares from a Greek company who haven't shipped directly to the UK for a while, but who Thomann still carry. I'm the same about self-checkouts in supermarkets!

Just got my Thomann order (same day) twenty minutes ago! Excellent service I think, given the current chaos. I have always had a good experience with Thomann and I will continue to use them, even if there is a slight premium to pay. If I could have got the same stuff from the music shop that my mate runs in the next town then I would bought from him (same as a number of other small businesses that I deal with), but overall I have no intention to prioritising buying from Britain and will continue to use shops in the EU.

Don't get me wrong, I've got a thing about the sound / image of a Les Paul as much as anyone brought up in the 70s! Just looking of one conjures up images of Paul Kossof / Jimmy Page / Thin Lizzy / early Whitesnake / Slash, etc. Unfortunately, the company lost its soul when it sold out to a faceless and rather rapacious corporation some time ago. With any luck it might be able to regain its old spirit by learning its lessons from the past, with Mesa Boogie being the jewel in its no-longer tarnished crown. We can but hope…

Let's hope so. But unfortunately there is not a good record of these things turning out well in the long term, yet alone with Gibson who have a particularly bad history.

From what I have seen, they have 'restructured' and taken most of the debt off their books. This apparently leaves them free to start to doing exactly the same thing again...!

Well it seems that my amp is suddenly worth a lot more...!

If they didn't lower standards then it wouldn't be an issue. But they will...