Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, Jarvis Cocker, More Protest BBC Radio Cuts in Open Letter
Last week, BBC Radio 3 announced changes to the 2019 schedule. The changes include the elimination of two jazz shows, the long-running experimental music program “Late Junction” going from three nights to one, and a world music program getting its run time cut in half. More than 500 figures from the music world have now signed an open letter, published by The Guardian, protesting the changes in the schedule.
The letter was signed by Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, Jarvis Cocker, Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien and Phil Selway, Holly Herndon, Peaches, Shirley Collins, Low’s Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker, Throbbing Gristle’s Cosey Fanni Tutti, Sunn O)))’s Stephen O’Malley, Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor, Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite, Róisín Murphy, Ben Frost, Autechre’s Sean Booth, and many others. It reads:
Our culture benefits so much from these programmes. Music lovers tune in to make new discoveries and build new creative communities. Music makers rely on these shows as lifelines to support and share their music with enthusiastic audiences, nationally and internationally. New works and unexpected collaborations have happened either directly or indirectly due to these shows. This flourishing cultural ecosystem will be damaged, and musicians’ careers profoundly affected, as opportunities for their work to be experienced by the mainstream will be drastically reduced, at home and abroad.
