LIVE at EPS festival, and now we ' re taking that into the next phase. We have roughly £ 1 million of awards that we ' re going to be announcing in the coming weeks. Then the intention is to have a phase three before the end of the year, and given those bumper months of June and July, we expect that it will mean another £ 2 million distribution.
LIVE has five dedicated working groups; LIVE Festivals, LIVE Touring, LIVE Workforce, LIVE Green and LIVE Venue. Across those, what are your current big asks of the UK government?
VAT on Live Trust donations is one. It ' s not justifiable for the government to be depriving a charity that we created, partly at the direction of the Culture, Medium & Sport Committee after its inquiry. The government takes the VAT off the pound and that means all the support the LIVE Trust is giving to great initiatives could be 20 % bigger. The Treasury is saying because it ' s not a voluntary contribution at the point of purchasing the ticket, which is correct, the customer doesn ' t have that choice. So the pound is built into the ticket price by the tour promoter, artist and their team, and the charitable contribution comes when they give the money to us at the end of the tour. We understand that, but that is not insurmountable. There is a precedent for making exemptions when it comes to how VAT is applied; the Band Aid single being the most relevant one. There are examples where government has said,‘ We have to take the VAT on this product, but we recognise that we shouldn’ t so we will bring the money back around to support the relevant initiatives. It is a matter of how we get government to steer that money back into the Trust.
In terms of the post-Brexit EU Touring scenario, has there been progress?
It ' s another area of frustration, because you ' ve got politicians on both sides in the UK and the EU saying they recognise that cultural exchange is vital and touring is good for both sides. They agree it is an innately good thing and
Jon Collins
is economically important. We ' ve got lots of political goodwill but then when you look at how to address the issues it is immensely complex. This is the destructive power of the Brexit decision and the structure of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement that just didn ' t deal with our sector at all. In one destructive moment it created barriers that go across personal mobility, haulage, movement of merchandise, movement of kit. All these elements are complex, for example individual mobility is a devolved responsibility, so it sits with the 27 member states not with the EU. There ' s a political will to create something bespoke for our sector but it’ s like putting toothpaste back in the tube.
I wish I could see that breakthrough moment on the horizon but unfortunately it’ s not. So, in the meantime, what we ' re asking UK government to do is improve A1 form processing and times, which is a complication when it comes to going out and gigging in Europe. We are also asking government to reduce the cost of carnets and review the guidance offered, because the two biggest barriers for artists going out and touring at the moment are cost and complexity.
Can you summarise some of the other big issues and projects currently being tackled by LIVE?
For LIVE Green it is sustainability clauses for artist contracts and the Green Rider that is associated with that. Then there is the Live Events Energy Scheme, which is about creating an energy purchasing scheme with Ecotricity to make it easier and more affordable for the live music sector to switch to cleaner energy. Another key thing we ' re pushing is the rollout of the recommendations from the Show Must Go On Report. We ' ve got a road map for industry to reduce emissions by 37 %.
With LIVE Workforce we are doing a lot of work around tackling misogyny in music. We are also working with Black Lives in Music, the Musicians’ Union, the Greater London Authority and the Metropolitan Police on REMEL [ Race Equality in Music Event Licensing ] – a project tackling systemic discrimination in live music licensing. It ' s about tackling the systemic additional barriers that are in place for Black venue operators, promoters, artists, and any promoter who ' s looking to put on an event where the genre is associated with the Black global majority.
LIVE was formed in the heart of the Covid pandemic to present a more powerful singular voice for the live music industry. It’ s done a lot of good work since, but for you what element of its output are you most satisfied with?
When I was recruited, one of the tasks was to ensure LIVE is seen as a credible partner of government. So everything we have done has been about reinforcing that position. The unique strength we have is the breadth of our membership. Whether you are the lead government official spearheading the proposed legislation to ban ticket touting or you are the DCMS and DBT [ Department for Business and Trade ] lead for the major events policy that they ' re working on and want to publish in the next 12 months, you can come to LIVE and we will immediately plug you into our expert groups. That breath of knowledge across LIVE is unique, and it gives us the strength and credibility that enables us to speak for the sector from a really wellinformed position.
accessaa. co. uk 41