In this week's newsletter:
- Paul McCartney takes on AI
- Ecca Vandal's brought us an angsty new anthem
- Hear a powerful song of resistance for the Filton 24
- Adam Buxton joins Joe Lycett and others in a special music + art project
- Ticket resale prices are FINALLY being capped
- But first, curfews...
As I started going to more regular gigs and mingled with the sorts of industry mainstays who had frequented the circuit for years longer than I had, I learned there was a very clear consensus. Every gig goer loves a 10pm curfew. (By 'curfew', this means the rough time the gig is supposed to be finished, and presumably when you're meant to be out of the building). The phrase ‘I prefer an 11pm curfew’ seems about as common as ‘I do love a rail replacement bus’. Last year, when I mentioned a gig I was going to was finishing at 9:30pm, as there was a club night after, the prevailing reaction was envy.
At best, being turfed out a venue at 11 is a neutral matter. Sometimes, it’s an annoyance. Other times, it’s a case of all systems go, the red light of anxiety switching on in your brain circuitry as you rush for the last train. That is, if the last train leaves late enough and you’ve not had to make a premature exit a couple of songs early.
This is where a 10pm curfew can be a lifesaver. As detailed in last week’s newsletter on stage times, it can make the difference between being able to make a gig or not. But for those for whom it’s not a mere necessity but a bonus, it’s a joy or even a relief to know your head will hit the pillow hopefully before midnight. On the weekends, it means more time to stay out and have fun if you’re so inclined. It can even help with childcare costs.
As such, it wasn’t a surprise that all three of the artists I spoke to last week – Benefits, The Anchoress and Los Campesinos! – implemented 10pm curfews as part of their initiatives to make stage times readily available for fans. (Ironically, the one caveat is bands don’t enjoy it if there’s a club night on after and they have to rush to do the dreaded ‘disco load out’, as it’s cheerfully known).
Would the industry be better off if a 10pm finish was the industry standard? Maybe for some people it is, but not necessarily. For one, it depends on the size of the bill - with one support act, it’s not so bad, but with more, it gets troublesome. A few years ago, I saw a band with a four-band bill have with a 10pm curfew, which meant doors were at the absurd hour of 5:30pm on a Friday.
For most gig goers coming from work, or with further to travel, this does not help turnout for the openers – or the turnover on the bar. The same could be said of any bill on a weekday where an earlier finish requires everything else to be shunted forward to a time where people are still travelling in or even having their dinner round the corner. On a weekend, this may not be such a problem.
Then, there’s the issue of the venue’s razor-thin margins, propped up by trade at the bar. The concern for this is especially reasonable in a notoriously precarious economic period where the grassroots circuit already exists on shaky foundations. If this gets squeezed, that’s a problem. Is there a compromise to be found, perhaps? If we take a 10pm curfew to mean ‘music off’ and not the time when the lights come on, there could still be an hour spare for artists to sell merch and chat to the fans, while they could also fit in another drink to escape the rush.
At the same time, the need for a 10pm curfew may be lessened with improvements to late night public transport. Of course, with the UK’s creaking infrastructure and farcical reliability, this is considerably easier said than done. Undeniably, it is needed, and its relationship to the night time economy cannot be understated either - and it's a newsletter in and of itself. Regardless, there'll always be a huge sect of the audience relieved to see they can be back home at a more reasonable hour. It's a conversation worth putting on the table, even if it looks like a utopian ideal with the current economic conditions.
Be sure to subscribe to the Drowned in Sound podcast to hear Sean chatting to one of the campaigners who has led the charge to regulate ticket touts. Subscribe to get the new episode from when it drops drownedinsound.org/podcasts.
You can have your say on this too - we're conducting a survey into what music fans want from their gigs. Is 10pm your perfect end time? Tell us below.
Track of the week
'Molly' by Ecca Vandal
Down on Richfield Avenue this summer just gone, Ecca Vandal was the talk of the festival on Saturday afternoon. She's had an interesting career, given her only album came out eight years ago, but with a slew of new songs in her back pocket, she's in front of people discovering her for the first time, and she's making a seismic impact. Angsty but vibrant, her new single glows highlighter-bright in the space between genres, laden thick with riffs but with a poppier spine. This one's for playing loud and grooving.
