Crisis in Grassroots Music: BRITS winners call for action
A Sunday ramble on powerful speeches by Myles Smith, Ezra Collective, and Last Dinner Party, calling on government and music industry to protect our music scenes .
Sitting down with some vegan meatballs and tin of lager, it's fair to say I didn't have the fanciest of BRITs nights but even from where I was sitting, the message from several winners' speeches really hit home.
Yes, even at one of the most corporate industry gatherings of the year, held at the O2 Arena and broadcast into living rooms like mine during ITV's primetime Saturday night slot, the crisis in grassroots music was front and centre.
Despite the awards aiming to 'celebrate' a great year for British music, they were punctuated by the multi-millionaire 'nepo baby' host Jack Whitehall, engaging in dated American roast-style 'comedy' reminiscent of troll comments, right-wing newspaper columnists, and 90s tabloids' harassment of celebrities. Nonetheless, the message couldn't have been clearer: we need urgent action from stadiums, arenas, and the government to protect grassroots music in the UK.
It's a systemic issue, with some major wealth extractors risking the collapse of the very system they rely on. For context, Live Nation Earned a Record $23.1 Billion in Revenue Last Year.
It's worth noting that until quite recently, indie and major record labels alike provided 'tour support' funds to help artists manage cash flow and cover touring shortfalls, as live music was seen as a way to market records. Since this support has become less common, investment in touring has diminished. Managers and artists are now left to find the funds, especially for support slots and ventures into countries they haven't toured before.
Meanwhile, the Music Venue Trust annual report states:
A survey of the 810 members of the Music Venues Alliance (MVA), who employ over 30,000 people throughout the GMV community, found that they staged over 162,000 live music events comprising almost 1.5m individual artist performances given to a total audience of just under 20 million. The total direct value to the UK economy from these events was £526m. However, on average GMV’s, 33% of which are now registered as not-for profit entities - a 29% increase in not-for-profit registration since 2023 - operated on a profit margin of just 0.48% with 43.8% of them reporting a loss in the last 12 months. This means that the sector as a whole effectively subsidised live music activity to the tune of £162m.
Aside from a few swipes at Trump, Danny Dyer swearing about Starmer, some barbed remarks about artists being told they should conform by major label A&Rs, and a throwaway comment from the host about Spotify royalties, it wasn't AI or climate change or war crimes or male violence that artists used their platform to speak about, but the very real threat that venues closing their doors has for grassroots music and the UK producing stars in the future.
Here's what three BRITs winners had to say:
Myles Smith
Rising Star Award
“…tonight, whilst I have the attention of the nation, and this award which gives me this really cool speaking power, I want to ask three questions.
My first is to the government – if British music is one of the most powerful cultural exports we have, why have we treated it like an afterthought for so many years?
How many more venues need to close, how many music programs need to be cut before we realise that we can’t just celebrate success, we have to protect the foundations that make it.
My second is to the biggest venues and arenas around the world – if artists selling out your arenas and your stadiums started in grassroots venues, what are you doing to keep them alive?
And my third, to the industry, to the execs in the room and to the people behind the scenes – are we building careers or are we just chasing moments? Because moments fade and careers take time. So please stick with artists past their first viral hit, past their first tour, because it really matters to us. Moments, they fade, but careers last forever.”
Georgia Davies of The Last Dinner Party
Best New Artist
“We wouldn’t be a band, and a lot of the artists here would not be bands either, without the U.K.’s incredible independent venues, and they are the lifeblood of the music industry and they are dying. And if venues like this, like The O2, like arenas, stadiums across this country contributed even a tiny bit toward these independent venues, then we would not be losing them at this alarming rate. We wouldn’t be here without them. None of this would be happening without them. So, I want to say to those artists who are playing independent venues all over the country tonight — keep going because that’s the best kind of art there is. In a time when art is under threat, that is the most important thing to keep supporting.”
Femi Koleoso of Ezra Collective
Group of the Year
"I'll bang this drum a bunch of times, and I'll continue to do so until the entire country gets it. This moment right here is because of the great youth clubs, and the great teachers and the great schools that support young people playing music. The reason we continue to bang this drum is because so many of the problems that face greater society in the UK... we're unsure of how to fix it, but the solution lies with giving a young person a trumpet, the solution lies in giving a young person a saxophone. Because when you do that, you give them a dream, an aspiration and a goal."
What Can You Do To Help?
If you love live music and want to have your voice heard by the government and music industry, please join thousands of music fans in taking this survey before it’s too late. It only takes 15 minutes and closes at 23:59 on Monday.
For more about the crisis in youth services that Erza Collective mentioned, please listen to my recent conversation with the CEO of Youth Music. Search for "Drowned in Sound" wherever you get your podcasts.