I am a gardener and amateur musician and wanted to feed in to some of the ongoing blogging asking what the collective response is going to be to sustain the arts as the self employment scheme and furlow are phased out, universal credit starts to bring back conditionality, and any live music is rare, elite or underground.
Things that have moved me:
The first thing that made me corona cry was washing my hands and singing a song... It seems like an age ago, I can't remember the name of the tune.
Experiences I have enjoyed:
I am part of activist circles. Having visited Bristol, it was heartening to see the statue of slave trader Edward Coulston, rolled along and thrown into the water.
Black Lives Matter, an artist reading out the names of black people fallen to racist violence, over on BBC Radio 3, was important, realising the connection between jazz and Black Lives Matter.
Meanwhile International Jazz Day was quite a treat, lovingly curated from homes in many countries, of solos or duos along with video messages and recordings of past Jazz Day celebrations including one in the hall of the United Nations general assembly!
Playing music loudly - classic film sound track by Jimmy Cliff.
Having a break from Radio 4 news programmes and the 8.55am slot giving theatre artists the chance to perform when their shows are closed. Theatres are still closed? Why have they stopped this slot? It should continue until theatres re-open - because it's important.
Articles:
One in Spectator arguing for squatting of abandoned buidlings which occured in East Germany. It is important to have anarchist free thinking artistic creative ecosystem neighbourhoods where artist can live at very low rents and have affordable studio space. Meanwhile theatres could be used creatively for other groups. Essentially arguing for innovation and to get out where the people are, and countering the narrative from the arts establishment of more subsidy being sunk into projects that like the Southbank, have been criticised for poor acoustics and not being commercially viable. And an article arguing for cheaper ticket prices - yes I would like to be able to afford more theatre and music.
Society itself needs to change.
Before Covid, as now, inequality was the furthest in the world between incomes and wealth. That meant that tickets for stadium gigs, seem to me, much more expensive. Ticket websites and ticket touts, would re-sell them at market price much more expensive than the average audience member could afford. The young tend to have less budget, but the most appetite for the arts especially certain artistic groups. Before covid, the record industry was competing against piracy and players like spotify which rip off artists with very low royalties that meant records ran at a loss that was re-couped from ticket sails. Am I alone in seeing a problem in this business model?
Less commercial but still fairly mainstream: as an activist I've been invited to many rallies with a panel of speakers. Virtually no art or music has been present. This is a real turn-off and I think it's incredibly uncool. If you look back to woodstock and Glastonbury, they were all incredible peace movements that art was a major part of the philosophy behind the whole thing. And the sort of drugs then were less damaging than what young people are faced with now: of risky quality, probably full of synthetic highs that poison rather than enhance the creativity. Due to the prohibition of less harmful drugs, alcohol is a major part of the festival business model, damaging public health, every organ in your body, and endangering social distancing. To sell more alcohol, many venues turn up the music, making it impossible not to raise one's voice.
Specific sectors: Progressive trance It's very easy to organise music at a so-called "quarentine rave" - Rave drugs make people enjoy dancing to repetitive beats - though I do not use drugs other than caffeine myself, I have researched the policy changes that could go along with social change and keep people out of prison. There's specific laws against these large gatherings. But what we can learn from them is the idealistic sense which I believe in which is a dream that "everyone was there for the music" and everyone was dancing. There have been many DJs turning to the promising new platform Twitch, which allows live streaming and can be monetised. I use it as a phone app on a new smartphone. I've also been enjoying DJs who are on twitch now, via podcasts, from a large american night club that remained open to it's hard core of plague survivors until around May. As a cyclist, I enjoy putting this podcast on my phone: it's a very inclusive space with non gender conforming DJs, and it can let pedestrians know that I am coming so they should get out of the way! I note that Extinction Rebellion, who are returning to the capital on September 1st, own 2 very good decks which were mounted on bicycles. Bicycles by their nature, tend to stay 2 metres apart and are an effective way of reclaiming the streets.
I recall Radio Head's Tom Yorke doing a DJ set on a large climate justice event in London. In that case it was difficult to stay 2 metres apart!
Early on in lockdown, a viral video went round from Italy where police turn up with guitars and sing and dance and get the whole street cheered up. That's the sort of thing that has policing by consent. I am not going to organise parties that endanger the public, of course, but at some point at the end of all this, there will be time and place for it at which point the community will have power and the state would be wise not to be a party-pooper. At such a point, I call this "day X", I would like an infrastructure where acts can be booked for day X, be paid a few weeks in advance to reherse, and then perform at street parties and garden parties.
Again as a gardener if I can help make the place nice I would be happy to help.
Acoustic music currently falls foul of many licensing laws and I believe is harmless. It's amplified music that has the potential to be a super-spreader. In order to encourage acoustic music, there needs to be less traffic and background noise so you can enjoy, for instance while queueing for the bank.
Radio. Needless to say that the most natural way to listen to music at home is on the wireless. This should be advert-free, thanks to the BBC, and other public service broadcasters. Again this is an evolving technology. I am getting around digital. I have heard that more pirate stations are starting during "lockdown". The target audience for these channels is older people: a huge population who deserve the utmost respect and care. The quality of television is atrocious. Entertainment can perform a public service in unifying people and also encouraging people to stay at home and stay safe.
Television and computer games:
I really enjoy quality music and a good place to find it is for example, Microsoft's computer game Age of Empires. Many other games have the most ground breaking music. I have also been enjoying Grand Theft Auto 4 during Lockdown. But I wish I could give more local examples. The reality is the UK based orchestras that recorded many a Netflix soundtrack, are going to disappear from these shores.