Also subscribe to our 2025 Favourites playlist on YouTube for more recent tracks of the week.
Paul McCartney joins the 'silent' rebellion against AI
AI music is inching closer and closer to normality. First, an AI-generated country track topped a US Billboard singles chart after racking up over three million Spotify streams in less than a month. (Then again, the artist Breaking Rust sounds too clunky for a human to have come up with). Then, BBC Introducing West Midlands came under fire for platforming an AI artist.
Nonetheless, in the music industry, the resistance to AI slop is large and loud - or in this case, silent. Paul McCartney has joined a collective of artists, also including Kate Bush, Sam Fender and Hans Zimmer, who have created near-silent recordings for a compilation LP titled Is This What We Want?
Their primary concern is the bypassing of copyright laws to train generative AI models - and the fear the government will favour wealthy tech companies over artists. The album track listing spells out “the British government must not legalise music theft to benefit AI companies”. The almost-silent songs will also be pressed to vinyl for release later this month.
Listen to HAWXX's new song for the Filton 24
Speaking of resistance, I had to include this scorcher of a new song from HAWXX. The trio's scathing punk and metal fusion is employed to their most powerful lengths yet as they seek to raise awareness of the plight of the Filton 24, whose trial began this week.
They've brought together a huge collective of musicians - Petrol Girls, Jasmine 4.t., Bekor, members of Choir Noir, Soren Bryce, Millie Manders, Orchestrated Discontent, Ruby Wednesday and more. In addition, there are contributions from Ahmed Muin Abu Amsha, a music teacher in Gaza whose singing with children as drones were circling above has gone viral on social media, as well as members of the Greek Flotilla mission to Gaza (including vocalist Anna Papadimitriou's cousin Ploutarxos).
“'Resistance is Justified' is a song about my good friend Jordan who has been in prison for one year without trial," says Anna. "He and 24 others known as the Filton 24 have been imprisoned for allegedly destroying weapons in the Elbit Factory that were due to be sent to Israel. Since then the UK Government has called them a terrorist organisation and anyone seen to be publicly supporting them has been arrested. This song condemns this decision of the UK government and condemns the silencing of our human right to protest injustice."
Community prompt
Check out Music Minds Matters' new podcast
Once you've listened to our podcast for the week, there's a great new one called Performance Peace launching from mental health charity Music Minds Matter. It's hosted by Gorillaz bassist Seye Adelekan, who is having conversations with other musicians and industry professionals to explore how to maintain a sense of balance, purpose and an equilibrium with mental health as a creative person.
Artists and artists (the visual sort) unite for In Place Of War auction
We've mentioned in Place Of War quite a bit on DiS and Sean will be heading up to Manchester for their Earthsonic Live event this weekend. As part of this year's edition of their Music Shaped project, they've paired musicians, comedians and actors with visual artists to create one-off artworks for a charity auction.
Some of the musicians who have been paired with artists include IDLES' Joe Talbot, AURORA and Radiohead's Philip Selway. There are some other huge names involved too, from Louis Theroux to Joe Lycett.
The auction will be open at Bonham's from 24th November to 3rd December and the money will support In Place Of War’s #HackMusic programme. It supports music projects involving those in indigenous communities, LGBTQI+ artists, people in conflict zones and those responding to the climate crisis.
Hopeful story
Reselling tickets above face value will soon be illegal
At long last, the government has taken action on the exploitative practice of reselling concert tickets for profit. A consultation on the issue explored capping prices at up to 30 per cent above the ticket's face value, but preventing any profit being made from a resale whatsoever is easily the fairest and most logical move.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has said this could end the "business model of industrial-scale ticket touting", and would make resale tickets £37 cheaper on average. They've finally listened to widespread clamouring from across the industry to uphold a pledge made in Labour's manifesto - and if Dua Lipa and Iron Maiden can both add their names to something, you know it's important.
And finally... would you like an epic crossover?
Have you ever thought about what legends like Kathleen Hanna and Hayley Williams would talk about if they were in the same room? The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame's new podcast has the answer. On the first episode of Music Makes Us, they discuss everything from dreaming about Robert Smith, communing with the dead through punk music, and how to pronounce 'Lil Wayne'. If only I was in there with them asking them questions...