The story that boy-band JLS have been named “Hardest Working Band” by the Performing Rights Society is making just about every music fan and musician in my circle of friends throw up the hands in despair.
To call an act who have played 34 gigs in 2012 the “Hardest working band” is surely an insult to actual real hard-working musicians, the sort of people who slog round the clubs and theatres and form the backbone of real music in this country. As a friend on Twitter has pointed out, John Otway plays 200 gigs a year at the age of 60. The whole thing smacks of “biggest moneyspinner for PRS” rather than a reflection of any actual amount of work.
The way this non-story is all over the media is a textbook example of so-called “churnalism”, the process by which vapid PR guff is translated into column inches without any actual journalism having taken place. It’s risible nonsense to anyone whose knowledge of music goes beyond what’s available on the shelves of ASDA, and doesn’t exactly do much for PRS’s credibility, let along the media outlets that unquestioningly repeated the story.
Shame on everyone who had any part in this charade.
That is quite ridiculous, that’s not even one show a week. (That said, it seems like they are defining ‘major show’ as someone playing in an arena, so it might technically be accurate by their definition.)
There is something fundamentally rotten about the very idea that only arena shows count.
It gives the impression that the PRS only cares about the big-money commercial end of industry rather than the vast majority of working musicians who aren’t simply no more than fronts for massive corporate PR machines.
JLS also most likely get picked up by chauffeur driven car – get a full rider and caterers in their dressing room, wardrobe and make up and everything is done for them. They’ll have a full team of sound and lighting engineers to set up the stage and show.
Someone like Otway has to make his way to gigs -Otway frequently travels there by train. The average working musician often has to travel in cramped clapped-out transit vans. They will to cater for themselves and help set up and take down their own equipment (though may have one or two roadies to help) and do everything for themselves. I man the merch stand for a band and can tell you there is nothing glamorous about it. It’s hard work! We can’t afford hotels so it’s up at the crack of dawn and then back to base around 3 or 4 am.