ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses an examination of the role of student unions and the college touring circuit and a survey of the ancillary industries that emerged to cater to the live music sector. It examines alternative to unsuitable halls and theatres: outdoor settings. In the 1970s, the live music industry was reorganised around solutions to problems that had begun to emerge in the 1960s. The British live music business in the 1970s was marked, then, by changes in the power relations of artists, managers, agents, promoters, publishers and record companies. The recession in the record business from 1978 thus had significant effects on the live music economy: “Industry Crisis: big tours axed,” as Melody Maker put it. In retrospect, the British live music industry adapted itself to the service of rock music remarkably quickly. Prior to the mid-1960s, those working in the live music business came from a hodgepodge of backgrounds and experiences.
