Musicians paid £25k at Public
Tuesday 28th April 2009, 11:30AM BST.
Artists and musicians who have performed at controversial Black Country arts centre The Public have been paid £25,050 of taxpayers’ money.
The figure was released under Freedom of Information laws.
Cash was shared between 85 acts at the West Bromwich gallery since June. It does not include events put on by Public Gallery Ltd, the private firm that went into administration in February.
Cash came out of £450,000 European Union funding for the Destination West Bromwich project set up by Sandwell Council. The council put £800,000 into the scheme.
The New Street gallery has so far cost £63 million and has not taken a paying customer because technology-based art was hit by glitches. All concerts and other events were free.
Councillor Tony Ward, leader of the Tory opposition in Sandwell, said spending more putting on events when the gallery was not turning a profit seemed “very ill thought out.”
Sandwell Council data protection officer Nigel Parr declined to provide details on what each artist was paid.
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Is this pathetic attempt at journalism supposed to infer that artists and musicians should work for free just because the Public is badly mismanaged.
If the Express and Star was to support initiatives in the Midlands rather than sniping from the sidelines then maybe we would all move forward.
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And still it keeps coming back to haunt the good old tax payers of Sandwell!!!
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Time to become a one man band me thinks
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Well said ET!
st joe, what has European Union funding got to with local tax payers?
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Not being funny, but where do you think EU funding comes from if it doesn’t also come from local tax payers?
Just because it’s from a different pot, doesn’t mean you didn’t pay for it.
Makes me think of the ‘focus groups’ that Walsall council ran, asking local people their views on changes/improvements in the town.
They were unanimous in their disapproval of the new hideous, traffic-lighted junction that replaced the roundabout (which was functional and efficient).
“What a waste of money” they said.
“That’s ok” say the council “it wasn’t paid for from local taxes – it comes from a National budget for traffic.”
“oh, that’s okay then”.
Unless people start thinking about where there money is wasted, they deserve the government they get.
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Read the words ste! Tax payer money is tax payers money where ever it comes from especially for this waste of money!!!!!
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@Ste: Maybe the £800,000 the council put in the fund has something to do with local taxpayers! Just a hunch!
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1…. Bang on .
I will be there on Saturday to watch the music festival which is free to the public.
The cheap jibe by the Tory councillor is why people dont vote for you!!!
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Sure money from the European fund is raised by taxes… collected from all over Europe, not just the people of Sandwell.
Should there be no funding for the Arts from these taxes?
Mark, we’re not talking about the £800,000 from the council (or the mis-management of the whole project for that matter)…£25,000 was paid to musicians and artist (many of whome I presume are local) That’s less than £300 each.
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The venue now charges for music entertainment – this wasn’t always the case. So in the interest of balanced reporting, how come we don’t hear how much revenue was generated and whether the events were a success? How about some reviews of performances? We are often reminded how much the facility cost, perhaps we should now concentrate on developing its use and benefit to the town and borough and move on!
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What a rubbish piece of reporting!!! It only works out at under £300 per perfomance so where is the problem with that! I would not expect to work for free.
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Quite frankly £25,000 for 85 different acts represents great value for money.
As many others have stated, musicians deserve to be paid for their performances. And the cost seems more than reasonable. I’m sure a lot of Sandwell folk got a lot of pleasure and enjoyment from the concerts.
If this wasn’t the Public, this wouldn’t have even been considered a story and sorry, I’m afraid this comes across as a cheap attempt at putting the boot in.
And as for the old “it’s Taxpayers’ money” argument. Not every penny of tax in the country is spent on education, health, roads etc – fact! I’m a Sandwell Council taxpayer and I don’t mind some of my money going on arts, culture, heritage, sport etc. The local authority has a responsibility to provide these sorts of events for people who want them as well as fixing your roads or collecting your bins…
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ET and ste, Gordon Browns Labour government doesn’t have one penny of it own money.
The European Parliament doesn’t have one penny of it own money!!!!!!
What it does have is control over our money, The British and European Tax payers money, just thought I needed to clarify that point.
It’s right that these musicians should receive payment for the services that they provided, that doesn’t mean it should be paid for by the Council Tax Payer; the money should come out of the profits generated by their performances!!!!!!!!
DD, we can move on as soon as the clowns running this fiasco admit that this monstrosity was built against the wishes of the Electorate in Sandwell, and that they got it wrong, then they can tell us how they intend to reimburse us ripped off taxpayers, that reimbursement could be in the form of not claiming their future expenses that they are being paid by us the Electorate, or the Tax Payers money they salted away to pay for part time Councillors Private Pensions, that money could be used to pay back the £63 million they took off us, that pension money was paid to supply us with services not to feather the nests of Councillors.
Jim of Bearwood
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£25,000 BUT shared between 85 acts!!
Stingy or what!!!!
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@ Ste, give me £100 of your money and i will give you £50 back to waste however you want. When you spend the £50, you must put a sign up in your window that says “you are proudly paid for by Whammy”. Don’t worry, it hasn’t cost you anything.
Councils have money to burn, other peoples money.
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Jim G, I’m well aware of the system of government and taxation.
If you think that all Arts/musical performances should be profit motivated then the only ‘artists’ you would have would be from a very small, elite group of rich people, or be safe, commercial and dull.
Whammy, if you think that paying musicians less than £300 each to provide free entertainment is ‘burning money’ then I think we will have to agree to differ.
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Jim G. I too am fully aware of the origins of funds used by local and national authorities.
My point is that the focus of this article is wrong. It should not be “shock horror another 25,000 spend on the Public” but the wide range of music and arts that have been enjoyed at the Public even though it is not properly opened.
I know this could be called spin but occasionally in this country we have to stop moaning and glory in the talents all around us. Let the E & S start with a few positive stories for once.
