Comments on: JLS Britain’s hardest-working band? Churnalism at it’s worst

By: Jane Armstrong

Jane Armstrong — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 13:19:28 +0000

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.

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 18:44:26 +0000

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.

By: Chuk

Chuk — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 18:36:13 +0000

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.)