Anthrax discuss spiralling tour costs as 90% of musicians say they worry about affording food
Charity warns cost-of-living crisis having a ‘devastating effect’ on working musicians
Last updated 17th Nov 2022
Anthrax have blamed the recent cancellation of their European tour on spiralling costs and budgetary issues.
The news comes as a charity warns that the ongoing cost-of-living crisis may have a devastating effect on the lives of working musicians.
Anthrax cancelled the remaining dates of their European tour following a run of shows in the UK between September 27 and October 8.
Appearing on TotalRock, bassist Frank Bello explained: “We did a budget, as we do, the year before and before we put the shows on sale.
“After COVID, when everything went crazy, money-wise, financially it wasn't feasible to do it anymore.
"When I saw the numbers, they were literally triple — triple to what they originally started at. We would be coming home at such a loss — you don't mind a little bit of a loss just to play to the fans — but such a loss, we would have been really bad off for a while.
“So it didn't make sense.”
Watch: Anthrax - 'Bring The Noise' (official live video)
Portuguese metallers Moonspell also announced this week that they were cancelling their previously announced tour of the UK and Ireland due to "the huge financial crisis UK and Europe are living through that affects entertainment sales”.
The cancellations come as charity Help Musicians releases the sombre results of a survey of 500 professional musicians across the UK.
It found that:
• 98% of musicians are concerned about earning enough income in the next six months
• 90% are worried about affording food
• 84% are concerned about paying their mortgage or rent
Nearly half (49%) of respondents fear they will be forced to quit the industry and the pressures are having a serious impact on mental health. Nearly nine in ten (88%) believe difficulties with their mental health is currently affecting their work.
James Ainscough, Chief Executive of Help Musicians said, “It is hard to imagine any point since the Second World War when it has been tougher to be a professional musician — put simply, the current environment is brutal.
“The pandemic had a catastrophic impact, with most simply unable to perform. Afterwards, venues were booked up for months or years in advance due to rearranged gigs. This has been followed by Brexit, which has impacted their ability to tour, for many emerging musicians a vital step in building a sustainable career.”
Watch: Charity Help Musicians calls for more support for working musicians
For many people, it seems that music is more important than ever.
The average time spent listening to music globally has risen in the past year, according to a new report from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).
It found that listeners spent 20.1 hours a week playing their favourite music, up from 18.4 hours in 2021.
Help Musicians said: “We need to put significant time and resource into sustaining musicians over the coming, challenging months, if we are to have a thriving music ecosystem in 2023 and beyond. We cannot afford to lose any of the talent from our passionate community of UK musicians if we want to continue enjoying the music that inspires us all every day.”
It is asking those who are in a position to donate to give whatever they can through the website, in order to help them to support more musicians throughout the UK.
It adds that, “Every penny donated to Help Musicians goes straight to the frontline without any deduction to cover its operating costs or overheads.”
Gallery: Jobs rock and metal stars had before they were famous
Kurt Cobain – Janitor
During Nirvana's embryonic stages, the teenage Kurt worked as a janitor to help fund the band. Bassist Krist Novoselic said: "Here was a man who would never clean his kitchen or take out the garbage, or do those kind of chores, but Kurt Cobain was not a lazy person. Basically he cleaned toilets – that's how he paid for (our first) demo."
Chris Cornell – Fish Handler
Long before his Soundgarden days, the late-great Chris Cornell earned a crust working for his seafood wholesaler. A far cry from his eventual lifestyle as a rock star, Chris told Seattle Post-Intelligencer a few years back: "My job was to wipe up the slime and throw away the fish guts. I met pretty much every sous-chef in town because they would come in and look around at what we had. I think we had the best wholesale seafood in town. The owner was impeccable about it."
Ozzy Osbourne - Slaughterhouse worker
Before Black Sabbath, Ozzy was a jack-of-all-trades working as a construction site labourer, trainee plumber, apprentice toolmaker and car factory horn-tuner. However, it was his job in an abattoir that left a lasting impression on Ozzy. "I had to slice open the cow carcasses and get all the gunk out of their stomachs," he said. "I used to vomit every day; the smell was something else."
Lars Ulrich – Tennis player
The Metallica drummer has tennis in his blood; both his dad Torben Ulrich and granddad Einer Ulrich were professional tennis players for Denmark. Instilled with a love of the game and ranked in Denmark's top 10 for his age, at 16 Lars attended the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida but realised it wasn't for him: "At the academy, I realized that my ability wasn't enough to be a successful professional, far from it, and the discipline necessary was not in me." Lars still plays tennis "once or twice" a week.
