Musicians, artists, technicians, tour managers, promoters and industry names from across the UK and the EU, lending their name and their story to the campaign.
This page loads our ambassadors in a random order every time — because we are all in this together, whether you are an artist, musician, actor, dancer, technician, DJ, journalist or anyone else involved in creative touring around the UK and the EU.
Known for many years in the UK and around the world as a broadcaster, journalist and world-music DJ — championing music from Africa in particular — and, of course, as a co-presenter of that most iconic of events, Live Aid. His work with the BBC and many others makes him perfectly placed to understand the need to be able to tour without barriers. “The finest British broadcaster bar none,” says Stephen Fry.
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British popular culture is adored and revered across the world. All our arts act as cultural ambassadors while supporting many thousands of businesses, tens of thousands of individuals, and generating thousands of millions in taxable revenue. Sadly now, access to our nearest market is greatly restricted.
It has been a glaring oversight that the promised Cultural Passport was not negotiated. Without this type of arrangement, it will be hugely more expensive and complicated for UK musical artists to travel and work in Europe. Visas, carnets and haulage restrictions will hamstring even the most successful acts and make touring on the Continent essentially an impossibility for newer artists who command lower fees.
Anna has worked with artists including Paul Weller, Stereophonics, Andrea Bocelli, David Guetta, Anderson .Paak, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Robyn.
As artists grow, they need contact with a wider market, and access to European audiences is really important. We have so much talent across the board within the UK music industry, that to deprive artists and technicians of easy access to EU countries hinders professional development and employment opportunities. To have come from a year shaped by a global pandemic, to then have the future of touring made uncertain by Brexit, is another major blow to the industry and the individuals that make it all happen.
Singer with Freak Power, Kitten and the Hip and Microgroove; trombonist with Loose Tubes, the Electric Ladyland Big Band, Carla Bley, George Russell and Andy Sheppard; songwriter and producer.
Freak Power is my most active band for touring, and we’re what I’d call a mid-level band. We will struggle to meet all the visa and carnet requirements once we start touring again. It will be cheaper for me to hire EU passport holders than those with UK passports for crew and sound. It will be the end of many low- and mid-level bands touring Europe, which I’m absolutely distraught about. Touring made up about a third of my annual income, and that is a massive hit.
Releasing records and touring with his band Little Barrie since 2000, Barrie also works as a live and studio guitarist with The The, Primal Scream, Paul Weller, Edwyn Collins, Spiritualized, The Brian Jonestown Massacre and Charles Bradley. He composed the main title theme to the AMC television show Better Call Saul.
Much of his own work over the last 18 years has involved touring. “Without performing within the EU I would not have survived or been able to build the same following and contacts.”
The Brexit deal completely failed to represent the needs of UK touring professionals working in Europe. The additional costs and red tape involved with visas, carnets and extra time needed for border checks will now make touring impossible for many. Pressure needs to be put on the government now to secure the future for our industry in the EU.
Photo: Carl Fox
A tour manager of over 30 years, Chris has worked with the Kaiser Chiefs, Rudimental, Tom Odell, Plan B, Femi Kuti, Stiff Little Fingers, Aswad, The Wailers, Tricky, Billy Ocean, Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, Little Richard, Fats Domino and B.B. King.
“Acts that are starting to build their following and develop their sound will struggle to find any dates or venues in the UK, as many have permanently closed. In the past these acts were able to tour Europe, where smaller venues are plentiful, but with current Brexit regulations this will be impossible. The costs and red tape will be out of reach of acts at this level.”
As a TM of over 30 years I have never seen the industry in such a perilous state. The importance of being able to move freely to perform is now paramount. Without reciprocal freedom of movement across the EU and UK, live music as we know it will be history and the UK’s pre-eminence in this field will be a thing of the past.
Craig’s 35 years in the game have given him a first-hand perspective from every industry angle. He started out as an artist himself in Bros, then wrote and produced hits for others before becoming VP of International at EMI Music, working closely with Tina Turner, Diana Ross, Robbie Williams and Garth Brooks. As a manager he oversaw worldwide tours and releases for P!nk, Tina Turner, Sade and Joe Cocker, and from 2006 ran the RCA label group — home to Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Usher, Dido, Celine Dion and Alicia Keys — selling 50 million albums and taking label of the year in 2007. He now runs his own management company, Logan Media Entertainment.
