The Chemical Brothers say touring in the US isn’t viable for UK artists
Legendary dance music duo The Chemical Brothers have claimed that touring in the US for European acts is not currently viable owing to rising cost incursions.
The duo revealed that they do not currently plan to play any US shows in support of their latest album For That Beautiful Feeling. They highlighted that is due to the present economics of the situation. Given that the Grammy-winning band have been around since 1989 and are considered perhaps the UK’s biggest dance act, the problem that smaller indie acts face is much clearer.
Speaking to Billboard, one half of the duo, Ed Simons, said: “The costs have gone up so much. It’s just not really viable at the moment. I’m apologetic to the people who do want to see us that it is increasingly difficult for us to get to America because we have had the times of our lives playing there.”
Simons confirmed that they have also actively been trying to lower the costs of their show on a production front. “[The production] originally came from the fact that we didn’t want to inflict [audiences with] just the two of us awkwardly standing with the synthesisers. So we wanted a big back job, but it’s just grown and grown, and now we’ve got these 40-foot clowns voicing the words,” he said.
However, the issue of touring costs is further exacerbated in the US due to uncertainty over visa costs. Presently, a touring visa is around $460 for each member of the touring party, but there have been discussions to raise that figure by 250%.
When we recently spoke to Golden Dregs’ Ben Woods, he explained: “The Golden Dregs are touring as a six-piece band, which is no easy feat. But the textures and vocal harmonies in the recordings are an important part of the band’s makeup, so to strip it back to anything less than that would make it something else. But this does make touring expensive. The total cost of our upcoming US tour (which includes headline shows in NYC and LA, plus appearances at SXSW and Treefort Festival) is in the region of £20,000.”
Continuing, Woods added: “A huge chunk of this is for visas, and unfortunately, we got stung with these as we put in for them last autumn, just as the mini-budget tanked the UK economy and the pound took a nosedive.
Adding: “They cost us over £6,000. It’s our first trip, so fees are very low. We have received PRS funding, which is amazing, but they only provide funding for up to four-piece bands, so this has made a £4,000 dent in our total. And we have tour support from our record label, which would be enough to cover the trip but would then mean that we’re unable to tour for the rest of the year, as our fees in Europe and the UK still don’t allow us to break even on the road.”
Before concluding: “So with fees, funding and tour support, we still have a deficit of £7,500, which we are currently trying to fundraise. The obvious thing for us to do would be a fundraiser gig, but given that we currently have a UK headline tour on sale, our promoters won’t allow us to do this for fear of it affecting sales, so we’ve had to be a little more imaginative.”
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