Biffy Clyro have called on the UK government to help make touring Europe easier.
The rock band have joined a campaign designed to prevent “the collapse of the industry”, with various artists and bands – including Radiohead and Ghostpoet – warning that post-Brexit restrictions “threaten the future success of British music”.
The #LetTheMusicMove campaign has been launched by the Featured Artists’ Coalition, which has called for the government to provide a “transitional support package” to cover the additional costs of touring.
The campaign is also being backed by Blur’s Dave Rowntree, who said: “If we don’t do something the music industry now collapses. We’re at that inflection point.”
Dave, 57, thinks the music industry has been overlooked by the government.
He said: “We the industry, talked to the government post-Brexit and expressed our concerns. Boris [Johnson] even said ‘Don’t worry, I’m as concerned as you are, I’ll fix it’.
“The fishermen got £23 million to deal with their concerns. We were promised something similar. Nothing.”
Primal Scream’s Simone Marie Butler is similarly concerned about the industry in the post-Brexit period.
Simone told the BBC: “Live music is an incredibly important part of people’s lives and this is essentially starving a big part of live music. We’ve faced difficulties with COVID-19, we’re also dealing with the difficulties of [making money from] streaming.
“There are lots of strangleholds on the music industry right now.”
However, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has insisted it’s doing everything it can to support the industry.
The department said: “We recognise the difficulties still being faced by the sector.
“That is why we are working closely with individual member states to encourage them to adopt a more flexible approach, in line with the UK’s own rules which allow creative professionals to tour easily here.”