Covid 19 has changed the face of entertainment and thrown a massive spanner into artists being able to play live gigs. All over the globe major music festivals have been put on hold including South by South West and Glastonbury as well as all the smaller ukulele events.
The viability of live events?
When covid 19 first hit, many of us hoped that the problem would disappear within a few months. This is clearly not the case and the UK as well as many other countries are now preparing for a second wave. All uke based festivals are cancelled for 2020 and its hard to see if these will return in 2021. One of the major problems for uke based events is that they mostly attract an older demographic of attendee and this is the group that is at the highest risk. Another problem is that many such events are primarily social events and this dynamic can’t be replicated with mass social distancing.
Aside from a few major artists many ukulele musicians are playing to small to medium sized audiences. The venues for these audiences are the ones most at risk during the pandemic and many were struggling before they were closed for many months. These small to medium sized venues have the same problem as theatres in that they need 80% capacity to remain financially viable, but covid regulations mean most can at best only fill 20 – 30% which means they lose money. I’ve had to cancel all band appearances for the next 12 months for this reason
Streaming fatigue?
Many artists have understandably moved to streaming live events and some have even recorded artist materials and then tried to sell these on as “mini festivals” The challenge with such initiatives is that many attendees are not used to paying a fixed ticket price to watch entertainment on a laptop. Its a 2D as opposed to a 3D experience and of course a very different atmosphere. Many people I know are already complaining about “streaming fatigue” seeing artists play in their living rooms where often there are also technical problems with the visuals and audio.
This of course is not just a problem for ukulele artists, but the field is already quite niche and many established uke players bemoan having to play for a few dozen audience members pre covid 19. Its far from an easy life and many relied on doing the uke festival circuit where mostly the same acts played festivals in the UK and overseas.
So what’s the good news?
If this all sounds a bit depressing, then I totally understand. A few years ago I realised that the ukulele image was problematic for many of the public and this was not helped by festival acts and endless cover versions played online. When I launched the 2nd album for The Small Change Diaries, we had a good sized audience of 180 people but most came to hear the band and if I had billed it as an evening of uke based music I would have lost 70% of the audience!
I set up OUS many years ago to showcase many of the superb musicians writing and playing original uke based music. During covid 19 a few such musicians that I have mentioned to date including Jack and the Vox have really demonstrated how they are primarily entertainers who happen to play the uke alongside many other instruments. I’ve sent donations as they constantly do a great job and IMO should be encouraged. Jack and the Vox had the best balance in blending original material with cover versions. I have always advocated creating new material but of course there is always a place for cover versions done well and in Jack and the Vox’s 100 shows they killed it every time!
On the OUS FB page some excellent new talent like Towse have appeared. Other musicians like Captain of the Lost Waves set the bar for entertainment and in my view deserve to be centre stage at future uke festivals if they return. One longstanding music professional noted that when live work finally returns many artists will “have to drop down a division” as there will be far less opportunities to play.
I unashamably continue to champion original music and my hope is those creative types will continue to emerge and show the way for what is possible with this terrific instrument. My hope is that post covid 19, there will be a new era fro great music of all sorts, but I suspect both inside and outside the uke world, it will be very different
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