The Brave Theatre of The Mind
Turning up the creative volume with a little help from Save Soho
Some say it’s ‘curtains’ for artists. I disagree. Our theatre is just going dark for enough time to make room for new light, new ideas and new stories. Crisis has fast-tracked the inevitable.
While I watch most of the industries that I have worked in scramble to make sense of their own shelf life with no answer from anyone (least of all our leaders), the one thing that is not drenched in doubt is that writers will keep writing, musicians will keep playing, painters will keep painting and poets will keep prophesying. Because that is the beauty at the core of our humanity. Making something where once there was nothing. Whether we get paid or not.
And I say that as an independent artist who has been bailed out by the government for the next 3 months with a Self-employment scheme grant of £174. I am not sitting pretty, but I am creating more than ever before, because it’s what I do. In the public, I’ve been associated with celebrities, fame and wealth because I founded a successful lobbying group called Save Soho. That I founded Save Soho whilst I was unemployed and on benefits seems to have gone unnoticed. In truth, like many jobbing performers and devoted ‘multi-tasking creatives’, I am also always looking for the next paid job.
But regardless of whether it comes or not, I write the song anyway, I make the album anyway and all the artists I know paint their paintings anyway too. I believe these qualities of creativity lie at the heart of the future that is now upon us. Creativity doesn’t always need to be incentivised. That’s why it cannot be silenced.
It is a tried and tested formula of fascism that once you have neutered the free press, the next target is all the artists, because when the free press has gone, art is the only place where we can get the truth from.
From an unnamed musical source, I am told that some of London’s West End wants to pay its musicians a 75% reduction in salary when they go back to work. And let’s be honest, some theatres are owned by companies like Disney (There goes my invitation to the next Star Wars premiere!). Streaming music effectively ended recording income for independent artists some time ago, leaving ‘live’ as the only serious way to earn a living, which of course has now also ended for the time being. Grass roots music venues are closing all the time, especially now, with fundraisers and campaigns popping up every couple of days, most notably from the Music Venue Trust. We have yet to see any record companies dig deep into their pockets to bail out venues from closing, which they would certainly be in a position to do while they continue to do lucrative deals with all the major ‘stay at home’ streaming platforms.
With the continued demotion of the role of the artist, truth is harder and harder to find in our world today, when ironically, never before have the unique qualities of artists been needed as much as they are now.
Musicians like myself have explored isolation for most of our lives, while we create in small rooms with our phones switched to silent. Writers fold into their own imagination to seek storytelling treasure for the masses, and dancers, through the art of movement, express themselves with or without an audience, simply to feel alive. Some call us artists, but in fact, the only thing that makes us distinct is that we chose to hold on to that precious part of our childhood: the imagination. But alchemy isn’t just for the ones we call artists.
Everyone is an artist, if we have the chance to turn the volume on the outside down and the volume on the inside, up. This is a time when artists have gifts that can empower those suffering with mental health. This is not the right time for artists to slip further away. It’s a time that both during and after lockdown, artists can be the soul balm for so many souls.
So whilst our community hover outside the dark theatres, Save Soho is going to to use what resources it has to contain and grow new ideas and new approaches to sustain the performing arts everywhere. How are we going to do that?
I have no idea. I’m an artist, not a politician. I’m quick with the questions, not the answers. But we will now be using our platforms to share any information that can support the arts sector. Whether it’s funding applications, webinars, creative opportunities, fundraisers or individual campaigns, we will actively share what we can through our social networks. Save Soho isn’t just committed to saving Soho anymore, it’s also committed to saving the culture that helped create Soho in the first place.
One thing I do feel strongly about is mentor/mentee relationships in the arts.
Save Soho holds affection with so many young individuals because of celebrated performers like Stephen Fry supporting underground struggling passionistas like me. And I have taken that leaf from Stephen’s book in paying it forward with young musicians with my own music classes. I feel at the moment, we need more of those relationships of established artists supporting artists who are just beginning or simply need help. I’m prepared to admit that tomorrow’s art heroes may have to navigate more live streaming platforms than grass roots music venues for some time, but let’s not allow it to become the ‘new normal’. Without mentioning their deific names, big tech have nothing to benefit from us being out every night being human, with our laptops at home and our pocket devices switched to airport mode. I really believe there are some very serious world players who would have us think that all sectors of life can be replaced on a screen.
Save Soho was created to protect London’s performing arts venues in the face of out of control property development. We are now in the midst of a different sort of development and whether the buildings remain or not is hardly as important as whether the actual culture that lived in the buildings can evolve out of and beyond the dependency of tradition.
This is the moment of the brave theatre of the mind, and we need daring ideas from everyone in our community.
Daniela Maccari, prima ballerina and assistant to the late, great Lindsay Kemp, performed this dance in isolation, in her apartment in Pisa a few weeks ago. I asked her if she would film herself dancing to a piece of music I composed on my new album Constellations, to inspire others who have been in isolation, to create too. I’ve not directed ‘remotely’ before, but the experience underlines everything I feel about the situation we find ourselves in at the moment. The borders may be closed, but art can travel and speak truth to power. This is Daniela turning up the creative volume within, and this is what freedom can look like in uncertain times.
As she dances her dance, so must we all dance ours.
If you are a creative in the arts, Save Soho would like to help, here.
