Brexit could make UK touring tricky for artists

[BillF]

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/may/05/kamasi-washington-says-brexit-could-make-touring-uk-tricky-for-artists

[GA Russell]

Bill, I have been wondering about how it would affect English artists.  Would Georgie Fame have a more difficult time making a living on a European tour?

[BillF]

Brexit-related problems for artists have been brewing ever since the pro-leave referendum result in June 2016, after which there was an immediate drop in the value of the pound as against the US dollar and euro. Shortly afterwards British saxophonist Alan Barnes who had recorded and toured with American artist Ken Peplowski told me that Ken had said that financially it was no longer worth working in the UK. However, we are still getting visiting Americans - I saw Harry Allen the other week - and the pound/dollar rate has eased somewhat since 2016.

[JSngry]

Harry Allen is American? Who knew? I just assumed he was British.

[Ted O'Reilly]

41 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Harry Allen is American? Who knew? I just assumed he was British.

Why would you do that?  For just one thing, most of his recordings are American-made...  (Okay, he COULD therefore be Canadian, but..... )

[JSngry]

The first I heard of him was through British press, JJI. I thought he was Scottish.

Am I thinking about somebody else, some young "cute" playing retro guy?

[Quasimado]

4 hours ago, JSngry said:

The first I heard of him was through British press, JJI. I thought he was Scottish.

Am I thinking about somebody else, some young "cute" playing retro guy?

Jim's "woke" - get it?

[BillF]

10 hours ago, BillF said:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/may/05/kamasi-washington-says-brexit-could-make-touring-uk-tricky-for-artists

The problem that Mr Washington anticipates is in fact already with us, as I know from personal experience. Family members of my Colombian son-in-law abandoned attempts to visit him in Britain for a weekend when visas were demanded, but they were able to visit relations in Spain and Germany without problem. (Entry to EU permitted for 6 months before visa required.)

To return to this forum's subject - a couple of years ago I saw a Kenny Garrett group in Manchester which was minus a pianist. He had been refused a visa. After his solos Kenny somewhat awkwardly put down his horn and crossed to the piano to take reasonably good Tynerish solos.

[JSngry]

8 hours ago, Quasimado said:

Jim's "woke" - get it?

I don't get it? Was it Harry Allen who came out being cute by playing Getz and Zoot down to the most minute nuance? Or was it some Scottish guy, Tommy somebody or another?

[Shrdlu]

People traveled to the U.K. and Europe before there ever was an E.U.. This kind of talk is just an irrelevant scare tactic. The U.K. voted to leave the E.U. for different reasons.

[J.A.W.]

32 minutes ago, Shrdlu said:

People traveled to the U.K. and Europe before there ever was an E.U.. This kind of talk is just an irrelevant scare tactic. The U.K. voted to leave the E.U. for different reasons.

I think politics ("irrelevant scare tactic" is a brexiteer slogan) should be left out of this - it's not allowed on this forum anyway.

[BillF]

17 minutes ago, J.A.W. said:

I think politics ("irrelevant scare tactic" is a brexiteer slogan) should be left out of this - it's not allowed on this forum anyway.

Yes, but it does creep in.

[JSngry]

1 hour ago, BillF said:

Yes, but it does creep in.

How is that political? It's George Washington wearing a Jughead hat and Sun Ra shades.

[J.A.W.]

19 minutes ago, JSngry said:

How is that political? It's George Washington wearing a Jughead hat and Sun Ra shades.

BillF was responding to my reaction to shrdlu´s post; the remark shrdlu made, "irrelevant scare tactic", was and is used regularly by brexiteers in the political debate in the UK that's been going on for more than 3 years now, to counter arguments made by people who want to remain in the EU.

[JSngry]

Right, I got that. But then he linked that picture that I had posted in the Post-A-Pic thread, where he also suggested that it might be political.

I just don't get what he's talking about. Does Brexit wear Sun Ra shades?