Outdoor entertainment:
Many years ago when my family used to spend Summer in Cambridge, we enjoyed outdoor Shakespear. People would pay to get in. A similar thing has taken place at North London's Capel Manor Gardens near the M25.
As a gardener I would be interested in collaborating to bring theatres outdoors. Theatres have been outdoors for millenea and scientists say that outdoor spaces have better conditions for fighting the infection: Ultraviolet light to clean surfaces, and good ventilation, that is not viable indoors.
I strongly believe indoor theatres should be re-purposed for schools which in any case need more space and more drama lessons. Schools could also organise their own theatre based extra-curricular activities and invite parents. Occasionally there might be temporary school closures in line with public health procedures, whereas that would not be viable unless theatres are given serious public health infrastructure. Would that be possible, for the theatre and live music sector to be given real control over its own public health? I very much doubt it. It would first reqiure greater power to unions in this country and less centralised approach to the NHS that has been outsourced to large companies, that have imposed a monopoly on any apps - for instance asking the symptom study to close down. It has 3 million users.
Chamber music:
I myself am lucky to have a concrete floor and no complaints from neighbours about my practising piano - an upright that is ancient, slightly out of tune, and not always played with great skill. The greats composed music for publication as sheet music for amateur musicians. I wonder if chamber music might be brought into the next century. I've certainly enjoyed broadening my repertouir by downloading scores for screen or printer, but I much prefer the texts in a quality music book such as my Well Tempered Clavier volumes. I would buy sheet music if it appeared on the high street. Sometimes I used to find it in charity shops but it's very rare. I would like arrangers such as Kyle Landry an absolute star on Youtube I found when wanting to figure out Game of Thrones. The trouble is this isn't a mass thing unless as in socialist Venezuela, the government issues everyone with a musical instrument and pays for their tuition. I am massively biased in saying this but I think a Disney Fake Book would make a great Christmas present for any family! Most of these are published by Hal Leonard and there are online digital retailers of sheet music.
Liturgy:
As a person of faith I can't wait to get back in shul but I know it won't be any time soon. I hope my fees that go to leadership training continue to have a part that goes to continuing the cantorial tradition. Cantorial records exist and modern recordings are available on the internet. When in America I brought home a song CD called "at the Shabbat table" or something. It was just some guy with a few friends, got round, harmonised, and went through all their favourites for 70 minutes. Many songs were composed by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach whose music is an institution, even after his death we've found some of his private life wasn't so great. There are many other composers and cantors. One who attends my synagogue, is Jacky. Our own Rabbi and his wife are also very musical. We continue to have zoom services before and after Shabbat, but I think it's important to document the pre covid liturgy that often hasn't ever gone in a recording studio, because the tradition and the great minds may be lost. I mean the whole idea that you can just wander in, and hear the music - that is an idea that has been paused by social distancing measures. Just before restrictions I went to Jacky to go through preparations for a first-time leading the service event but that's been postponed indefinitely. It is just not the same over Zoom, I'm sure church choirs feel the same. You can see an example of a good synagogue choir - Naomi Alderman's film Disobedience features a cameo from her brother.
Actors:
Maxine Peake has been having a lot of criticism. I hope the Indy paid her well for that interview.
Stand up comedy:
It is hard to imagine stand up returning. Personally I don't do mainstream stand up comedy. Most of my favourite artists were already struggling to get enough support on Patreon... or were shot... basically it really is possible to have a laugh without being a dick. But late night pub upstairs packed like a fire trap - it was funny at the time... I'm a big fan of Robin Ince If you know how to find his show with Brian Cox on BBC sounds app maybe tell me how. stupid app.
Storytelling:
Rachel would kill me if I didn't plug national story telling week.
So yeah that's my thoughts.
P.S. I have mentioned Zoom, Netflix and YouTube - These are big monopolies that don't pay their fair share of taxes, and must be broken up. They have many competitors. I hope some of the headliners will move away from them. For instance NT Live, or really any of them, can do without the branding. International Jazz Day had their own live stream that wasn't dominated by a big corporation. For one thing it's a much better aesthetic.
For another - YouTube are a major spreader of misinformation, a pandemic in itself, conspiracy theories. One time, at Extinction Rebellion I had to heckle an artist who started some lyrics about anti-vaxxer ideas. These platforms are profiting out of - for instance - far right extremism, and are constantly battling to ban them and kick them down in to darker corners of the internet. Tech nerds have long campaigned for net neutrality. As for Zoom, it's designed for business meetings; the arts have other apps that are more appropriate. For instance HouseParty is designed for social occasions. To support those that can't afford higher specification devices, I recommend a platform I didn't have time for before, as it contains some antisemites, who I've had to block, discord is an app which works well on Linux and open source machines as well as many platforms. For Zoom, I just can't get it on my linux machine. And finally I'd just like to big up Reddit - the front page of the Internet who've started streaming music which is fun.
Mental health
For my own efforts during lockdown I have enjoyed much of it but struggling with boredom of staying at home and not having social contact, the arts has helped me stay active and stimulated, and given me life saving tools.
As mass redundancies are announced - If you're affected get help. My heart goes out to you and I wish I could help. It's quite bad luck. It's a sector where there are plenty of people that would struggle with applying for the UK's humiliating benefits system, negotiating with its profit-driven landlords, and navigating the NHS' badly resourced mental health service that has been more under strain than ever as NHS staff themselves go through trauma of seeing their patients dying every shift. But as Sam says - maybe we can advocate and help you navigate the political system because the arts lobby has not been as strong or unified as other sectors.
