HERE we go again. Another culture-culled winter of Covid. Already pantos have closed, gigs have been cancelled, cinemas and museums are having to reintroduce social distancing measures. What fun.
Right now, the organisers of Celtic Connections in Glasgow are frantically trying to work out if next month’s festival can go ahead and, if so, what form it will take (fingers crossed; the programme is really strong).
We can grumble about it, but when it comes to a battle between public health and public pleasure there should only be one winner. After all, the Omicrom variant in Scotland got a leg-up from of all things a Steps gig in Glasgow in November. (One for Sorrow indeed.)
But this is another kick in the teeth for musicians, performers, venue staff and everyone else who is trying (and it must have been trying these last couple of years) to make a living in the culture sector.
It’s not all gloom. There are some areas that are doing well. Publishing has been, perhaps understandably, a beneficiary of the virus. In 2020 book sales topped the 200 million mark in the UK for the first time since 2012. And despite everything, the number of independent bookshops in the country actually rose in that year of lockdowns.
But mostly the picture is a depressing one. In October the trade body Music UK reported that one in three jobs in the music industry were lost in 2020. How many of those jobs came back this year it couldn’t say.
And yet, in the midst of all this, it is worth remembering that, despite everything, theatres, galleries and music venues have all had some kind of life in 2021, as the critics’ end-of-year lists attest. TV and movies are still being made in the face of all of Covid’s challenges. Whatever you think of superhero movies, the success of the new Spider-Man movie is something to celebrate for those of us who want to believe that cinemas have a future.
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This year I’ve been fortunate enough to see Laura Marling in the Queen’s Hall, Damon Albarn at the Edinburgh Festival, Glasgow artist Lucy McKenzie’s show in Tate Liverpool and the new Jane Campion film The Power of the Dog at the Edinburgh Filmhouse (although it’s already on Netflix). You will have your own highlights and I’d be happy to hear them. Compared to 2020, this was a bounty.
For the next few weeks at least, it seems we are going to have to hunker down a bit. Books and TV and recorded music help make that prospect palatable as we wait out this virus again. And then?
Last summer I remember walking into a room full of 400 or 500 people in Edinburgh during the Fringe in August to see Jason Byrne. I’ll not lie. It was a bit intimidating (no one was wearing masks). But by the end I was glad I did. I hope it won’t be another eight months before any of us can do so again.
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