Elbow’s Guy Garvey has attacked promoters for instigating a pay-to-play policy for emerging young bands.
“There needs to be something really strong in place if a promoter is found to be ripping off young bands,” Garvey said while speaking at In The City - a music conference in Manchester, UK. “It’s really, really unfair. It’s basically playing on the hopes and dreams of people who are at the very first hurdle of their musical careers.”
Remembering the obstacles Elbow had to overcome when starting out, he said “Quite often promoters would promise you that scouts would come in from different record labels. So you would put up with anything that they told you to do.
“If I knew that you could get in touch with the Musician’s Union and I knew there was someone local who you could report said promoter to, that would be the way to do it. It should be the norm that you don’t get ripped off. I think it should be policed more.”
An early incarnation of Elbow formed as far back as 1990, but the band didn’t release an album until 2001’s ‘Asleep In The Back’. It was ‘Cast Of Thousands’ in 2003 that really put them in the global spotlight, however.
The band are currently working on their as-yet-untitled fifth album due for release early 2011.
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