Speeches by Huq.

“Thanks everyone. Jon, you have alluded to this already, but I just wondered, do you agree with the Government—the Minister has just walked in—and also with my private Member’s Bill that it is time to do something about secondary ticketing?”

“I think with the Kylie concert, BST at Hyde Park, it was £89 for the ticket, £25 for this other stuff—nobody knows what it is—and a processing fee. In the olden days it used to cost less to get it online than going in person and now it has gone the other way.”

“Thanks everyone. Jon, you have alluded to this already, but I just wondered, do you agree with the Government—the Minister has just walked in—and also with my private Member’s Bill that it is time to do something about secondary ticketing?”

“I think with the Kylie concert, BST at Hyde Park, it was £89 for the ticket, £25 for this other stuff—nobody knows what it is—and a processing fee. In the olden days it used to cost less to get it online than going in person and now it has gone the other way.”

“You are painting a quite depressing picture of this shrinking sector. We all know about rising costs for venues and the cost of living crisis for people outside. Marit, managers and agents depend on the success of the artists they promote. Are your numbers also shrinking? Are managers leaving the sector? Have the Brian…”

“Are there other countries that do it better and should be examples for us?”

“Anyone else? Joff, you are dying to get in.”

“So in this changing ecosystem, the pipeline is not there with the venues. We get figures from the British Bar and Pub Association. A shocking number of pubs are closing every week. Before, there was a pub circuit. There was even a genre called pub rock. If I go into a boozer now, it is always a covers band. Does that m…”

“Do you think things like Night Czars make a difference? There was Amy Lamé in London. I don’t think she has been replaced. There was Sacha Lord in Manchester. I think he is still in post. UK Music has said that every local plan, a council-level thing, should include a commitment to music. Would those sorts of things ma…”

“Is it the case that more and more of your staff are freelancers? Does that make it difficult for you to retain and train?”

“Ed Sheeran has made his Ticketmaster resale-proof, but I think at a lot of expense to himself. Do you have any comment on that?”

“What would you like to see come out of that? There are two Government consultations that are both closed now. There was a secondary ticketing formal consultation. There was a dynamic pricing call for evidence. Also, the CMA, after the Oasis debacle in the summer, launched one as well. What would your members—the three …”

“With a maximum mark-up or something?”

“Steve, when I was trying to do this Bill, not many Conservatives would sign up to it, to be honest. They said that it was too much state interference in our lives and, like a plane ticket, people should be able to hike it up if there is demand. What do you think?”

“That is another question I had. I can understand when you buy something online what a delivery fee might be, but why are there things like a print at home fee for using your own cartridge and your own paper? Why are there things like a facility charge fee? There are always these mysterious things. There is the actual p…”

“Well, the Minister is here so is there any last-minute plea for him—you can vocalise it now—of what you want to see coming out of these two consultations?”

“This on the record here. We do not know what happened behind closed doors.”

“Okay. That is the big problem.”

“In the last year or so, we have seen the demise of the night czars of two major cities—Amy Lamé in London and Sacha Lord in Manchester—and those posts were not replaced. Does that give the suggestion that this stuff is being a bit sidelined, shunted aside, or downgraded?”

“We touched on the very un-rock and roll subject of planning law. I am pleased to see that on the idea of agent of change, you are not averse to that in the world of build, build, build, and this very gung-ho, “We are builders, not blockers.” I just wondered, could there be an argument for enshrining provision of music …”