Lighters at the ready: will 2021 see the tentative return of the gig?

I n 2020, symptoms of profuse sweating and a hoarse throat would be reason to nervously check your contact-tracing app, but in previous years, it was merely the byproduct of a really great gig. A night spent hollering the words to your favourite song with arms slung round clammy strangers who most certainly are not in your bubble, the humble live concert is a treat that most of us haven’t known for the best part of a year, relying instead on a diet of livestreams and the rare socially distanced event to tide us over. Collectively, we’re more than ready to head into 2021 with a touch more, well … touching.

With mass vaccination on the horizon, the return of live music’s adrenaline rush feels tantalisingly close, albeit with a comedown of niggling uncertainties. How can you sing along if you have to wear a mask? What hope is there for “hands, face, space” in a moshpit? Will entry require three negative tests and a vial of blood? It is clear that gigs as we know them are not returning overnight, but is there any hope for some kind of normality in the coming months?

Even if and when some regions slowly move down the tiers, live performance is likely to remain a peculiar prospect for a while yet. “It’s pretty clear that there is going to be a buffer period between now and a vaccine, but most of the onus of that shift will be on staff delivery rather than fans having to do too much their end,” says Nathan Clark, licensee and promoter at the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds, one of the country’s oldest grassroots venues. “The last year has just been a Groundhog Day for us: booking gigs, rescheduling them, and rescheduling again. There’s a stubbornness from bands to make a show work but, as venues, there’s a big issue around building customer confidence, too; even if 75% of a fanbase are raring to get back to gigs, 25% are understandably sceptical, and we have to think about how we win back their confidence.”

The key to it all, Clark believes, is in the preparation. Technology will be instrumental; e-tickets will almost entirely become the norm, as will cashless merch desks and venue-specific apps for buying drinks. Industry talk has led him to believe that misting disinfection systems and UV air filtration (killing pathogens through light exposure) might be among the longer-term plans for venue technology. In the meantime, serious redevelopment work has been under way at the Brudenell to widen entry and exit ways as well as investing in streaming equipment, with the intention of offering more “hybrid” shows that can be delivered synchronously to both an in-person audience and those streaming from home.

Effectively increasing a gig’s potential capacity to unlimited numbers, hybrid shows could prove an efficient way to proffer a much-needed cash injection to a wounded industry, but a lot will come down to quality – and demand. In a year when livestream concerts have ranged from ramshackle Instagram “requests please” affairs in living rooms right through to lusciously shot pay-per-views, some artists seem to take to virtual performance more naturally than others.

With two sold-out nights at London’s Jazz Cafe booked for April, soulful DIY pop newcomer Olivia Dean is eager to get away from the “anxiety-inducing” nature of virtual concerts but, like many others, is still waiting on word as to whether she can sensibly plan a wider tour.

“I think people assume that artists are getting some kind of governmental tipoff, but I definitely don’t have Boris on speed dial,” she laughs. “I’m so excited about the shows but we know as little as anybody else, and it does make you worry about how you might alter the vibe of the performance. When it’s seated you want to go for something classier: an Evening With-type affair, but there’s a huge part of me that just wants people to be able to get up and dance.”

A lot of hopes are being pinned on the summer for music’s real return. Festival season is a staple of British pop culture, and the gleeful debauchery of a tent-spent weekender loses something of its essence when it’s too burdened with rules and regulations. While some events such as Manchester’s Parklife seem to be erring on the side of caution by pushing their dates to September, Zack Sabban, the CEO of event-discovery site Festicket is confident that most of the corona-proofing legwork is already under way, hopefully leaving fans free to frolic with all the Strongbow-toting abandon they used to.

“As we know, the evidence shows that being outdoors massively reduces any risk of transmission, so when it comes to live music, it follows that outdoor festivals will be in a good position to return,” he says. “It’s highly likely that we will see requests for negative Covid tests and/or proof that you have received a vaccine before access to some events, and we’ve been working closely with our partners in evaluating potential methods for observing that. We’re also now beginning to roll out unmanned self-service scanning terminals to streamline entry, and offering free cancellation of tickets. We want people to feel safe and informed, and the key thing for fans is to be patient and considerate: the more we collectively have things under control in the coming weeks and months, the easier things will be further down the line.”

The reality of it, then, will be less of a full-throated stagedive and more of a tentative shuffle back into gigging. While the potent combination of Brexit and Covid will likely see many international artists opting for stripped-back tours that risk less cash and touring-crew contagion, fans should also take appropriate precautions at their end, thinking twice about booking back-to-back shows or heading off to a festival while experiencing symptoms.

Potentially, some of these new responsibilities may even be for the long-term best. A new socially distant iteration of the meet-and-greet could appease some of the more reluctant pop stars (hello Avril Lavigne), while the possibility of more matinee shows to accommodate a “double the gig, half the capacity” approach will directly benefit the under-18s gig-going audience often ignored by venues due to their lack of a pint-buying pound. Having had time off from the touring treadmill to incubate new material, grassroots bands may even triumph, too: smaller capacities mean that the stakes of a “sellout” show at a prestigious venue suddenly fall within reach, hopefully helping to make up some of last year’s lost momentum.

While it might be fanciful to imagine 2021 heralding a summer of love-like renaissance, there is something like quiet hope in the idea of a more spontaneous, intimate approach to live performance. Some, like Olivia Dean, will opt to rerun some of 2020’s innovative measures (for her, a bespoke open-sided truck that allows her to pitch up and play wherever her fans request it).

“I do feel like if we can take anything from this, it’s that I really connected with the fans in ways I might not have done on huge festival stages,” she says. “That’s a really beautiful thing. I get why people would be nervous, but I’m more than ready to be the champion for recovery. It’s time to get back in those rooms with each other.”

Sanitiser at the ready: the shows must go on.