What if agents did not get Government cash?
mainThe three biggest ones would go the way of Columbia Artists in New York – and you can read more about that here.
When Cami crashed, its many v-ps went home, hung out a shingle and reinvented themselves as boutiques.
Those English agents with a bit of gumption could have done the same, and with no loss to the cultural economy.
The million pounds they have just scooped up from a gullible Government would have been better spent on engaging artists in fruitful activity in preparation for their return to the stage, this year or next.
The rest is waffle.
It is paying for lavish offices which stand empty and unsaleable, like AskonasHolt’s below.
Surely Askonas Holt, Harrison Parrott etc were paid all that cash from the Government’s Vulture Recovery Fund??
Askonas Holt has sublet its offices and operates from a much smaller and modest space since the beginning of the pandemic. So at least you know the “gullible Government” money is not spent on that, but rather on keeping afloat a business that is absolutely necessary to the artists it serves, whatever certain self-anointed pontiffs might think. Just ask these artists what they think.
I believe the Askonas Holt offices were abandoned shortly after the pandemic began to take hold, as were the Harrison Parrot offices. It seems to me that these artists agencies are like any other small service businesses and need government support to survive. The idea that the government could effectively find a way of supporting artists is fatuous.Their survival will contribute to the restoration of the music world when things get back on track as they have the contacts and influence to move quickly..
You believe wrong. AH were unable to offload their expensive offices.