Bon Scott – Postman
The AC/DC legend was a postman in Fremantle, Western Australia in his late teens. Tenuously linked, postmen now deliver mail to Bon Scott Crescent in Moncrieff, which was named in the late singer's honour earlier this year. Other notable people who were postmen include Abraham Lincoln, Walt Disney and Steve Carell.
Lemmy – Jimmy Hendrix’s roadie
A far cry from some of the humdrum jobs on this list, the late Motörhead legend became a roadie for the Jimi Hendrix Experience in his early twenties when he was sharing a flat with Noel Redding and the band's manager Neville Chesters. He was paid £10 a week to go on tour with Jimi plus the extra incentive of "handfuls of acid."
Keith Richards – Tennis ball boy
The legendary Rolling Stones axeman worked as a ball boy at a tennis club as a young lad – predominately for his mum and dad Doris and Herbert! He says: "My parents played tennis and I was dragged every weekend to the court as their ball boy, so I got to know the ins and outs of the game!"
Joe Strummer – Gravedigger
In his early 20s Joe decamped from London to Newport, South Wales, where, alongside being the part-time frontman of band The Vultures, he worked as a gravedigger at St Woolos Cemetery. When the band split in 1974, Joe packed in his job and moved back to London and formed new rockabilly outfit The 101ers.
Mick Jagger - Porter in psychiatric hospital
While he was a student at the London School of Economics in his teens, Sir Mick worked part time as a porter at the Bexley Mental Hospital. Brought up in the nearby Wilmington, Mick (who is worth an estimated £260million) was paid a reported four pounds a week.
Gene Simmons – Assistant to Vogue magazine editor
The young Chaim Witz (who later renamed himself Gene Klein) was a self-certified "excellent typist" and in the mid-sixties landed himself a job as an assistant to an editor at fashion bible Vogue Magazine. Fortunately he downed the typewriter and a few years later started KISS with Paul Stanley. The rest, they say, is history.
Eddie Vedder - Security Guard
In the early nineties, Eddie worked a variety of jobs including as a contracted security guard at La Valencia Hotel in San Diego. After the demise of his first band Bad Radio in 1990, Eddie worked as a night attendant at a petrol station. Fortunately, his fortunes changed when friend and ex-Red Hot Chilli Peppers member Jack Irons handed him a demo from a band looking for a new frontman.
David Bowie – Butcher’s delivery boy
After discovering the life-changing music of Little Richard, the 10-year-old David Jones quickly decided he wanted to be a saxophone player for his musical idol. Determined, David got a job as a butcher's delivery boy to fund the purchase of his first instrument and took his first tentative step on his glittering music career.
Freddie Mercury – Market stall trader
Freddie and Roger Taylor both had separate stalls on the top floor of the now demolished Kensington Market in London in the early seventies. Alongside clothing items, Freddie sold many of his own paintings and drawings on the stall and even continued to work there when Queen released their self-titled debut album in 1973.
Tony Iommi – Sheet metal worker
The heavy metal pioneer aptly worked with heavy metal pre-fame. The much-fabled story goes that aged 17, Tony lost the tips of his middle and ring finger on his right hand in an accident at the metal factory, however, inspired by jazz musician Django Reinhardt (whose fourth and fifth fingers were paralysed from burns) it did little to thwart his enthusiasm for guitar playing. With the aid of thimbles, over the ensuing years Tony honed his inimitable and influential metal sound.
Tom Araya – Respiratory therapist
The bassist/vocalist used his job as a certified respiratory therapist (dealing with air mixture ratios, drawing blood, asthma and more) at the Brotman Medical Centre in California to partially fund Slayer's debut album 'Show No Mercy'. Pleased he escaped the humdrum life, Tom told KNAC: "I'd get up in the morning and deal with traffic; and then leave at three and deal with traffic." He was at the hospital when Michael Jackson was treated for burns in 1984.
Jonathan Davis – Embalmer
After studying at the San Francisco School of Mortuary Science, Jonathan became a professional embalmer. Speaking to The Guardian in 2015, Jonathan said mortuary college was an intriguing experience: "I've pulled so many dead bodies out of cars. It's like a puzzle. Trying to figure out how someone died. It gave me attention too. It was f*ing weird. I got into it for attention and ended up liking it.
Noodles - School janitor
The Offspring guitarist, (real name Kevin Wasserman) was a school janitor at Earl Warren Elementary School in Garden Grove, California not only before The Offspring, but also throughout the band's early days. Talking to Kerrang! magazine he explained "Even when we blew up, I didn't even quit my job outright – I took a three-year leave of absence. I was still working there when we were blowing up 'cause I'd promised my boss I wouldn't quit until the end of the school year. There was this one high school girl that I knew (there) and she used to see me in the morning and say to me, 'Man, what are you doing? I just saw you on MTV!'"