Today, concert touring has become an ever more important part of an artist’s work since streaming has virtually replaced traditional album sales. The unnecessary bureaucratic roadblocks currently in place on touring across Europe are wreaking havoc. The effect is not only being felt on artist income but also on creative opportunities and the development of British artists internationally.
CURRAN are a two-piece Americana heartland rock ’n’ roll band from New Jersey and Scotland. They have spent recent years touring the UK and Europe with Kiefer Sutherland, The Cadillac Three, Will Hoge and Frankie Ballard.
Touring is our life. Without it, we have nothing. Over the last few years we have been building a fan base the old-fashioned way — going city to city and leaving our hearts on every stage. Without the continued freedom to do that, not only will we not be able to keep growing our audience, but we won’t be able to make a living. Please don’t ignore the touring visa issue. As we’ve learned over the last year, a life without live events just isn’t nice.
The Darius Brubeck Quartet has travelled the world and released three critically acclaimed albums — Cathy’s Summer, Years Ago and Live in Poland, recorded at the end of their historic 2018 tour. Live in Poland was given four stars in Downbeat, five stars in Jazzwise and praised in the Financial Times.
We’re used to hopping across the Channel several times a year, and that’s true for many jazz musicians here. The current situation is harmful on every level. One of my reasons for living in the UK was to be ‘in Europe’ — but after Brexit, the next best thing is visa-free travel for artists.
The music industry and touring musicians have been urgently explaining for years, to anyone who will listen, why Brexit is hugely damaging to their ability to perform. Freedom of movement and frictionless travel in and out of the EU has been an essential component in keeping costs do-able.
We need the UK Government to stop wringing their hands like Pontius Pilate and to get serious about owning that they created this problem by leaving the EU without any deal for us, and that they need to do a lot more to fix it than falsely blaming the EU. It’s not only a loss for us, it’s a loss for the Treasury — we pay taxes on these overseas earnings, and we won’t be paying them if we’re unable to tour.
Erin has been in the music business for 28 years and touring and working live events since 1996, on well over 100 tours as tour manager, production manager and merchandise manager, as well as artist liaison and backstage manager for many key Scandinavian festivals. She owns and operates FlyingFox AB, a band, production, tour and event management company based in Stockholm.
In July 2020, during the biggest crisis ever to affect the industry, she founded the non-profit C.R.E.W Coalition (Career Restricted Event Workers), empowering crew with the tools to reinvent themselves and survive. She won WILM (Women In Live Music) Tour Manager of the Year in 2018 and Production Manager of the Year in 2020, and hosts the monthly WILM radio show.
“In 1983 I stood for the first time on a European festival stage in Mannheim, Germany, at the beginning of what would become a long and wonderful journey that would play a huge part in the international success of my former band Marillion and in my own career as a solo artist. Without our European success in the early ’80s it’s unlikely we would have survived on UK sales alone.”
“In 2020 I lost around 20 UK shows and 50 European shows. In order to attain the necessary working visas for the eight different European countries I was scheduled to perform in, I would have to start applying at every individual national embassy without any insurance available. Going by the information I was finding, I had a rough estimate of around £20,000–30,000 in visas and administration costs for 10 people across eight countries. This is a massive expense at my level of touring, and an impossibility for bands in the early stages of their careers.”
“If I want to tour in the USA I attend once at an American embassy for an interview and, after vetting and payment, I can perform in 50 states. We require a similar approach to touring in Europe — the third biggest music market in the world, literally on our doorstep.”
We need a cultural passport for both European and UK professional creatives to perform and travel across borders, to at least ease some of these problems and allow them to earn a living in their chosen fields. There has to be serious consideration at government level on both sides, or we are looking at the further demise of the music industry and the loss of a generation of musicians and technicians.
A freelance professional percussionist for 30+ years, Ged’s client list includes Peter Gabriel, Goldfrapp, Birdie and Gary Kemp.
I’m supporting the Carry On Touring petition to help give voice to a woefully under-represented group of professionals — an industry worth far more than £5.8 billion to the UK economy. Music, theatre, film and their technical support need help to continue bringing people joy. The eco-system that maintains our industry, for both new and established artists, relies upon the free movement of professionals. The more noise the better — we are all in this together.
