Kate Nash and her “bum on the back of a fire truck” have taken to LiveNation’s London office to protest.
The singer recently launched her Butts for Tour Buses campaign, which saw her join OnlyFans to protest the music industry and help raise money for her her UK and European tour which began on November 21.
Now, Nash has unveiled a new part of her campaign – plastering her bum on the back of a tour bus. “You thought that I was done with bum stunts? Well, I’m a middle child – I don’t stop until we’ve drawn blood,” she jokingly began her Instagram story. “Here’s my bum on the back of a fire truck, and here’s my bum in real life. I’m gonna give them hell.”
She continued: “I’m outside LiveNation in London, who last year had an annual revenue of £22.749billion – which is a 36.38 per cent increase from last year. LiveNation are the main hold-up in the government’s recommendation to give £1 per arena and stadium ticket to the grassroots, who are in crisis. So what’s the holdup?”
Outside the Spotify building, she added: “Artists are paid 0.003 of a penny per stream whilst [Spotify] demonetised 80 per cent of music on the platform. The shareholders cashed out over 419 million between them.”
In a statement to NME, Nash reasserted that “the cost of presenting live music has gone up by 30.3 per cent over the past two years. There were 125 venues that closed last year in the UK. And, the value of recorded music is extremely low.
“The industry is in crisis, the music industry has failed artists, and is completely unsustainable, and my arse is shining a light on that. And none would be listening if my bum wasn’t involved. This is a conversation about agency. And selling pictures of my bum is giving me the agency to reinvest in my creative economy. The music industry does not give me that agency.”
It follows another statement hitting back at detractors calling her OnlyFans campaign “sad”. “Don’t be ‘sad’ that I started an Onlyfans to fund my tours,” she wrote on Instagram in response. “It’s very empowering and selling pics of my arse is fun & funny, sex is fun & funny. Women being in control of their bodies is vital and something we should all be standing by & fighting for.”
She went on to argue that her starting the campaign has done more to bring attention to her tour than a regular marketing campaign would. “My arse is shining a light on the problem,” she concluded. “Honestly I’m such a legend for this.”
In other news, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee has welcomed the UK government’s new backing of a levy on gigs at arena level and above to help save the grassroots music scene.
