Thank you for sharing our #LetTheMusicPlay post.
Things have moved quickly since then with the Government announcing a rescue package for the Arts. Sadly, whilst very welcome, it’s too little too late for some.
That said, we hope that this money will help what’s left industry survive the #lockdown. You can read more about what’s happening here.
Today we’re paying tribute to Ennio Morricone who’s death was announced yesterday.
Sadly, despite composing the score for over 500 films and TV shows, Morricone is probably best known for his music for the Spaghetti Westerns directed by his friend Sergio Leone.
Morricone was born in Rome on 10 Nov 1928. His father was a jazz trumpeter, and encouraged his son to take up the instrument at an early age; Morricone was writing short compositions by the time he was six.
He attended the Santa Cecilia Conservatory, where he became classmates with Leone, with whom he would later form one of the great director/composer partnerships.
His first love was scoring classical pieces but, in order to make a living, he began composing background music for radio drama.
He later turned his hand to film scores, but none of them made much impact until his old college friend asked him to write the soundtrack for Per Un Pugno di Dollari (A Fistful of Dollars).
The rest, as they say, was history…
Today we have a heartfelt request to all out followers; please share this blog post far and wide.
This call for government action comes as new research commissioned by the industry demonstrates the vital economic contribution of the live music sector. In addition supporting 210,000 jobs across the country, venues, concerts and festivals added £4.5bn to the economy in 2019.
But, because they’re unable to operate with any level of social distancing, concerts and festivals are unlikely to take place again in the UK until 2021 at the earliest. Many hundreds of redundancies have already been made, with the potential for tens of thousands to follow this year.
Even if bands do survive this crisis, they may not have anywhere to play in the future unless something is done soon.