Howard is an Emmy, BRIT and BAFTA award-winning composer of choral music, stage musicals, film and TV scores, performed all over the world. A distinguished music historian, writer and broadcaster, he has been England’s first ever National Ambassador for Singing, the Classical BRIT Composer of the Year and Classic FM’s Composer-in-Residence for six years. He was appointed CBE for services to music education in the 2011 New Year Honours.
I have been trying to warn our creative sectors for five years about the calamity of Brexit, in particular the abandonment of freedom of movement and quitting the EEA customs union. That calamity is now upon us, meaning thousands of jobs are at risk of disappearing in a once-thriving sector. If they care one iota for the industries affected and the livelihoods they support, they will rethink and re-negotiate, as a matter of urgency.
J Bizz is an MC and rapper who has been making music since he was 12, and taking it seriously since 2019.
Music is important to me because it improves your health and wellbeing. Music stimulates the brain, which in turn helps with pain relief, reducing stress and improving memory. Music can also express your emotions without having to show them. Music is powerful in many other ways.
A hugely experienced international musician, James moved to London in 1978 and has recorded and toured with a wide variety of artists and bands including Kirsty MacColl, The Teardrop Explodes, Billy Bragg, Nick Lowe, Julian Cope, Paul Carrack, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Carlene Carter, The Pretenders, Banco de Gaia and Martina Topley-Bird.
James is a rock solo artist from South Wales, owner of Konic Records and author of the Amazon #1 rock memoir Noise Damage. Formerly of the alternative rock band Kyshera, he is promoting his album Make Anger Great Again and touring with his band James Kennedy & The Underdogs.
The economic aspect of what’s happening right now has already been well asserted, but we shouldn’t have to explain or defend why live music is such a fundamental part of our lives and society. Music is the life force. And loud, live music is the indescribable, transcendental, ass-kicking euphoria that makes life worth living. Our policy makers have clearly never experienced it.
John is the driving force behind The Membranes and has spent 40 years touring the world at grass-roots DIY level — journalist, musician, TV and radio presenter, author, DJ, mentor and spoken-word artist, and founder of the music culture site Louder Than War. He knows all about the mountain of problems Brexit will present to bands.
It’s the next generation of musicians and crews and the whole pyramid of people who survive due to this unwanted and unneeded restraint on one of the UK’s most loved international trades.
Kaptin has been many things during his 20+ years in the business, but is perhaps best known as one of the senior programmers for Boomtown. As well as bringing in more acts from Europe than most UK festivals, he is also a touring DJ under the name AAA Badboy.
It’s incredible the response that UK artists receive in Europe — shows across the continent can honestly make or break acts. It’s rarely sustainable for a professional act to only tour the UK. If artists are unable to tour it is harder for them to maintain interest from fans, and eventually their sales will start to dry up, which has a knock-on effect across the industry.
Mark has been a professional touring drummer for 19 years, playing and recording all over the world. As studio funding became harder to secure, he became an online session drummer. Prior to Brexit and Covid he would normally be playing across Europe every week with Kyla Brox, sometimes in up to four different EU countries a week.
Without being added to the visa waiver list, I believe UK artists will stop being booked due to the extra expense and complications when compared with European artists.
Oli has been one of the busiest bass players on the London jazz scene since graduating from the Royal Academy of Music in 2000, playing with stars of jazz, classical and world music. He has been featured on over 60 albums and toured extensively.
I have been working around Europe for the last 20 years. Sometimes getting on a plane on a Saturday morning, playing rented instruments and getting home on Sunday night; sometimes packing everything in a van and getting on the ferry. As a result of Brexit this is going to be much, much harder and most of it just will not be viable. It has been a major part of my income and the most enjoyable part of my work as a musician.
“Pat Fulgoni could sing a pearl from its oyster,” said Billboard. A singer across many genres with artists like Camo & Krooked, London Elektricity, Technimatic, Zion Train, Gary Lucas and Kava Kava, he has released a solo live blues album, played brass for Embrace and toured the USA, China and Europe. He has run labels, had compositions featured in major US TV shows, and organised community music festivals and regional music development initiatives including the only ever all-Yorkshire showcases at the British Music Embassy at SXSW.
This government needs to get a grip on the crisis facing the creative industries in this country. It makes no economic sense to abandon the music business like this. To be denied work and touring in the EU after Covid is absolutely braindead. And don’t underestimate the detrimental effect the general lack of support for music is having, not only on the industry’s health but the nation’s.