[catesta]

Looks more like Elton John

Edited May 7, 2019 by catesta

[erwbol]

Is racism also a forbidden topic on this forum? Don't fool yourself into thinking non-white musicians won't bear the brunt of the new visa rejection situation (e.g. Windrush).

An irresponsible, misinformed post by Shrdlu.

Edited May 7, 2019 by erwbol

[Dan Gould]

24 minutes ago, erwbol said:

Is racism also a forbidden topic on this forum? Don't fool yourself into thinking non-white musicians won't bear the brunt of the new visa rejection situation (e.g. Windrush).

An irresponsible, misinformed post by Shrdlu.

That's the most ludicrous thing I've ever read. Is the UK targeting non-white musicians? Or do  you think there just happen to be more non-white musicians so there is a disparate impact? And even if there were, is that the intent of the visa system?  How the hell do you get to racism?

Edited May 7, 2019 by Dan Gould

[J.A.W.]

46 minutes ago, erwbol said:

Is racism also a forbidden topic on this forum? Don't fool yourself into thinking non-white musicians won't bear the brunt of the new visa rejection situation (e.g. Windrush).

An irresponsible, misinformed post by Shrdlu.

Shrdlu is an ardent opponent of the EU and everything it represents in his eyes; he told me so years ago. Just thought I'd mention it.

[edit] Just noticed that his post is gone - no idea if he deleted it or if it was removed by a moderator.

Edited May 7, 2019 by J.A.W.

[catesta]

29 minutes ago, erwbol said:

Is racism also a forbidden topic on this forum? Don't fool yourself into thinking non-white musicians won't bear the brunt of the new visa rejection situation (e.g. Windrush).

An irresponsible, misinformed post by Shrdlu.

Is what he said racist?

Looking at Mr. Washington's tour schedule he will be performing in Russia in June? Russia requires a Visa regardless of stay duration, no? It can be done!

[Big Beat Steve]

Hans, NOW you are treading extremely closely to getting REALLY political.
Let's not pretend it is all a bed of roses here the way the EU ACTUALLY works (or not). 

Besides, the above statement said to have been made by Ken Peplowski sounds rather weird. It seems to me like Mr Peplowski is unaware of what exchange rates are all about and that it is not the natural course of things for exchange rates to remain stable all the time. Years ago (before there was the Euro) we had a freelancer duo from the UK occasionally working for us in our small agency. One day they bluntly told us it no longer was of interest to them to continue working for us as over time the GBP-DM exchange rate had become increasingly unfavorable for them so they more or less bluntly told us to go beat it. Well ... that's life and this happens with exchange rates in all directions over time and sometimes requires decisions to be made ... But blaming touring in the UK all of a sudden becoming no longer worth working in the UK due to a Brexit-induced drop of the exchange rate? Might have happened at other times too if you hit a bad moment. IIRC the slump of the GBP vs the Euro after Brexit became official was not even enough to all of a sudden make it exceedingly interesting for me to re-start buying stuff through ebay.co.uk again. So maybe Mr Peplowski ought to get out of his US$-centric filter bubble.

Edited May 7, 2019 by Big Beat Steve

[ghost of miles]

From the article that Bill posted:

"In February the organisers of the world music festival Womad said they were struggling to book artists because of Brexit uncertainty and concerns about difficulties entering the country. Chris Smith, the festival’s director, said: “It is harder to book artists because of Brexit … We are struggling to overcome it and let artists know they are welcome here and that people still want to experience their great music.”

 

Seems pretty plain to me.  And whatever side people take on Brexit, it's already had a detrimental impact on the UK's economy.  Companies are leaving or deciding not to base themselves there because of it.

[JSngry]

[ghost of miles]

[sidewinder]

Not a recent issue - the ‘golden era’ (such as it was) was probably circa 2000-2007 for major US jazz artists touring the UK. I recall this time as noticeably more active with big names and numbers of touring groups than the period preceding it and the present time. No doubt influenced by the then artificially high $ to £ rate.

With the GFC, the number of US  ‘name acts’ touring here and doing the Summer festivals seemed to noticeably drop. The dosh had all been spent/frittered away I guess.