{"id":403,"date":"2020-10-16T15:11:04","date_gmt":"2020-10-16T14:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/?p=403"},"modified":"2021-07-02T17:23:58","modified_gmt":"2021-07-02T16:23:58","slug":"live-music-under-corona-a-whole-new-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/2020\/10\/16\/live-music-under-corona-a-whole-new-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"Live music under Corona: A whole new stage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

People packed from wall to wall. Pressed up against the warm bodies around you, you can almost feel their heartbeats. The lights are blinding but you do not care, because there is something comforting about them as if they are radiating their energy to you. You can feel it in your chest; the booming bass, the screaming treble. It is incredible. It is music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many, the feeling of going to a live gig is irreplaceable but after being locked inside for six months, it now almost feels alien. A forgotten memory lost in time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As the billboard awards<\/a> roared on yesterday, many artists and venues across the country continue to suffer the consequences of the lack of live music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Lane was one of those whose business<\/a> was affected by the virus but was neither artist nor venue but the go-between. As a semi-professional booking agent, he started out with just a hobby. A lover of live music, he has spent around 30 to 40 years watching live gigs and making connections with the artists he happened to like. Now with contacts of about 350 different acts of \u201cevery genre for virtually any budget,\u201d Michael has built a network of connections and planted \u201cseeds\u201d with venues that when they sprout allow him to connect them with appropriate artist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCoronavirus put me in deep doo doo.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael had to cancel 50 gigs as he had bookings from March right up until October when COVID struck. He said he will likely rebook with those venues but has lost six months of gigs that he will not be able to get back. Whilst he only makes \u201cpeanuts and pocket money\u201d out of it, his efforts were starting to evolve to a point where he may have been able to start paying off a few bills. He had been trying to book for ticketed events in slightly larger venues rather than simply \u201cfreebie\u201d pub gigs. He had four or five of the \u201cseeds\u201d he had planted grow with gigs at the likes of theatres and golf clubs, but was forced to cancel after the Prime Minister announced the lockdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of the venues Lane has been working with have been \u201cmullered financially\u201d with less and less spare cash to book live music and he says: \u201cIt is only by virtue of the fact that some of the managers are such music lovers that they will continue at detriment to themselves financially.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n