Cross-party five-piece strike a chord with festival crowd
Let’s hear it for The DCMS, the hot new combo from Westminster who brought their agit-pop passion to Latitude, as the first act onstage at the first post-pandemic music festival. “Are you ready to get the party started?” dapper frontman Julian Knight roared. “And when I say party, I mean cross-party committee talks about the future of the music business, of course!”
OK, I’m joking. What the Conservative MP for Solihull actually said was: “It’s a real pleasure to be here,” to the several dozen early morning revellers who had presumably stumbled into the Listening Post marquee at 11am yesterday because there was literally nothing else going on. “We are actually the first parliamentary committee to play a festival.”
Yes, you heard that right. Five members of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sports committee ventured into the wilds of Suffolk to discuss their reports on the future of music festivals and the economics of music streaming.
Their casual dress code of jeans, slacks and T-shirts in shades of bright yellow and maroon wouldn’t have impressed Jacob Rees-mogg. Seated in fold-up chairs, passing the microphone from one to another, they looked less like a group of funky parliamentarians than members of a gardening club on an away day to inspect petunias.
Only Kevin Brennan had really dressed the part, in distressed denim jacket, cocked hat and dark glasses. The Labour MP for Cardiff West has a sideline as a musician, playing with Westminster rockers MP4. “I’m not trying to look cool,” he assured the small crowd. “I recently had an eye operation, and the lights are very dazzling.” But he still managed to squeeze in a plug for his forthcoming solo album, soon to be available on all formats, even the ones his committee has criticised as not fit for the cause. That’s show business for you.
The cross-party group of MPS offered a performance of almost perfect harmony, united in their conviction that the Government needs to step up and offer Covid insurance to aid the return of Britain’s worldbeating festival culture. “We normally have 975 festivals across the country,” Mr Knight said. “If we don’t institute an insurance scheme, many of them won’t be back next year.”
That was greeted with enthusiastic applause from the festival crowd. Other popular hits included Brexit Is Gonna Ruin European Touring Unless We Get Our Fingers Out, Streaming Companies are Ripping Off Musicians, Youtube is Evil, and Musicians Should Get Paid.
Despite different political allegiances, the quintet genuinely seemed to get along, nodding enthusiastically at one another’s comments. Alex Davies-jones played wing woman, offering up hearty interjections of “Yeah!” to demonstrate just how much she agreed with her honourable colleagues. The Labour MP for Pontypridd sported the flashiest outfit, with a bold big-shouldered mustard yellow jacket that looked like it might have once had its own career on MTV in the Eighties. The Welsh diva trotted out the snappiest sound bites too: “If you value it, pay for it!” “People power!” and “Vote for it, talk about it, raise your voice!” How long before Little Mix snap her up?
It was (and let me be serious for a moment) a genuinely interesting and well-informed discussion, and it was heartening to see a group of MPS taking the problems faced by Britain’s music business seriously, and committed to lobbying for positive solutions. As the show came to an end, the group took the brave step of inviting audience participation, which prompted a fanboy to dash to the edge of the stage to question the Right Honourable Damian Green about the football logo adorning his T-shirt. “This is a Dukla Prague away kit, from the little-known Half Man Half Biscuit song All I Want for Christmas Is a Dukla Prague Away Kit,” Mr Green replied, instantly establishing the Conservative MP for Ashford as the coolest member of Parliament in the entire country. Today Latitude, tomorrow the world.