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The trouble with the public is it will drag down anyone who becomes remotely invoved with it simply because of the cost and wasted money to the tax payer. Schools are closing and we still have to put up with our money being fleeced for this white elephant. It has to start paying its way out of non tax payers money. How it does it is the managements problem, but it needs to focus away from Sandwell council. Nothing against musicians being paid but like Jim said it has to be paid for out of profits from now on!!!
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@ Ste, the New Street gallery has so far cost £63 million, i consider that to be a complete waste of money. It’s the same kind of economics as the Government having to print money because they can’t run the economy properly. Thats why council tax bills have rocketed since Labour came to power.
So yes, i think the whole thing is very poor value for our money and if you think differently? We will have to agree to differ.
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so it’s not only the council on the FIDDLE and getting paid taxpayers money but any old one man band can get a piece of sandHELLS easy money,VOTE THE LOT OUT IN MAY PLLLLLLLLEASE.
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What an excellent use of public money. Government, at a national and local level, has a duty to promote arts and culture, it is what sets us apart from other animals on the planet.
Of course, there will always be those who submit angry posts in CAPITAL LETTERS – I’M SO ANGRY ETC ETC and you can almost hear their knees jerking as they type.
I note with interest that these type of emails are often submitted from people with a less than rudimentary knowledge of the English Language.
I’m happy for my Council Tax to pay for this. Approximately 25k for 85 acts represents good value for money.
If we are worried about 25k, then please remember that over 40k was spent on one event celebrating St. George’s Day. Sandwell Council take note – less money pandering to the St George’s brigade (it is actually very un-English) and more money for Arts events at the public.
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Ste and ET, it’s not for the Council to provide Arts!!!!!!! Its not for the Council to provide Music, it’s the Councils job to provide the services necessary for the electorate to be able to live in clean and safe environment.
It’s for the Council to provide for the educational needs of the people in the borough, it’s the job of the council to ensure the smooth and efficient running of the borough, END OF STORY.
If we want music functions in the borough invite professionals like Simon Cowell to put in a tender for the job, this isn’t about making the “Public” a success, this has always has been about making the “Public” a successful monument to Sandwell’s Labour Council Rule, that’s what this is about, and like everything else that these councillors do its been an absolute disaster and another failure to add to the long list.
These are amateurs trying to do a professional job, why do we assume that just because people have the ability to attract enough votes to get them a position on the council, that they also have the skills necessary to do the job required to run a borough?????
When I walk down our road and I see the same rubbish in the road that was there 12 months back, when I walk up our road and see storm drains blocked up and the water flooding across the roads and footpaths, and they have been that way for 25 years, when I walk down Bearwood High Street and see 14 business premises standing empty and abandoned because of Sandwell Labour Council’s policy of driving the motorist away from shopping areas and of escalating business rates up to a stage where any profit made is immediately wiped out, and then I see my local councillors, without consulting me, or in fact any of the electorate in the borough, have poured £63 million of our money down the drain, in an effort to boost their ego, I am not angry I am not upset, I am fuming and frothing at the mouth ,thinking of all the people who are suffering because of these megalomaniacs.
Jim of Bearwood
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JimG: “it’s not for the Council to provide Arts!!!!!!! Its not for the Council to provide Music.”
No. Amongst other things the council has a responsibillity for ‘Leisure & Culture’
As I said earlier… then the only ‘artists’ you would have would be from a very small, elite group of rich people, or be SAFE, COMMERCIAL AND DULL
JimG: “If we want music functions in the borough invite professionals like Simon Cowell to put in a tender for the job”
lol
.. and what a dull world we would live in :-)
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I’m not sure if you understand Jim but 40 million of the 63 million you keep going on about came direct from the Arts Council. It’s money that would not have come into the area if an art gallery had not been created.
Why not allow the people of Sandwell to shout about it and enjoy it? People in West Brom need their aspirations raised and I believe that an Art Gallery is a better way of doing that than a swimming pool! Rather than projecting the image that its a waste of money the E&S should be shouting from the rooftops encouraging individuals to go there, support it and hopefully learn something from a place that they are very lucky to have.
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So Graeme 40 million has come into our area and i ask you one question-what has it done for the people of sandwell? oh yeah right it went to fund an over sized ugly useless non profit making white elephant. Hmmmmmmmm. i wonder if our money or even the arts councils money was very well spent?
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I dread to think how much of the tax payers money goes on unemployment, benefits, and crime in West Bromwich, Thank god it’s actually going towards giving them something back.
And please do your research, You acknowledge that Public Gallery Ltd was a private firm, so what does a Technology based gallery that went into administration have anything to do with Live Music events?
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Graeme, I’m not sure (to use your words) if you understand where the Arts Council gets its money from and please don’t reply that it comes from the government, since all such money is in the domain of the Public ( forgive the accidental pun) purse, i.e you and I payed it in.
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ste it’s up to the council to provide an environment where ‘Leisure & Culture’ can thrive, its not up to the council to waste £63 million of our money on a monstrosity that the people in Sandwell don’t want.
Ste if the council are there to provide culture why did they make every effort to stop the recent St Georges Day parade in Stone Cross? Yet this same Labour Council could give £17,500 towards a Sikh Temple, they also refused to give £10.000 to the West Bromwich Boys Club?
Your comment or be “SAFE, COMMERCIAL AND DULL” but they would not be taking my Council Tax, that I am paying to provide for my essential council services.
You comment “If we want music functions in the borough invite professionals like Simon Cowell to put in a tender for the job.. And what a dull world we would live in”, it may be dull, but the main thing is they would be self financing unlike now and if they are dull then I don’t understand how Simon Cowell makes his millions!!!!!!! Think you need to come into the real world.
Jim of Bearwood
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