North East for Europe attended an UK-EU summit and lobby day at parliament this week to highlight that five years after Brexit we still have no workable solution for creative touring. There has been a dramatic drop of 74% in artists touring the EU, for example. The campaign, led by ‘Carry on Touring’, represents all creative artists affected by Brexit not just musicians.
As co-founder of North East for Europe, I travelled the 300 miles from the North East to attend this lobby day in Westminster after being approached by several young bands in the region. They are concerned that their right of passage to tour in EU countries is now effectively blocked to them thanks to the red tape of Brexit. Most of the people in these bands were too young to even vote in the EU referendum so this feels particularly unfair.
EU-UK summit in parliament
A good number of parliamentarians attended namely MPs Alex Sobel, James Frith, Jo Platt, Patrick Hurley, Pete Wishart, Paul Waugh along with Lords Strasburger, Wigley, and Watts. They all discussed their support for this campaign. Lisa Nandy, Secretary for Culture, Media and Sport, had been invited but unfortunately was not in attendance at the event.
Many creative artists were also in attendance at this EU-UK summit in parliament on Tuesday including Peredur ap Gwynedd from the rock band Pendulum. They discussed the issues facing the creative touring industry. This includes obtaining visa and work permits, 90/180 day restrictions on accessing the Schengen area, trucking, equipment and crew supplies.
Cliff Hewitt is a professional drummer who described how he felt as though he “had been served an eviction notice” when Brexit effectively ended his touring in the EU after doing so for many years. The only way that some artists have managed to get round this is by applying for Irish passports. Of course, not everyone is eligible to do this. Another participant stated that it was easier to tour in the USA rather than the rest of Europe.
What I was really shocked to hear was that even bigger acts have been affected by Brexit. Steve Barney, a professional drummer, wrote a statement that was read out about how he has toured for 25 years for big artists including Mike and the Mechanics, Jeff Beck, the Sugarbabes and Annie Lennox. When Anastacia requested his services for a three month tour in the EU after Brexit, he was unable to secure a Schengen area visa despite the best efforts of Anastacia’s manager. His offer of work, therefore, unfortunately had to be withdrawn.
Of course all crew on the tour are impacted including the roadies. Tim Brennan was there representing touring crew and support workers at the event. He spoke about the fact that there has been “virtually zero progress” made on helping touring artists since Brexit happened five years ago. He proposes a “creative visa waiver” is the way to proceed. Kitt, a crew member for the band Pendulum (who has also worked for other big names such as Suede and Gorillaz) stated that he is actually doing better than ever in the industry…simply because he has an Irish passport.
The summit also talked about the difficulties of EU musicians touring the UK and that we are missing out on seeing brilliant bands touring over here too.
“Freedom to work”
The ‘Carry on Touring’ group stated that they were not asking for the freedom of movement that the government have been shying away from just “freedom to work”. They want to get creative touring back on the road and then they can start earning and contributing to the growth the government so desire.
It is hoped that a reciprocal agreement can be reached for touring artists at the EU-UK summit scheduled for the spring this year. The Carry on Touring group urged people to keep pressure up on politicians even if they have already said they agree with them.
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