Roger Taylor calls Brexit ‘a dreadful retrograde step’ for musicians

Queen drummer accuses government of ‘shamefully failing’ country’s performers

Roger Taylor says new obstacles posed by Brexit deal will have a negative on musicians ability to tour in Europe (Mike Coppola/Getty Images)

Brexit is “a dreadful retrograde step” for musicians, Roger Taylor has said.

The Queen drummer is one of more than 100 musicians who have accused the government of “shamefully failing” the country’s performers with its Brexit deal.

He said new obstacles posed by the deal will have a negative on musicians ability to tour in Europe.

Taylor was one of the signatories of a letter, organised by the Liberal Democrats and published in The Times last month, which said the lack of a special arrangement for musicians to tour without visas "will tip many performers over the edge".

It was also signed by Sir Elton John, Ed Sheeran, Sting, Bob Geldof and The Who's Roger Daltrey.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend, Taylor said: "Borders are a dreadful invention of mankind, and so we are just putting up another one, and I think it's a dreadful retrograde step."

Earlier this month it was confirmed Queen, who tour with the American Idol star Adam Lambert, have once again postponed the UK and European legs of their Rhapsody World Tour due to coronavirus restrictions.

Taylor said: "Like a lot of other people, it's just not really workable at the moment with the Covid pandemic."

He added it has been the crews that have been hit hardest by the lack of live music, saying: "I know our road crew, all the guys that make our touring work, they are the one that have suffered.

"Not so much for the artists, we can fall back on our songwriting and our publishing, they can't.

"It's a daily, weekly job for them and so it's made it really hard for our industry, very hard indeed."