Olly Murs performs on stage during McDonald's I'm Lovin' It Live at The Printworks on Oct. 31, 2020 in London.
Dave J Hogan/Getty ImagesLONDON — Just a few months ago, the United Kingdom looked primed as the European market best placed to restart live music this summer. On Monday, those hopes were dealt a serious blow when Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that COVID-19 lockdown restrictions will be extended by four weeks, following a rapid rise in cases of the virus' Delta variant.
The U.K. had been due to move to Stage 4 of the government’s roadmap out of lockdown on June 21 -- dubbed “freedom day” by the British press -- when music venues and nightclubs would be able to reopen without capacity limits and all social distancing measures would legally end.
Speaking at a Downing Street press conference, Boris Johnson said the lifting of restrictions will be delayed until July 19 to allow more Brits to be vaccinated and help curb the fast-growing rise in infections. The prime minister said the decision would be monitored on a daily basis and, if after two weeks, the risk has diminished, “then we reserve the possibility of proceeding to step four and a full opening sooner.”
According to the latest data, just under 30 million people in the U.K. have had both vaccine doses, equivalent to 57% of the adult population, and 41 million people have had one dose, or 79% of adults.
On Monday, the U.K. recorded 7,742 new cases of COVID-19 and the seven-day case average rose 45% compared with the week before. The Delta variant, which was first identified in India, now accounts for 90% of new infections in the U.K.
A four-week extension to lockdown restrictions will have a "devastating” impact on the sector, leading to the cancellation of more than 5,000 planned music events and costing “hundreds of millions of pounds” in lost income, says U.K. umbrella industry association LIVE.
That will lead to the U.K. live industry “being left behind and irreversibly damaged” compared to the U.S. and European markets like the Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium, where large full-capacity shows are set to return this summer, says LIVE CEO Greg Parmley.
Already this year, more than a quarter of U.K. festivals with capacities of 5,000 or more have been canceled, including Glastonbury, BST Hyde Park and Download. Of the remaining events still going ahead this summer, the majority have pushed back their dates to August and September, although a small number are scheduled to run ahead of July 19, the revised earliest possible date when restrictions will be lifted.
They include Black Deer Festival in Kent, taking place June 25-27 -- headlined by Van Morrison, Jake Bugg and Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls -- and Noisily Festival in Leicestershire 8-12 July (organizers of Noisily have already said dates will be rescheduled if government advice changes).
According to the Association of Independent Festivals, the delay in the easing of lockdown restrictions will result in 86% of U.K. festivals not being able to take place in 2021.
Standalone live shows scheduled to take place in the U.K. over the next five weeks include indoor and outdoor concerts by Olly Murs, Tom Odell, Rag'n'Bone Man, Beverley Knight, McFly, Alexandra Burke and Rudimental. Promoters are yet to say if those shows will be rearranged or will take place in front of reduced capacity crowds.
“This delay is catastrophic for the live music industry,” says UK Music chief executive Jamie Njoku-Goodwin. He warned of a “very real risk now of permanent damage to our sector in terms of a loss of talent and expertise.”
To help prop up the U.K. live industry, Njoku-Goodwin is calling for immediate economic support and a government-backed insurance scheme to help event organizers plan for the risk of COVID-19-related cancellations, similar to what exists in the Netherlands, Austria and Germany.
Unaffected by the four-week delay in easing restrictions is a sold-out 10,000-capacity, three-day "Download Pilot" festival run by Festival Republic/Live Nation -- headlined by Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, Bullet For My Valentine and Enter Shikari -- taking place June 18-20 as part of the government's Events Research Program, a series of pilot concerts looking at how small and large-scale events can safely resume.
The first phase of the program saw two club nights take place in Liverpool and a one-day music festival, headlined by Blossoms, in front of 5,000 fans. Those events led to only a handful of positive coronavirus infections among ticket holders, according to public health officials. That news, however, will come as little comfort to venue and nightclub owners who are still unable to reopen their doors 15 months after the start of the pandemic.
According to the Night Time Industries Association, one in four U.K. businesses will not survive longer than one month without further government support and 50% will survive no longer than two months. Michael Kill, the association’s CEO, says the delay to end restrictions would increase pressure on club and venue owners already overburdened with debt and “drive confidence in the sector to a new low.”
Echoing those concerns is British theatre impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber, who has threatened legal action against the government over the lockdown extension and vowed to open previews of his latest West End musical, Cinderella, on June 25 – regardless of official rules.
