Musicians know all about the gig economy – and the grim food that goes with it. He who pays the piper should feed them properly too
The online world can be a scary place. For me, one of the internet’s most dismaying corners is a members-only forum on Facebook called Bandwiches. It’s a portmanteau word, the crashing together of “band” and “sandwiches”, coined by the saxophonist Stan Harrison after a particularly dismal experience. It celebrates or, to be more exact, bemoans the grim quality of so much of the food offered to musicians on gigs in UK hospitality settings. Here are numerous shots of terrible, cold mini sausage rolls the colour of yesterday’s porridge. There’s a meagre plate of biscuits alongside some orange juice with a handwritten note saying: “Out of date. Help yourself at your own peril.” There are polystyrene boxes filled with a tiny number of indeterminate deep-fried things. And, of course, lots and lots of terrible, floppy sandwiches made with the pappiest of pappy white bread. It’s all so damn beige. And the portions! So small!
This could be dismissed as the nichest of niche problems. Then again, the Bandwiches Facebook group has 4,300 members. That’s a significant slab of the UK’s gigging musicians. And even if it is a side issue, it’s my side issue. I am both a jazz musician and a journalist who writes about food. If I don’t complain about this, who the hell will? People in the hospitality industry do their jobs around meal times. For many years the meals offered both to waiters and kitchen staff was a major issue. Too many restaurants simply didn’t seem to care. Happily, that is generally no longer the case (although there are still exceptions). Musicians, the ones who work in bars and restaurants, hotels and events such as weddings, are too often the forgotten hospitality workers.
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