FAT WHITE FAMILY have criticised the news that Slaves have received part of a £250,000 grant meant for ‘overseas promotional touring’.
Part of the Music Exports Growth Scheme run by the UK music industry’s trade association BPI, the grant is split between 21 artists and aims to help independent bands and labels reach a global audience through live tours, digital engagement and other activities.
Controversially though, this year’s recipients include a number of established artists such as Slaves, Everything Everything, Cate Le Bon and White Lies beside some more underground names like Flamingods and Tigercub. Known to be very forthright in their opinions, Fat White Family have taken to social media to voice their disgust about the news, citing the inclusion of major label band Slaves as a particularly shameful decision.
In a statement on Facebook, they said: “Why does a band that has been on a major label (virgin/EMI) for three years need a grant explicitly designed to support artists trying to break through on independent labels? Say what you like about the ‘artist’ in question, but to me this reeks of back room agreements and golden hand shakes.”
“Everybody knows the music industry is a cess pool, but anyone remotely involved in music should be up in arms about this; how many people that genuinely NEED that money are getting shat on so a bunch of faceless suits can keep their gravy train rolling? So Slaves, a band that probably takes about 10-20K a pop on the festival circuit can go and do SXSW? Shameful”
Slaves have replied on Twitter with the retort ‘love you boys, never stop being you’. However, it is perhaps unsurprising to see that Fat White Family have gained a significant amount of online support for their comments given that Slaves don’t appear to meet the immediate qualifications for the grant.
However, it has since emerged that it isn’t solely open to independent artists. In fact, other big names like Catfish and the Bottlemen have benefited from it in the past.
A BPI spokesperson told NME: “The application for Music Exports Growth Scheme (MEGS) funding to support Slaves’ US tour and promotional activities States-side was made by their management company, Seven 7 Artist Management – who, as a small music company, are fully eligible to apply. The band’s label had absolutely nothing to do with the application. In making the announcement I used the term ‘independent’ generically – in part to describe the ‘indie’ nature of the acts who stand to benefit, but also because the vast majority of the music companies and labels that apply and benefit are from the independent community. Anyone taking a look at the 21 recipients of this round of funding would clearly see that, and, while, perhaps, I should have been a little more precise in my wording (sorry!), it seems a pity that we’re not focussing on the much bigger picture here – that British music is being promoted overseas.”
For more information and to see the full list of recipients, head over to the BPI website.
