Queen’s Roger Taylor has called the government’s Brexit deal a “dreadful retrograde step”. Taylor is the latest high-profile star to critise the deal, after it failed to secure visa-free touring for musicians.
Roger Taylor was also one of 100 musicians to sign a letter against this deal.
Taylor is also concerned about the impact this deal could have have on Queen’s stage crew. Along with many other stage crews, Queen’s crew were have been hit financially since the pandemic.
Queen also confirmed that their European Tour is pushed back until 2022. The new shows kick off on May 30 and 31 at the AO Arena in Manchester.
This also comes after Taylor along with Brian May confirmed they tried to create material with Adam Lambert.
Taylor: “A dreadful retrogade step”
Speaking on BBC Radio’s four 4’s The World This Weekend, Taylor said, “Borders are a dreadful invention of mankind, and so we are just putting up another one, and I think it’s a dreadful retrograde step”.
Taylor added, “I know our road crew, all the guys that make our touring work, they are the ones that have suffered”.
He continued, “Not so much for the artists, we can fall back on our songwriting and our publishing, they can’t. It’s a daily, weekly job for them and so it’s made it really hard for our industry, very hard indeed”.
“No appetite”
Taylor’s comments come after it was revealed that the UK Government admitted that they are currently not negotiating with EU member states over touring arrangements for musicians or artists. European promoters have called this situation “quite worrying”.
Minister of State for Digital and Culture dismissed the idea of visa-free touring. Caroline Dineage MP, said there was “no appetite” to resume negotiations with the EU. She also added that demands had been made of the UK, that had not been asked for other G7 countries. She has also rejected the idea of a visa-free “musicians passports” for artists as well as claims that the EU was at fault.
Dineage said, “We fought for a really good deal for our world-leading creative industries, and I deeply regret that the EU rejected our proposals”.
She also added, “The proposals that they put on the table wouldn’t have addressed the sector’s concerns”.
The Government have also been accused of treating the music industry as an “afterthought” and paying more attention to the fishing industry.
