MU says 'LOCOG owes us some answers'

Further to last week's BBC London News piece in which Horace Trubridge was interviewed about musicians being asked to work for no fee at the Olympics, the Musicians' Union (MU) is demanding answers from the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG).

Horace TrubridgeThe LOCOG response – published on the BBC – was that they were not aware of any official approaches to professional musicians to ask them to work for free.

According to the MU, this is completely untrue with the union sending LOCOG 'example after example of exactly that – professional musicians being asked to play Olympic gigs for which there is no budget. We have the emails to prove it – and they are coming from LOCOG staff'.

The MU has written to the London Mayor and the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to ask them to put pressure on LOCOG. They are also continuing to urge any musician who is approached to call their MU Regional Office and report it. 

Horace Trubridge, MU Assistant General Secretary, said:

'LOCOG has repeatedly told us that all professional musicians will be paid and yet we’ve seen example after example of them breaking their word. If they want musicians to entertain thousands of people, then they should pay for it. It is difficult enough to earn a decent living as a professional musician these days – where does this idea come from that musicians should be happy to work for free? Who else would be?'