U.K. LIVE INDUSTRY BANDS TOGETHER

The U.K. live music industry has joined together for the first time to launch its own industry body, LIVE, after a year of devastation due to COVID-19 and now a raft of new challenges posed by Brexit.

The federation will be the voice of the U.K.’s live music ecosystem, including artists, managers, venues, festivals, promoters and agents as well as people in production and ticketing. Membership is made up of the 13 principal industry associations across the sector, representing 3,150 companies, more than 4,000 artists and 2,000 backstage workers.

“It’s long overdue that the U.K.’s live music industry has a properly representative body, and LIVE will be that unified voice as the industry comes out of lockdown and beyond,” said Greg Parmley, CEO of LIVE. “The unprecedented challenges we face might paint a bleak picture, and this is a critical time, but together we can help protect jobs and the future of live music.”

LIVE has already started lobbying the government, an effort that has thus far included the #LetTheMusicPlay campaign, which helped secure millions of pounds in additional funding from the Culture Recovery Fund to protect the live music industry.

The organization is currently campaigning for a three-year extension of the reduced cultural VAT rate on tickets, a government-backed insurance scheme to allow events to go ahead when it is safe to do so and targeted financial support for the sector to protect jobs and infrastructure.

Stuart Galbraith of Kilimanjaro Live, who was instrumental in the formation of LIVE alongside Live Nation’s Phil Bowdery and the association heads, added: “We are a £4.5b world-leading industry, and by bringing together all of the unique voices within it and working collaboratively, we are in a far better position to protect and support our ecosystem as a result.”