The musician Kate Stables is British but has lived in Paris for 15 years. So far this has never been a problem. She flew to Wales for band rehearsals and toured all of Europe for concerts. But since Brexit everything has become complicated for her and her band.
–
Normally, Kate Stables would be sitting at her desk in her Paris apartment right now, writing songs for her musical alter ego This is the Kit. Since Brexit, however, she has been busy filling out and applying for forms and documents to confirm that, as a British woman, she is allowed to live and work in France.
–
A frustrating and demoralizing affair, she says, as many documents and certifications expired after three months. If she does not have everything for the applications together by then, she will have to start all over again. Kate Stables is grateful that she even has the opportunity to remain European. Because she has the feeling that Great Britain has taken European civil rights from its people since Brexit.
–
“Paris is my home, where I’ve lived for 15 years. It would be so sad to have to move back to the UK just because of Brexit.”
Kate Stables, musician from Great Britain
–
Britain’s exit from the European Union affects not only Kate, but also her partner and their 13-year-old daughter. Since she was born in Paris, being the child of foreign parents does not automatically entitle her to French citizenship.
And her three-piece live band is also affected by Brexit. So far rehearsing in Wales and touring Europe has never been a problem. But all of this will become more and more complicated and difficult in the future.
–
Making music with bureaucratic hurdles
Because even if the pandemic is over, the borders open again and your band does not need a work visa in many EU countries, the musicians have to carry so-called carnets, i.e. customs declarations, for their instruments for every tour and show them at every national border.
She often talks to her tour manager about the current situation, but at the end of the conversation she always comes up with one answer: wait and see. When concerts are allowed again, they will probably have no choice but to follow the complicated rules – even if it feels wrong, says Kate.
–
“But what a shame to cut cultural exchanges between countries like that. It feels so wrong.”
Musician Kate Stables on the complicated regulations for musicians since Brexit
–
Of course, she has resolved that Brexit will not split her band. But Kate has also learned from the corona pandemic that there is another way of doing things: Because of the travel restrictions, she has already worked with French accompanying musicians from her area instead of with her band from Great Britain.
That is why she will have to decide from concert to concert in the future whether she can still afford to work with her British colleagues. She is not alone in this. Many event venues and concert agencies in Europe will have to ask themselves in the future whether it is worth the extra effort of booking British acts for concerts or festivals.
–
British pop is not sacrosanct
Kate Stables saw this development coming years ago – unlike some of her colleagues on the British Isles. Many considered the privileges that the motherland of pop had enjoyed so far to be inviolable.
It did not happen that way, however, and so the only hope now is that musicians like Kate Stables, who live or make music in the European Union despite Brexit, will become ambassadors for an open Europe.
–
–