The veteran British artists and knight of the realm made his thoughts very clear about the lack of consideration for musicians in the Brexit negations, saying that ‘The situation we’re now in is ridiculous. Music is one of Britain’s greatest cultural exports. It contributed £5.8bn to the British economy in 2019, but was left out of the Brexit trade negotiations when other industries weren’t.’ Despite all of this the governments response to protests from the industry following the release of the deal’s details has been reluctant at most and seemed mostly to be an attempt at shirking most of the blame to the European side.

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These comments from Elton John come a couple of weeks after he announced in his Instagram profile that he had signed a letter ‘urging the UK government to fulfil its promise to negotiate permit and paperwork-free travel in Europe for British artists, their road crew and equipment.’ The announcement was paired with an image of the singer performing in Verona, Italy in 2019. The biggest concern Sir Elton John has, he says, not for himself who will still be able to perform in Europe, but for the younger emerging artists who do not have the same financially resources which come with a long established career. The singer states that ‘none of this affects me. I’m lucky enough to play big venues and have a huge organisation supporting me. My tours can absorb these costs, and I have people working for me who can sort out the admin.’

The Guardian also reports that Radiohead’s bassist Colin Greenwood has written an article due to be published tomorrow in the paper which further criticises the changes. According to Greenwood, ‘The costs of travel and accommodation are already high, and the extra paperwork and expenses would rise quickly for a touring orchestra.’ If these costs are set to be so high that musicians are worrying about the fate of touring orchestras, then surely bands emerging from grassroots venues and scenes in the UK will have an even tougher time, with European tours already operating on a shoestring budget pre-Brexit.

The situation is mired in confusion and miscommunication and pretty much everyone in the UK music industry is disappointed with how the government has handled their interests in the negotiations. After the announcement of the final Brexit deal which had not mention of visa considerations for musicians, a petition was launched to counter this and the government’s culture minister will have some difficult questions to answer when it is debated in parliament tomorrow.

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.