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a b o u t     the    p r o j e c t

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This radio documentary explores the true cost of covid-19 on the grassroots music industry, going beyond just the financial implications.

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The culture recovery fund

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The Culture Recovery Fund offered financial support for cultural organisations that were financially stable before Covid-19, but were at imminent risk of failure. The £1.57 billion fund was launched under the UK Government's Culture Recovery Board on 5th July, 2020. The funding was released in two rounds and by 11 December £1 billion worth of the funding had been allocated  UK, including:
Over £500 million in recovery grants to over 3000 arts and heritage organisations in England.

As explored in the full documentary, not all grassroots venues were eligible for the funding, proving that the financial struggle is not over for many arts-business owners like Dan Sullivan.

According to the Music Venue Trust;

'The total amount awarded to MVT Grassroots Music Venue members was £41,352,593 out of an overall distribution of £334,062,243 across the two rounds, which equates to 12.4%.'

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INTERVIEWS

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Interviewing people at the heart of the industry was really important to me to understand the deeper effects of the pandemic on artists; new and established, as well as Venue owners. Speaking to Matt at the Music Venue Trust  gave me a clearer insight into exactly where venues are falling through the cracks in terms of funding during these constant closing periods. Matt's work for MVT represents only a fraction of the efforts of the team at the trust; from being a point of contact to struggling member venues, to launching new initiatives and campaigns to preserve venues who are struggling the most. 

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After a handful of rejected interviews, I was fortunate enough to visit Dan Sullivan, (Sully) at The Four Horsemen in Bournemouth. This venue is a local hub for grassroots music in Bournemouth's town centre. It was important for me to speak to Sully, as he is currently working closely with Matthew Otridge from the Music Venue Trust. The venue falls into Matt's area of work as the South-West Coordinator for MVT. The Four Horsemen is part of the 'Save The Thirty' campaign, run by the trust as a result of their ineligibility for the Culture Recovery Fund. This campaign was et up by MVT in order to continue to raise funds for the 30 member venues who are still struggling at the point of crisis. 

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Interviewing Ruby Taylor, the lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist in Brighton-based Yumi And The Weather was a very well-timed interview! Creating this project over the course of three national UK lockdowns and a flurry of ever-changing COVID-19 restrictions was definitely very challenging. 

My forward-thinking helped me out here as I was able to arrange an interview with Ruby early on in the project- I travelled to Brighton to see her in late October; not even a week before the second national lockdown was announced on October 31st. 

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Having to rely solely on telephone interviews really changed the pace of the project, although my time with Matt and Katy (over the phone) was done in this time and they both really helped to shape the sound of the documentary. Katy's perspective as a graduate heading into the music industry and as someone who relies on the grassroots industry as a student, helped the project look to the future in some ways. The uncertainty of the future of the industry was honed in on between both Katy and Matt's input.

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