Brexit Big Band might not be music to taxpayers’ ears

IF BREXIT negotiations were not painful enough, an experimental musician funded by the taxpayer has set Article 50 to music. Matthew Herbert’s Brexit Big Band has been given a share of a £182,000 grant, paid for by the Department for International Trade, to bankroll a tour of Europe.

The tour is designed to heal any rifts caused by Brexit and will culminate in the release of an album in March 2019 to coincide with the day Britain formally leaves the European Union.

Mr Herbert’s Brexit Big Band project was launched earlier this year and he has already set the words of Article 50 to music and played the “gently swinging number” to a devoted audience at the Barbican theatre in London. Another number involved ripping up hundreds of copies of the Daily Mail, giving the effect of a drumbeat.

The Department for International Trade, presided over by Dr Liam Fox, a Brexit supporter, said the cash given to Mr Herbert, who opposes Brexit, was part of a £181,944 award divided among 12 artists to help them “achieve success as international artists”.