Royal Blood: EU touring rules will "take away the ability for a band to grow”

23 January 2021, 19:00

Royal Blood discuss EU touring issues

Frontman Mike Kerr has shared his fears for smaller British musicians' ability to tour in the EU post-Brexit and for new bands to "cut their teeth" on stage.

By Jenny Mensah

Royal Blood have shared their fears for smaller bands post-Brexit, with Mike Kerr arguing it will make touring "impossible".

British musicians are now currently set to face added expenses when touring around the EU, including visas, permits and extra taxation, which could make touring for small to mid-level bands completely infeasible.

"I think if you're a smaller band, I think what people don't realise is the cost of touring," frontman Mike Kerr told Radio X's George Godfrey. "You know, it's a very expensive thing to do. And if you're a smaller band that doesn't have the support of a label, or just doesn't have perhaps a huge following it's basically made it impossible to go and do that.

"We're friends with lots of bands on that scale and it's looking like for them it would be impossible to go now to Europe and tour, because it's just too expensive. You wouldn't be able to afford it."

Asked how important touring Europe was to Royal Blood as a young band, the Trouble's Coming singer responded: "Oh crucial. Absolutely crucial. Before our first album was out we quite relentlessly went touring. We never really stopped until our second album to be honest with you, but the very beginning of that was what we're talking about.

"It was going around Europe playing to one person, to 10 people and then randomly 30 people would show up and we'd just do that for ages until it accumulated".

The rocker added: "It's not just building a fanbase, it's cutting your teeth. It's screwing up on stage, which I still manage to do. Yeah, it's a part of becoming a band. If you take that away, then you're taking away the ability for a band to grow.".

Meanwhile, this week saw the Brighton duo confirm the details of their Typhoons album and share its title track.

Speaking about the track, drummer Ben Thatcher called it "part two" to Trouble's Coming and "basically a Zoom party with loads of people covered in glitter".