And groundhog greets every year: Even in the third Corona winter, a kind of “normality” is unthinkable. Not in schools, not at major events – and not in clubs. This is due, among other things, to a vaccination rate that is too low and to politics, to presumably wrong economic priorities, but above all to new variants. As soon as the first venues were slowly allowed to reopen their doors under 2G+ regulations in autumn 2021, no, while Delta made headlines a new mutation called Omicron. Urgent requests to lift the ban on dancing in clubs and discos in December were accordingly rejected. For epidemiologically understandable reasons, of course. For many operators, this meant that the beginning of the end, which at times also became the end of a new beginning, continued to pave the way economically.
When concerts and tours such as those presented by Musikexpress by acts like Little Simz, Tocotronic, Soap&Skin are postponed for the second, third, sometimes fourth or even fifth time, it is not just the artists themselves who are affected. Booking, management, crew, the venues themselves – they all have either invested a lot of work without being able to reap the rewards. Or their work simply fails. Because even if concerts are allowed: Inconsistent corona requirements in the German federal states make reliable planning almost impossible, says FKP Scorpio Managing Director Stephan Thanscheidt im Interview with the “Rolling Stone”. This is one of the reasons why Die Ärzte canceled their planned “In The Ä Tonight” tour in September 2022.
How big the live business is is still sometimes misjudged. Jens Michow, President of the Federal Association for the Event Industry, speaks of a loss of sales of around ten billion euros since the beginning of the pandemic, “and the trend is rising”. As deputy head of the ifo Institute for Economic Research, Klaus Wohlrabe reports that positive prospects for 2022 were forecast in many economic sectors, but not in the event industry. The “actual lockdown” does not allow for any forecasts. As always, the little musicians are particularly affected. Those who aren’t called Coldplay, Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift and who can hardly compensate for the missing income even for shorter periods of time. How are you doing in January 2022?
Cultural workers looking for money and meaning
Hagen Siems is one of the cultural workers doubly affected by the pandemic and knows both sides. As a songwriter he calls himself Gregor McEwan and has just released his new single “Wintersleep”; on February 25th his fourth album FOUR SEASONS will be released. As a full-time booker at the Amadis agency, he looks after musicians like Bernd Begemann and authors like our ME columnists Paula Irmschler and Linus Volkmann. He remembers spring 2020, when the corona pandemic began, almost nostalgically. They postponed concerts until autumn 2020 with the naïve idea that that would be the end of it. Now, almost two years later, they are still postponing their events – this time to autumn 2022. This also describes his emotional state quite well: “You try to save shows… for our artists, for the viewers, for the industry , for us as an agency… also because you originally worked for it; then of course you don’t want to cancel under any circumstances and don’t even notice that the five postponements have now taken more time than the original booking from 2019,” he says and draws a sobering interim conclusion: “It’s just incredibly difficult to make sense of it to see. There is nothing really permanent.”
The search for meaning was even more difficult for cultural workers like Siems because the injustices became more and more obvious. He speaks of empty theaters and full Malle-Flieger, of a musician from Lower Saxony who should withdraw his fee for his only summer open air because he has meanwhile received Hartz 4 due to a lack of alternatives, while another musician from Baden-Württemberg has one kind of basic income. Even initially, clubs only made ends meet if there had already been points of contact with, for example, the “Music Initiative” or the “Applause” (award for the program planning of independent venues), i.e. with application forms and the like. And even those venues that wanted to live up to their social responsibility and turned into test or vaccination centers or, whenever events did take place, “meticulously checked vaccination certificates at the entrance, while if you voluntarily presented the certificate on the ICE, you only got a snotty ‘ we are not responsible for that at all!’ gets to hear” have been let down by politics.
“Culture is for the soul!”
As a musician, Gregor McEwan, Siems felt that his artistic development and the development of a “so-called career” were being slowed down during this time. But he calls it lucky that he had already recorded a double album by the end of 2019 and was able to enjoy a few releases during the pandemic. Without a proper tour, however, this is not so effective. The pandemic has shown very clearly that streaming offers cannot replace concerts, either financially or emotionally. Siems loves the exchange between act and audience. “Culture is for the soul!” he says and despite this, or perhaps because of it, is mildly optimistic: presumably on behalf of all the other bookers, organizers and artists out there, he hopes that at least the outdoor season will take place safely and a “vaccination obligation that was finally and quickly passed” ensures that indoor appointments can take place from September (planning) safely. The past two years have also taught him: “Pandemic is what happens to you while you’re busy making plans…”
#BackToLive
Two years ago, at the beginning of 2020, the corona pandemic that is still ongoing today began. It’s been a year since ROLLING STONE with #BackToLive drew attention to the dramatic situation of clubs, organizers and musicians. Now the pandemic is threatening to kill live music again. Again concert cancellations, tour cancellations, club closures, loss of sales. That’s why we at MUSIKEXPRESS are launching #BackToLive together with ROLLING STONE and METAL HAMMER and starting a digital bulletin board, among other things. Because no stream, no matter how good, can replace a concert experience. And because these experiences can only take place again in the future if those who plan and implement them are seen and heard.
At least for the coming summer, hope is not only increasing for Gregor McEwan. Festivals old and new announced great lineups like Tempelhof Sounds featuring Florence + the Machine, The Strokes, Alt-J, Courtney Barnett, Interpol, Idles, Big Thief and dozens of your favorite acts more. Apart from that, we will also experience live concerts, even big ones. Guns N’Roses, Pearl Jam, Ed Sheeran and Coldplay, among others, have announced themselves after various postponements. It would be nice if this live upswing didn’t come to an abrupt end again next autumn and winter.
In the February issue of ROLLING STONE there is a large report on the subject with interviews, analyses, statements and prospects. Also in MUSIKEXPRESS 03/2022 we dedicate ourselves to #BackToLive.