Brit Beat: The Top 10 British Music Stories of 2023
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Perhaps the best thing that you can say about life in Britain over the last few years is that it’s rarely been boring.
And, after a brief lull at the start of the year, the U.K. has once again been the place to be in 2023 for fans of political and economic chaos. And the British music industry hasn’t exactly been quiet either.
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So, as Britain’s music executives downshifts for the relative calm of the Christmas period, Brit Beat counts down all the stories that managed to briefly distract the business from the political carnage during 2023. In traditional reverse order, obviously…
10. THE NORTH REMEMBERS
If you’re one of those execs who think the U.K. music industry starts and ends in central London, you might have to revise your travel plans. Because 2023 was the year the Brit biz remembered the power of the regions: EMI Records launched a Leeds outpost (EMI North); the famous BRIT School announced it would open a second location in Bradford; while the new Beyond the Music conference saw execs descend on Manchester. Next year, the trend looks to extend to a host of alternative rock bands hosting huge hometown shows in places such as Wigan (the Lathums), Doncaster (the Reytons) and Stockport (Blossoms). Time to hit the north…
9. (NEW) BOSSING IT
The U.K. recorded music sector continues to grow steadily, but that didn’t stop many companies ringing the changes. Jason Iley’s Sony Music U.K. led the way, following up last year’s Columbia Records revamp by replacing RCA president David Dollimore with Stacey Tang and Glyn Aikins; relaunching Epic Records U.K. as a frontline label under Sarah Lockhart; and promoting Negla Abdela to lead Ministry of Sound. Warner Music also had an overhaul, with a number of high-profile exits at Parlophone, now led by MD Jennifer Ivory and Warner Records president Joe Kentish. In the trade bodies, Jo Twist took over from Geoff Taylor at the BPI, but the most intriging move surely came from U.K. Music CEO Jamie Njoku-Goodwin, who opted to leave the frying pan of the music industry for the (bin) fire of government, becoming Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s director of strategy, no less. Good luck Jamie!
8. RADIO DAZE
It’s not often that radio broadcasters become front-page news. But the April move of Ken Bruce – then the most listened to music presenter in the U.K. – from BBC Radio 2 to Bauer’s Greatest Hits Network sent shockwaves through both the industry and the listening public, and became the biggest radio story in decades. Bruce took plenty of listeners with him, attracting an audience of 3.7 million to his new show, according to Radio Joint Audience Research, while his replacement on Radio 2 (Vernon Kay) lost listeners, but still remains out in front with 6.9 million. The incident also spoke to the resurgence of commercial radio in the U.K., which has overtaken the BBC stations in terms of share, scoring 54.1% in Q3. As it struggles with government-imposed budget cuts, can the Beeb fight back in 2024?
7. STREAM IF YOU WANNA GO FASTER
It’s been another year of glacially slow progress for attempts to reform how streaming remuneration works in the U.K. biz. Back in May, the government agreed to establish an industry working group to explore the issue, but an update from the Culture, Media & Sport Committee – which scrutinizes the work of the Department for Culture, Media & Sport – recently revealed that has yet to happen. During that session, Hipgnosis CEO Merck Mercuriadis blasted the lack of progress as “a missed opportunity”. There has, at least, been more substantial progress on the metadata and transparency working groups, with an Industry Agreement on Music Streaming Data published in May, and sources telling Variety that an industry code of practise for transparency is likely to be ratified soon. But, with remuneration a much more divisive issue between rights-holders and creatives, you can expect that process to drag on a lot longer. Perhaps that’s why #BrokenRecord campaigner Tom Gray has decided to take matters into his own hands; he will stand as a Labour Party candidate at the next General Election, due by January 2025.
