The Week in Light & Sound
- Details
There were a number of British wins, with Ed Sheeran scooping the best live category, Dua Lipa collecting the best new artist prize, and Chris Martin-fronted Coldplay named best rock act. Irish band U2 collected the Global Icon gong, previously awarded to Queen, Whitney Houston and Eminem. Taylor Swift, who was expected to be one of the big winners of the night with six nominations, failed to win any awards.
In The Summertime - Michael Buble will perform at British Summer Time festival 2018 - his first gig since his four-year-old son was diagnosed with cancer. He will headline the annual music festival, which is held over two weekends, in Hyde Park, London, on 13 July 2018.
Lottery Funding - Scottish culture secretary Fiona Hyslop has called on the UK government to develop a recovery plan to address the decreasing National Lottery income for good causes. This falling revenue and the consequent reduction in Lottery money available are a threat to to sports and cultural jobs and projects across Scotland, Hyslop and sport minister Aileen Campbell said in a letter to their Westminster counterpart, Karen Bradley, on November 7.
National Lottery income for good causes fell by 14% between 2015/16 and 2016/17 and by a further 4% in the first half of 2017/18. Continuing reductions are forecast for the remainder of 2017/18 and in 2018/19. The letter says: "It would be irresponsible of the UK government to make no attempt to offset the reductions in Lottery income. We encourage you to develop a recovery plan that sets out the action to address the reductions and therefore mitigate against the impact to these sectors in Scotland and across the rest of the UK."
Theatre Inside - Reading Gaol, in which Oscar Wilde was famously imprisoned, is to be investigated as the site of a new theatre. Local organisation Theatre & Arts Reading is to carry out a feasibility study to determine whether a venue could be built on the Reading Gaol site. Wilde was imprisoned in the Victorian prison in 1895. It closed its doors as a working prison in 2013, however last year hosted readings of De Profundis written by Wilde during his time there, as part of an art project.
TAR has secured a £20,000 grant from Arts Council England, as well as matched funding from Howard Panter and Rosemary Squire’s Trafalgar Entertainment Group and Festival Republic, which will also provide input into the study. It is the latest in a series of plans to create a major new theatre for Reading, which go back more than a decade. Recent proposals to build a £25 million replacement for the Hexagon arts centre were put on hold at the start of this year due to “severe constraints” on funding.
Tax Rethink - Proposed government tax changes under which low-income theatre staff could face a 500% hike in National Insurance payments have been delayed. Equity, which has been lobbying against the increase, has welcomed the recent announcement that plans to abolish Class 2 National Insurance contributions have been shelved until April 2019.
(Jim Evans)
14 November 2017