Guitarist in Pendulum and a freelance session musician whose client list includes Faithless, Natalie Imbruglia, Tinie Tempah, Kim Wilde, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Anastacia and Mylene Farmer. He is a music producer for countless TV shows on the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, S4C, RTL and Channel 7 Australia.
Brexit is a disaster for British musicians and crew, but ironically will be a bonanza for musicians and crew with EU passports. Once we start touring again, it will be cheaper for UK artists, managers and labels to hire EU passport holders than those with UK passports. Why pay visa fees and deal with a mountain of red tape when you can simply hire someone on the continent? It will be the death knell for many British people who work in the creative arts.
Pete did his first gig aged 12 in 1964 and has since been a lighting designer, sound engineer, rigger, stage, project and production manager — and played in bands. He grew up with the touring industry, going from Thames vans to Antonov heavy-lift aircraft, and from small local bands to the likes of Michael Jackson, U2 and Prince. Lately he has been working with up-and-coming bands.
“The issues Brexit has brought up make it uneconomical for new British bands to do shows in Europe. The cost of carnets alone puts most of them off, cutting off a huge market and also the ability to earn enough points to get a visa to tour the USA. UK touring personnel have long been the best in the world, but now tours cannot justify taking UK crew on world tours. It’s a very sad state of affairs.”
Sheema has collaborated with internationally renowned artists including Sir John Tavener, Martin Carthy, Bobby McFerrin, Boris Grebenshikov, Natacha Atlas, Noel Gallagher, Cornershop, Mercan Dede, Yanka Rupkina and Courtney Pine. She has toured the world with many ensembles — the World Music Festival in Chicago, the Montreux Jazz Festival, the Olympia-Halle in Munich, supporting Jimmy Page and Robert Plant on their 1998 European tour, the Olympic Arts Festival for Sydney 2000 — and appears regularly at WOMAD with her own ensembles. She is also a rigorous teacher, running workshops in improvisation and composition.
For the last 25 years the majority of my income has been from touring in Europe. As a soloist and as part of Transglobal Underground, we have a large EU fan base. Now it seems, with the extra bureaucracy and costs involved, many British creatives and crew like myself will simply not be able to tour the EU. It is vital on so many levels to have the freedom to perform and tour in the EU.
As a teenager Sheila formed the band Monsoon, whose fusion of Western and Indian pop styles produced the 1982 hit single “Ever So Lonely”. She went on to release a series of albums through the 1980s, experimenting with her voice as an instrument, and a trilogy on Peter Gabriel’s Real World label — Weaving My Ancestors’ Voices, The Zen Kiss and ABoneCroneDrone — drawing on the similarities between Indian ragas and English folk melody. In 2002 she performed “Breath of Life” with Howard Shore for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and in 2007 recorded and toured with Simon Emmerson’s project The Imagined Village.
Freedom of movement is an essential prerequisite for musicians and performers of all kinds to maintain a healthy touring schedule. I welcome and support the campaign to create a free cultural work permit for UK performers, which will free everyone in the industry from the current crippling restrictions on EU travel for performers and their professional equipment, as a sensible and practical measure which will save livelihoods.
Simon is one half of Red Rhythm, the production, songwriting and remix team whose credits include Ashanti, Aaliyah, Boyz II Men, Sean Paul, Run-DMC, Liberty X, Kool & The Gang, Eminem, Beverley Knight, Melanie C, Michelle Williams, Jimmy Cliff, Missy Elliott, Sting, Timbaland, Usher, Michael Jackson and Leona Lewis. He has gone on to produce and work with artists and writers including David Gray, Alexandra Burke, Guy Chambers, Peter Andre, Camo & Krooked, Clean Bandit and Julian Lennon.
I wholeheartedly pledge my support for the Carry On Touring campaign. For decades the live and entertainment industry has brought in tens of billions for the Treasury, and Brexit is nothing short of an absolute disaster for this sector, putting the livelihoods of many thousands of people and their families at serious risk. Collectively we must come together and rightfully campaign for the Government to renegotiate the dire deal that is currently in place.
Simon is a veteran music lawyer, having worked in the industry for over four decades. A partner at Cadence Solicitors in Soho, he is well known for representing talent across all genres of music, and also manages the artists Gemma Hayes and Tamaraebi.
