Mu230713

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RESEARCHING The musicians’ UNION: SOME initial
observations
Researching the Musicians’ Union: Some Initial Observations
Martin Cloonan and John Williamson
MU Conference, Manchester
23rd July 2013

Introduction
• Background to the project
• Approach and Methods
• Some themes
• Outcomes
http:// www.muhistory.com

Project and Background
• ‘full account of history of MU. . .’
• ‘ways in which the MU has influenced British music and
musicians’
• ‘an account of the changes in the career of the professional
musician in Britain’
• ‘role of the MU in influencing policies of institutions &
industries’

Project and Background
• ‘interviews with key current and former MU members,
activists, staff. . ‘
• Dissemination of findings via collaboration with academic and
non-academic institutions

Origins
• Previous work on the music industries and history of live music
in the UK
• Domination of recording industry and post-1955 music
industries
• Importance of pre-1955 agreements that MU was party to &
• Importance of live music for working musicians

Origins
• MU’s role understated or derided in pop music / jazz studies
• Awareness of MU archive - first access 2010; subsequent
article on jazz “ban” written with Matt Brennan.
• Successful application to AHRC; John appointed to work full-
time on project

Methods and Approach / Starting Points
• Website: http://www.muhistory.com
• Outside of Union’s archive little material about MU hsitory
• Official Histories: ES Teale (1929); Mike Jempson (1993)
• Labour and Music Histories: specific eras or aspects of MU’s
work; musicians’ unions in US and Australia written about in
more depth

• Frith: “out of touch with the particular needs of rock
musicians” (1978: 162)
• Street: “inspired by a desire to protect members, the MU’s
policy appears as merely reactionary” (1986: 147)
• Media: assorted attacks on Union most famously in Melody
Maker, Sunday Times and various broadsheets circa 2001

• Sweeting: “a left wing, doctrinaire organisation as secretive
and tight-lipped as the KGB” (The Guardian)
• Mendick: “the glorious, unreconstructed ways of the
Musicians’ Union, where you have a scenario that would make
Arthur Scargill weap with nostalgia” (The Independent)
• Out of touch? Bureaucratic? Protectionist? Extremist?
Reactionary?

Methods and Approach / Other Archives
• BBC Written Archives @ Caversham
• TUC Archive @ London Metropolitan University
• Orchestral Employers’ Association @ University of York
• Henry Farmer Collection @ University of Glasgow
• FIM and AFM archives

Methods and Approach / Interviews
• Over a dozen interviews so far – former elected and salaried
officials; branch / regional organisers; EC members; musicians,
DJs, record company personnel; more to follow . .

Methods and Approach / Steering Group
Matt Brennan (University of Edinburgh), Chris Burgess (People’s
History Museum), Keith Gildart (University of Wolverhampton),
Penny King (freelance arts consultant), Tony Lucas (MU activist),
Robert Noakes (Neon Productions/ MU Exec Committee), Karl
McGee (University of Stirling), Mark Pemberton (Association of
British Orchestras), John Smith (Musicians’ Union), Matt Stahl
(University of Western Ontario)

Themes
• Musicians as workers
• External relations
• Copyright
• Technology
• Gender, race, politics, genre, etc. etc.

Themes: Musicians as workers
• Musicians widely portrayed as artists, creators, entrepreneurs,
celebrities, stars.
• What is a musician? For the union this was a practical
consideration.
• “Anyone following the profession of music”
• Those allowed to join; those forced to join & those who choose
to join

Themes: Musicians as workers
• Diversity of musical occupations - lives shaped by instruments
they play but also genres, spaces & ensembles they work in
• Implications for organisation: regionally; by occupation and by
genre
• Working conditions have implications for their organisation
within a Union
• Musicians as particular types of worker

Themes: Labour Markets
• Initial threat to employment from amateurs, police and
military bands, foreign musicians
• Amateurs – undercutting; reminder of need for payment
• Military / Police – historic threat / used at public events
• Foreign musicians – lengthy resistance in all genres, came to a
head in jazz
• All reactions = protecting employment of its own members

Themes: New Technology
• The Talkies: mass unemployment, opposition, powerlessness
• (radio) broadcasting: cautious support for radio – “has not
reduced employment . .but increased it” (1925) – agreements
with BBC
• Gramophone / Recording Industry: combination of control
and regulation; deals with PPL and BBC
• Union saw opportunities as well as threats

Themes: Changes in the Law
• Legislation that impacts on (e.g. trade union legislation) and is
instigated by the Union (e.g. copyright)
• Monopolies and Mergers Commission (1988), Broadcasting Act
(1990) had direct impact – govt. opposition to ‘restrictive
practices’
• Lobbying on performers’ rights throughout post-War period
• Alignment of interests, at different times with different
employers

Conclusions
• Archive has allowed us unique insight and to consider new
approaches to union & music industries’ history
• Musicians as workers helps explain the union’s position on a
number of historical issues
• MU is worthy of detailed study – unique set of circumstances,
history and industrial relations

Outcomes
• So far . . Website, conference papers, articles
• Journal and magazine articles
• Book / Books
• Radio / TV programmes
• Conference, exhibition and gig – Glasgow 2016

Contacts
Thanks!
Martin Cloonan: Martin.Cloonan@glasgow.ac.uk
John Williamson: John.C.Williamson@glasgow.ac.uk

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