6. UNDER HIPGNOSIS
Appearing in front of the CM&S Committee has been stressful for many, but probably represented light relief for Merck Mercuriadis. After all, the turmoil at his London-based Hipgnosis Songs empire has gripped the industry throughout 2023. The details are too complex to cover in full here, but suffice to say they involved cancelled dividend payments, ousted directors, asset sales, court cases and an ongoing power-struggle between Mercuriadis and the Hipgnosis Songs Fund board and shareholders. It’s a far cry from the days when Mercuriadis was the talk of the industry for his string of high-profile acquisitions but, while the financial press seems to be gunning for him, he still has his supporters, particularly amongst the artists and songwriters whose catalogs Hipgnosis now owns. Expect these fireworks to continue into 2024…
5. THE LONG GOODBYE
If it feels like Elton John has been retiring from touring for a very long time indeed, well, his Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour did actually start all the way back in 2018: a far-off, magical time when nobody knew what COVID was and Brits could recall who was running the country without consulting a spreadsheet. But, finally, in 2023, Sir Elton reached the end of the road. His final stint was, appropriately enough, centered on his homeland, including 10 sold-out nights at London’s O2 Arena and a performance at Glastonbury Festival which pulled in 7.3 million viewers on BBC TV, a Glasto record. Although, given that the entire world tour sold over 6 million tickets and grossed more than $939m, it remains to be seen if he really will stay at home from now on…
4. BRITAIN’S GOT (OLD) TALENT
Elton was far from the only oldie dominating the U.K. scene. The buzziest bands of Q4 were two up-and-coming beat combos by the names of The Beatles and the Rolling Stones. The Beatles broke the U.K. record for the longest gap between No.1 singles when they topped the charts with “Now and Then” in November, 54 years after “The Ballad of John and Yoko”. And the Stones equalled the record for No.1 studio albums at 11 when “Hackney Diamonds” debuted at the summit in October (it could even be the Christmas No.1 album). Impressive stuff, but the success of these old-timers also threw the continuing drought in new British global superstars into sharp relief. There were some promising signs in 2023: the likes of Raye, Maisie Peters, Wet Leg, Kenya Grace and the Last Dinner Party all made significant inroads both at home and abroad. But label execs in particular are getting nervous as the wait for the next Ed/ Harry/ Adele/ Dua-type megastar goes on…
3. ATLANTIC CROSSING
One bright spot for new music came with signs that U.K. rap – a notoriously poor traveller as a genre – may finally be ready to connect with audiences beyond these shores. “Sprinter” by Dave and Central Cee topped the U.K. charts for an incredible 10 weeks but, more significantly, it also hit No.1 in Australia, Ireland, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Switzerland. It almost cracked the U.S. Hot 100 too – something Cee did manage when he featured on “On the Radar Freestyle” (with Drake) and “Too Much” (with the Kid Laroi and Jungkook). Cee also racked up over two billion streams on Spotify alone in 2023 and, now he’s signed to Columbia in the U.S., many are optimistic major Stateside success will follow. With the likes of Clavish and Strandz also picking up buzz and Little Simz continuing to grow, could 2024 could finally see a global British rap superstar take over?
2. PARKLIFE GOES ON
For a while there during the summer, it seemed like 2023 had slipped back gloriously into 1994. Blur and Pulp were headlining festivals and huge outdoor shows (Blur did two nights at Wembley Stadium, by far the biggest headline gigs of their career); the Gallagher brothers were high in the charts (albeit with solo albums); and everyone from (the London) Suede to Ash was having a critical and commercial resurgence. We probably don’t need a psychologist to tell us why everyone was quite so keen to return to a golden age when Britain was booming in every sense, but don’t expect the revival to go away anytime soon. Next year, Liam Gallagher is celebrating the 30th anniversary of “Definitely Maybe” with a huge tour (and a Reading & Leeds Festival headline slot), which will only make the clamor for an Oasis reunion grow and grow…
1. DIG THE VENUE BREED
Whenever the next wave of British guitar bands finally comes along, however, it’s looking increasingly unlikely that they’ll actually have anywhere to play. Venues in general took a lot of focus in 2023: Brixton Academy remained shut all year after a tragedy at an Asake gig in December 2022 (although it has now been cleared to re-open, subject to conditions), while the Mayor of London rejected plans to build a version of the Las Vegas MSG Sphere in the city.
But the most pressing story involves the U.K.’s storied grassroots circuit. Most small venues managed to survive the pandemic but the sector is now under serious threat, thanks to a toxic cocktail of increased costs, post-pandemic changes and a booming arena/stadium circuit that some believe is diverting hard-pressed consumers’ cash away from smaller shows. The Music Venue Trust says over 125 venues (more than 15% of the total) have closed in the last year, with the recent shuttering of the legendary Bath Moles club proving the final straw for many. The Culture, Media & Sport Committee – who are having a busy time with music these days – will hold a review, hearing and report into the crisis next year, but the fear is there won’t be much of the circuit left by the time any recommended action actually happens. No wonder the MVT is already lobbying the wider live biz for a levy on arena show ticket sales to help fund small venues. Now that would be the Christmas gift that keeps on giving for the grassroots…
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