He is passionate about the industry and appalled at the way the creative sector has been treated. A patriotic champion of British music and a dedicated political activist, he is committed to calling out the difficulties Brexit has caused — not just to musicians, but to the whole ecosystem that relies on touring the continent. The importance of touring underlies the whole economy of music, the promotion of British culture, and the export value of intellectual property rights.
Sophia made the first UK recording of Florence Price’s piano concerto with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, broadcast on BBC Radio 3. She teaches on the String Masters programme run by the Irish Chamber Orchestra at the University of Limerick’s Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, and has coached at the University of Malta, the Sibelius Academy in Finland, Lilla Akademien in Sweden and the Arvo Pärt Centre in Estonia. She is Artistic Director of the annual Whittington International Chamber Music Festival.
“A glance through my own accounts for the year ending April 2020 shows that well over two-thirds of my income was either earned within the EU or within the UK but with one or more collaborators from the EU. As well as producing foreign earnings, UK musicians touring abroad are a showcase for our country’s rich cultural heritage. Touring is emphatically not an immigration issue — we all wish to return to our home bases after creative interaction.”
As things stand, the non-deal for artists would render my formerly viable performing career unsustainable. If you value access to the performing arts, if you value creativity and the vast support network that sustains it and helps to make life worth living, then support us in the fight for a solution.
“With my rock band, Cockney Rebel, and with my Acoustic Band, plus the necessary four or five crew on the team, we play dozens of concerts and festivals in many different European countries every year. This generates a large gross income for my company which, most importantly, ensures the players and crew all keep their income stream maximised. Visas could well be expensive and, for some artists and groups, a potential barrier.”
It was monumentally remiss of the Government to overlook the need for an EU-wide agreement that would allow artists from the UK to travel to and around Europe in pursuit of their livelihoods. I will support the Carry On Touring campaign with a passion. Musicians, and all artists, are by definition entertainers, and it’s pretty clear that European audiences would miss us very badly if we pulled out of our tours.
Sarah has been working in the cultural sector since 1996. After co-founding the pop culture magazine The Gap — now the oldest print pop culture magazine still published in Austria — she launched the international music label P.A.M. Records in 1998 and ran it as an active musician until the early 2000s.
After co-founding the literary newspaper Volltext in 2002 and the music magazine TBA in 2006, she developed and launched Waves Vienna, now the largest showcase festival and conference in Central and Eastern Europe, which she still runs as director. In 2022 she took over co-project management of the Austrian Music Export Office and co-management of the Vienna Club Commission. She also works as a music consultant and sits on various juries and advisory boards in Austria and internationally.
Tim is drummer for the London-based four-piece The Little Unsaid. While three of the band are lucky enough to be EU passport holders, they are certainly not immune to the effects of the loss of touring rights.
“We are literally the archetypal band in a Transit. The last eight years have been a slog to get anywhere in a crowded musical market, but around 2016, before signing to our label, we’d gotten a foothold in Germany and small breakthroughs elsewhere. Then Brexit happened. Even as a signed act, with increased expenses and bureaucracy, our margins will be slim at best. It also potentially rules out taking essential crew with us — from soundperson to merch.”
The British music sector has faced a crippling challenge from the pandemic; now, despite assurances to the contrary, those in the creative arts have been badly let down by the severely limiting and needless restrictions of a lousy Brexit deal. I’m therefore very happy to be an ambassador for the Carry On Touring campaign.
Tony is a freelance director who over many years has worked in most EU countries on concert broadcasts and recordings, festival coverage and touring documentaries with thousands of performers across rock, pop, classical, dance and musicals. He has also directed and consulted on many TV and entertainment formats across Europe.
The mission of this campaign is vital. Music knows no borders. No one place has a monopoly on talent and skills — across the whole of the EU and the UK there is some phenomenal production and creative talent, and we are all better off for being able to create the best possible experiences for audiences by having access to all of it. Flexible working and collaboration in the cultural industries across the UK and EU is of existential importance.
A self-taught guitarist, Zal played and recorded with Alex Harvey in The Sensational Alex Harvey Band from the start of the 1970s, an extremely distinctive stage presence in his white-face mime make-up. When SAHB split in 1978 they toured as the Zal Band; in 1979 he joined Nazareth and recorded two albums with them. He was a regular guitarist with Elkie Brooks throughout the 1980s, wrote and played on her album Minutes, and toured with Midge Ure and Bonnie Tyler. In the 1990s he played with The Party Boys, which became a reformed SAHB in 1993.
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