I've just made a cash donation to the Royal Albert Hall.

It's an easy choice for me. The RAH is embedded in my experience of live music in London but more importantly, as a cultural and historical treasure of our nation we need to help secure its future.

Here are the full details of the urgent new appeal.

www.royalalberthall.com/about-the-hall/news/2020/september/royal-albert-hall-calls-for-urgent-public-donations-to-survive-the-impact-of-covid-19/

More very grim reading.

< Third of British musicians may quit industry amid pandemic >

www.theguardian.com/music/2020/sep/22/one-third-british-musicians-may-quit-industry-covid-pandemic-dcms-treasury

< Violinist Tasmin Little warns of ‘cultural desert’ as 400 musicians perform in Parliament Square protest >

www.classicfm.com/music-news/coronavirus/400-musicians-parliament-square-protest-nicola-benedetti/

It's a race between the RAH and South Bank as to who can last the longest

This is good news.

< The CBSO is to return to Symphony Hall Birmingham, as its doors open for the first time in over seven months to enable live concerts for socially-distanced audiences.
The announcement follows today’s decision by Arts Council England to award Town Hall Symphony Hall £2.53 million from the Culture Recovery Fund designed to help the sector until March 2021 – while the CBSO received £843,000 earlier this month >

cbso.co.uk/news/return-to-symphony-hall

We've seen lots of stories about arts institutions in crisis, but here's a very personal one about a pianist forced to sell his Steinway.

www.rte.ie/news/munster/2020/1027/1174143-piano-west-cork/

“For many people who live in London and the south of England, things like the opera house and ballet will be at the heart of their culture. But for many of us in the north it is our local football club - our Glyndebourne or Royal Ballet or Royal Opera House or Royal Shakespeare Company will be Blackburn Rovers, Accrington Stanley, Barrow, Carlisle or Sunderland.”

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-54908862

Jake Berry MP you are an absolute tool.

Yes that’s just what we need right now, some ill-judged North vs South rhetoric!

I would like to think how embarrassed he is once he has actually thought about what he has said - a stupid, crass comparison that serves absolutely no purpose than to reinforce cliches about Northern life.

There are innumerable orchestras and arts organisations struggling in the North, just as many football clubs are. We don’t want to lose any of them, end of story.

Remember the Halle orchestra getting one of the top orchestras of the world vote?

I bet he hasn't even heard of them.

Some good news this morning -


Royal Albert Hall confirms £20.74m loan offer from Culture Recovery Fund
December 2020, By Craig Hassall, CEO

I am delighted that the Royal Albert Hall has been offered a £20.74m loan from the £1.57bn Culture Recovery Fund announced in July – a desperately-needed lifeline from Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and Arts Council England (ACE). 

As an independent charity, the Royal Albert Hall does not receive regular Arts Council England funding and we have not received one-off government grant funding to take us through this challenging year in which the Hall has foregone approximately £30m in income and additionally refunded £8.9m of tickets.

This Culture Recovery Fund loan, for which there is a four-year interest and repayment holiday, will enable us to repay the £5m Coronavirus Business Interruption Scheme (CBILS) loan we took in order to keep trading in November this year. It will also cover the net deficit we will see up until April 2021, and will allow us to restore our minimum reserves and operating finances to a level comparable to before the pandemic struck.

This loan is a lifeline, but we will not be able to recover from this seismic shock without the support of our audiences. I have been touched at the generosity and kindness of people who, during the pandemic, have donated the cost of their tickets instead of requesting refunds, who have renewed their Friends and Patron memberships, or who have contributed towards our fundraising efforts. Thank you. And thank you too to our Members, Honorary Fellows and partners who have stuck by us since we closed our doors on 17 March.

Out of adversity comes opportunity. So, while 2020 has undoubtedly been tough, we remain committed to Albert’s vision, which was always about ingenuity and thinking about doing things differently. This is not how we would have hoped to celebrate our 150th birthday, but I am determined that the Hall will rebuild stronger and even better than ever. Prince Albert envisioned this building as a place for the democratisation of ideas to share the inspiration of the arts and science. I imagine that today he would be championing sustainability, diversity and innovation. 

We know that the Hall will be needed more than ever after this period of upheaval and isolation; to bring people together, to change lives through music, to inspire and create moments of joy and togetherness. This £20.74m loan from the Culture Recovery Fund will help us to do all this once more.