I’ve mused for a while that, at least in terms of the folk music world in mainland Britain, a change was likely. I understand anecdotally that the folk club model from the 1950s/60s is coming to a natural end as the generally older people who have kept those places going are stepping back and not enough younger people want to take on the responsibility. So be it. I understand something similar is happening at the grassroots end of jazz in Britain too. In short, the amateur pub/club infrastructure that has allowed some people to be professional performers is coming to a conclusion after a period of 60 or 70 years – a generation and a half, really.

This coincides with other significant changes in the music world – ill-paid Spotify plays replacing CD/download sales, the decline of record labels, the lesser importance of music in people’s lives, etc.

Being a musician with professional aspirations or actually having music as your main income hasn’t had a landscape that full of obstacles, I believe, in the whole of the ‘modern era’ – say, from Lonnie Donegan onward. And then Covid 19 arrives.

I don’t, in a very general sense, have » Continue Reading.