With many bands cancelling shows in 2024 due to burnout or the financial issues accompanying tours, Benjamin Jackson spoke to musician Elles Bailey before she hits the road to continue her UK tour across November 2024.
You can find out more about Elles and her tour by visiting her official website - ellesbailey.com.
You can find out more about Elles and her tour by visiting her official website - ellesbailey.com.
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00:00Cancellations, rescheduling leading to cancellations and more cancellations.
00:07It would seem that 2024, the news that someone has had to cancel a show has become a regular
00:12occurrence, with some citing burnout, while others flat out admitting they cannot afford
00:17to tour.
00:18And it also kind of feels that the cases of burnout come during huge tours, which from
00:23experience comes from a place of keeping things financially solvent.
00:29So how did we end up at a point where musicians are finding it hard to tour in the United
00:33Kingdom?
00:34Well, according to recording artist Ells Bailey, currently on her own tour throughout November
00:382024, perhaps Brexit had a bigger impact on the concert economy locally than imagined.
00:46I started right at the bottom, grassroots, no idea what I was doing, no idea that there
00:52was a blues scene, no idea that there was an Americana scene like here in the UK, and
00:59I would just do like what everyone does, like email, you know, a thousand venues and a few
01:06of them would get back to you and you just start those building blocks.
01:10But I, I definitely think that stuff is a lot harder now, like, I was lucky because
01:20I could, I'd borrow a van and I could just like bundle the band in the van and get out
01:26on the road that way.
01:28I would go to Europe a lot, like right from my touring career, I got straight into Europe.
01:34Even if it was just playing like small shows out there, but they paid much better than
01:40the shows over here in the UK.
01:42So I'd take that money that I made in Europe and I'd invest that into going on tour here
01:48in the UK or going on a support tour where I wasn't getting paid, but I could pay for
01:54the band because I'd done some Europe stuff.
01:58Compared to when Els first hit the road, forging her fan-based friendships and becoming part
02:03of the Americana and roots community in the United Kingdom, the musician thinks even with
02:08the assistance of promoters or managers that it's becoming increasingly difficult for smaller
02:14or grassroots musicians to tour the United Kingdom.
02:18The cost of touring, like there is no, there's no way of sort of saying that it's not gone up.
02:26It is, everything has gone up and in that, you know, so should musician fees have got
02:32to go up to meet the rising cost of living.
02:38So for me it's important that even though maybe the cost of touring is going higher,
02:46I need to make sure that I'm investing more in the people that are around me because everything
02:53else for them has gone up as well.
02:55But it's not just the overheads that bars and venues have to contend with that's also
03:00pushing smaller musicians to be, well, a little bit more reluctant to hit the road these days.
03:06She believes that despite the media shining a light on the plight of smaller venues and
03:10musicians, they themselves could and should be held accountable also for music's seemingly
03:17diminishing returns on a bass level.
03:19I got quite depressed the other day, I was listening to lots of stuff on the BBC talking
03:27like about how people go and watch music and then obviously about these rising costs and
03:32about artists missing out cities because they just can't afford to go to those cities anymore.
03:39And I was there just like, okay, this is getting a lot of talk on places like the
03:46BBC and yet the BBC and other gatekeepers of the industry are cutting out on ways that
03:53unsigned and grassroots artists can get heard.
03:56There's a lot less opportunities from the gatekeepers of the industry.
04:01So we're talking about venues closing and people not selling enough tickets.
04:09Gatekeepers of the industry can help with that, they can give artists opportunities
04:14and if they're not doing that, then, you know, what are people going to do?
04:20Like they're giving this, that, so I was just there like, half the BBC introducings in the
04:26countries have now disappeared.
04:29These were the lifeblood of like the early getting played on radio and then maybe going
04:35up to getting played on Radio 2 or Radio 1.