Chris Hodgkins Newsletter October 2025
20th Parliamentary Jazz Awards – the recipients 2025
The 20th annual Parliamentary Jazz Awards took place on 14th October 2025 at World Heart Beat. Details, photos and conmmentary from the Raestar Promotions circular can be found here
Inquiry – Fan-led review of music
A fan-led review of live music has been launched by MPs, with the aim of improving the sustainability of grassroots live and electronic music to safeguard the success of the wider UK music industry.
The review will be undertaken by Lord Brennan of Canton, a member of the previous committee who published reports on the future of UK musicfestivals and economics of music streaming. The review will bring music lovers together to discuss ideas to protect the industry and ensure it works in the best interests of fans. It will consider the music fan experience, from the provision of live and electronic music through to considerations of safety, examine the sustainability of venues, and explore the barriers to touring faced by emerging artists. It will also look at the effectiveness of existing policies and how different levels of government support live music.
The review, announced by Culture, Media and Sport Committee Chair Dame Caroline Dinenage at the SXSW London festival, was one of the recommendations from the predecessor committee’s report on grassroots music venues (paragraphs 20-23), published in the last Parliament. The report amplified concerns by venue operators, touring artists and independent promoters regarding the financial precarity of the grassroots music sector, with venues shutting at the rate of two a week and artists struggling to make tours viable. The committee also heard that fans are “massively underrepresented” in policymaking for the sector and concluded that “a comprehensive review of the live music ecosystem is needed to fully explore the long-term challenges and the interventions needed to protect it”.
The Fan-led review of music survey can be accessed here
Review of the BBC
Earlier this year, you may have filled in the ‘Our BBC, Our Future’ questionnaire.
If so, you were one of 872,701 who shared their views. Thet have listened, and it’s given them a powerful picture of what people across the UK want and value from the BBC.
The BBC have shared the results. You can explore them by clicking on the link here, where you can also find out how to stay involved.