UK losing grassroots music venue every fortnight as industry demand “action not words”

nme.com:

2024 annual report at The Houses Of Parliament last week (Thursday January 23), the Music Venue Trust invited new patron Kate Nash along for a performance and to deliver a speech.The singer-songwriter has been very vocal about the dire conditions that most recording artists find themselves in – taking to OnlyFans for her ‘Butts For Tour Buses’ campaign to protest the industry and raise money for live shows.

Speaking in the House Of Commons, she described touring as “one of our favourite things to do, but it is becoming increasingly more difficult to do.”She explained how despite being “pretty successful” with “thousands and thousands of fans” and being able to “sell out a venue or two”, the practice of planning a tour was now “never exactly what you think and you’re always going to go over budget.“The way touring works right now is that you’re always over-budget, you go into the red, and fingers crossed you make nothing,” she continued. “You’re hoping you can make it zero and make absolutely fuck-all.

It’s a bit of a weird job, really.“It’s sort of getting to the point where I’m not sure you can call it a job, and it’s a bit more of a passion project.

Obviously I’m being a little bit sarcastic and I do earn money from playing shows, but when I go on tour I’m either going into the red or to zero.