NEWS
Massive Attack have been using their latest live show to challenge American data analytics and software company Palantir, with the band describing the firm's ambitions as "terrifying".
The pioneering trip hop group have woven criticism of the controversial surveillance technology company into their new stage production. During their upcoming performance at Primavera Sound, they plan to deploy "custom-made facial recognition software" capable of "scanning a 75,000-person crowd" and projecting audience members onto giant screens with tongue in cheek labels such as "11 weeks no time off, burnout" and "unfinished books", according to Novara Media.
Speaking with the publication, the visual concept takes direct aim at Palantir, the company established two decades ago by billionaire Peter Thiel. Backed financially by the CIA, the firm counts the US and Israeli militaries, ICE, the FBI and the NHS among its clients.
After unveiling the production in Helsinki, Robert Del Naja told Novara Media that he wanted audiences to better understand how Palantir's reach has expanded from supplying "kill chain tech" reportedly used in Gaza to now having access to the medical records of people across Britain.
"We really need a much wider debate on the suitability of a company like this having such capture of our societal infrastructure," he said. He explained that the criticism is embedded throughout Massive Attack's two hour performance and was developed alongside long time collaborator Adam Curtis and London art collective United Visual Artists.
"One visual element represents how a Palantir Gotham monitoring and ‘decision chain’ interface might look," Del Naja explained. "Using facial recognition technology, it lands on groups and individuals – implying a consequential outcome for a given target."
Novara Media also detailed how Palantir's software can connect information from multiple databases. The outlet reported that ICE allegedly combines the platform with body camera footage, social media data and information gathered through Israeli developed hacking software Paragon to identify protesters involved in resistance to immigration raids.
The publication further claimed that Palantir contributes to Maven, a software platform used by the US military, which has recently faced criticism after being linked to the bombing of a girls' school in Iran.
"I find their declarations, objectives and moral framing pretty terrifying," Del Naja said. "To enable AI systems to map police records, satellite tracked locations, health records and personal financial transactions and place all of that information – for the first time – into the hands of a company with an overt political agenda and social objectives of its own is a huge, potentially irreversible and dangerous overreach."
Another moment in Massive Attack's current live production appears during the closing section of "Girl I Love You", when a quote from Peter Thiel is projected on screen reading: "I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible".
Last year, Massive Attack introduced the satirical "facial recognition" sequence during their concerts and quickly rejected suggestions that genuine data recognition systems were being used on audiences.
"No Massive Attack live show has ever recorded or stored personal data," the group stated. "Only government departments, relevant authorities & approved contractors can access public databases in the UK, & doing so in multiple cities/countries would be impossible."
The band also pointed to the growing use of facial recognition technology across Britain, arguing that authorities are "overreaching almost all other western democracies with their use of public facial recognition … while there is no specific legislation regulating police use of these systems."
The statement arrived shortly after Massive Attack welcomed Kneecap onto the stage during their major show at the OVO Wembley Arena, introducing them as a group "who refused to be silenced for their solidarity with the Palestinian people."
Massive Attack have consistently spoken out in support of Palestine and a range of other progressive causes. More recently, they pledged to boycott Spotify following reports that CEO Daniel Ek had invested heavily "in a company producing military munition drones and AI technology integrated into fighter aircraft."
During their headline appearance at London's LIDO Festival last summer, the band were joined by actor and activist Khalid Abdalla along with Yasiin Bey, formerly known as Mos Def. Earlier this year, Del Naja also criticised what he described as a "draconian government" after being arrested while protesting the ban on Palestine Action.
The musician was one of hundreds of demonstrators who gathered in Trafalgar Square on April 11 to oppose the Palestine Action ban. He carried a placard stating "I Oppose Genocide, I Support Palestine Action".
Police removed him from the protest and arrested him on suspicion of expressing support for a proscribed organisation. He later responded with an extensive statement posted to Instagram.
Back in February, the band revealed a small run of European dates for the summer. The tour began on May 27 at Veikkaus Arena in Helsinki before continuing to Dalhalla in Rättvik on May 30.
The Bristol trip hop pioneers have not released new material since the 2020 EP "Eutopia". Their most recent studio album remains 2010's "Heligoland".
Speaking with NME in 2024, Robert Del Naja revealed that the band had "some new music which we've been sitting on for four years". He later shared in November that he hoped to finally release some of that material in 2026.
