Craig Stanley Greg Parmley Lucy Noble
“ The amount of money that was originally allocated in the CRF was substantially less than what ended up being allocated after the # LetTheMusicPlay campaign ” – Greg Parmley
live sector to the UK Government , and it came shortly before the announcement about the Cultural Recovery Fund .
“ The amount of money originally allocated in the CRF was substantially less than what ended up being allocated after that campaign . The CRF was only going to be available to bricks-and-mortar companies , so we spent a lot of time lobbying to get festivals included , we did a lot of work with AIF on that so that promoters , agencies , and production companies would also be included .
“ We ’ ve seen more than £ 100 million in funding go back into the business , so as an organisation we are proud of the role we played in that .”
He says LIVE also played an integral role in making sure that the Government ’ s test event series , the Events Research Programme , included live music shows .
“ Originally the ERP had no live music events , so working alongside [ Festival Republic MD ] Melvin Benn and others , we lobbied very hard to make sure that there were live music events included so we could get results relevant to our industry .”
To make sure specific interests and issues are being addressed collectively by executives with specialist knowledge , LIVE has launched four sub-committees .
LIVE Touring is chaired by promoter Craig Stanley at Marshall Arts . His role has included coordinating the live sector ’ s response to leaving the EU . Meanwhile , LIVE Venues is chaired by Lucy Noble , artistic director at the Royal Albert Hall , and sustainability working group LIVE Green is chaired AEG Europe COO John Langford . Manchester International Festival head of music Jane Beese oversees the Equality Diversity and Inclusion subcommittee .
Parmley says a fifth subcommittee is in the pipeline ; a wellness and mental health steering group that will focus on making sure there is support available to those impacted .
The individual groups have all made considerable progress . In the case of LIVE Green , the most significant step has been getting all 13 association members of LIVE to ratify the Beyond Zero Declaration to make measurable sustainability
improvements , with the aim of reaching net zero emissions by 2030 .
Parmley says , “ LIVE Green is creating a free-to-access online resource that will pull in all the work already happening across the sector with the aim of providing a single resource for everyone in the industry .”
Venues Lucy Noble , who also chairs the National Arenas Association , recalls a pre-LIVE video call that she was invited to take part in by the DCMS .
She says , “ There must have been around 70 people on the call . The theatre , sporting and cinema sectors had strong voices but there was no one purely representing live music . It ’ s such a huge part of the entertainment industry yet it wasn ’ t being valued and considered in the way it should have been .”
Noble says the LIVE Venue group includes input from organisations including the British Association of Concert Halls , Music Venue Trust , the Academy Music Group and the National Arenas Association .
“ We talk about audience behaviours since Covid struck , and what venue operators are doing in terms of Covid status checks to try to make sure we are all behaving in a similar way , so there are consistent messages to audiences . That has been really useful .”
Touring Helping touring groups to navigate the maze of post-Brexit bureaucracy , and pressing for it to be eradicated , is Craig Stanley . A promoter , agent , and tour producer based in London and Los Angeles , he has more than 40 years of experience touring the world with artists across all scales of production .
Stanley agreed to chair the LIVE Touring group after being called
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