Lockdown Songs
PRESS RELEASE
Friday 30th October, 2020
LOCKDOWN SONGS,
HELPING LIVE BOOKING AGENTS BACK TO WORK
International booking agency Midnight Mango has announced its first album release LOCKDOWN SONGS. The highly collectable new album will be used to raise money to help booking agents back to work.
The record features ten renowned artists from the agency’s roster who have each donated a track to the record. These include The Dead South, Neville Staple (from The Specials), Ferocious Dog, Mad Dog Mcrea, Kathryn Roberts & Sean Lakeman, Amy Montgomery, Tankus The Henge, Hands Off Gretel, Molotov Jukebox and CoCo & The Butterfields.
COVID-19 has hit the live music industry harder than perhaps any other sector of the economy. The agents who book tours and festivals make all of their income from live shows. Live music was the first industry to be hit and it will likely be the last to return to some kind of normality. At the end of the day agents are in the business of mass gatherings and that’s the problem!
Agents who were part of an agency have been furloughed and many have now been made redundant. Many others, who were not on PAYE, have fallen through the financial cracks completely.
SW company Disc Manufacturing Services (DMS) has donated a run of turquoise vinyl records which booking agency Midnight Mango will use as rewards in a crowdfunded campaign. The money raised will be ringfenced and used to provide grants to help booking agents work on booking shows.
“The problem facing booking agents at the moment is that there is still a lot of work to do with rescheduling and booking shows for the future, whilst at the same time there is zero money coming in to pay the bills ”
Midnight Mango Managing Director – Matt Bartlett
Midnight Mango will employ booking agents on a freelance basis and use the money raised to provide upfront grants to agents, so they can get on with their work; programming the events of the future. This will go some way to bridging the gap until shows and revenue return to live music.
The crowdfunding model allows people to donate money and be rewarded with the album and at the same time allows the organiser to stay in touch with the crowdfunders and let them know how their donation is being used.
The Crowdfunder page can be seen HERE.
Full Track Listing
1. Miss Dis N Dat – Neville & Sugary Staple
2. Dangerous – Amy Montgomery
3. Cry Of The Celt – Ferocious Dog
4. Kiss Me Girl – Hands Off Gretel
5. Sugar Water Sunday – Mad Dog Mcrea
6. Diamond Ring – The Dead South
7. Monsters – CoCo & The Butterfields
8. Luna Park – Tankus The Henge
9. Just The Thrill – Molotov Jukebox
10. The Wisdom Of Standing Still – Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman
