Hamburg’s rock & metal scene in times of corona – MOTÖRIZER – Motörhead Tribute Band

Covid-19 and the taken measures have a big impact on everybody individually, but have also an impact on the music business. Enough of a reason to reach out to clubs, bands,… in the greater Hamburg area, today we include a band from Kiel, to see what the situation is and how everybody can stand together to go though this. Today we continue with Motörizer – Motörhead Tribute Band and Peter Blackhead, describing how the corona crisis affects the band.

Markus’ Heavy Music Blog: Peter, what were your first thoughts when an imminent lockdown became apparent in the course of March?

Motörizer – Motörhead Tribute Band: We were in the middle of the preparations for our spring tour when the lockdown became apparent in March. That hit us hard. We were very disappointed that we had to change everything but in the end there was no alternative and we have to live with it.

MHMB: The scheduled Motörizer – Motörhead Tribute Band live shows, to what extent can these shows be moved to a later date?

Motörizer – Motörhead Tribute Band: We had planned our spring tour “No Sleep Til Hamburg 2020” for March / April with five gigs in total, four of them with Wizard Promotion. Moving the gigs to autumn didn’t work out, because we are already booked for autumn 2020. We hope that we can make up for the cancelled gigs in spring 2021 and that the respective locations will hopefully still exist by then.

MHMB: The situation is devastating for the music business. How hard has it hit you and to what extend does governmental financial aid reaches you?

Motörizer – Motörhead Tribute Band: As a band, we are a company and of course we earn money, but at the moment we are not dependent on financial help. We all have an income from our main jobs, but we hope that the financial help reaches the ones where it is really needed. We do have monthly costs, such as rent for rehearsal space and insurance, but at the moment we are able to cover these costs with our own savings.

MHMB: Did you guys ever get to a point during the last few weeks, thinking that the Corona crisis might lead to the end of the band?

Motörizer – Motörhead Tribute Band: We’re very worried about the whole music business, even if we’re not suffering that much financially ourselves at the moment. Our partners are all professionals in the music business and probably have bigger problems to stay afloat financially. If our partners go down, we will most likely go down with them and that will of course question our existence too. So, the question of existence still exists and there is no end in sight at the moment.

MHMB: Beside all the drama, do you also feel a new solidarity between bands, fans and clubs and how does this become noticeable?

Motörizer – Motörhead Tribute Band: A lot of clubs are just realizing that they are up to their neck in it. As a fan, you can’t respond to every call for help and financially support every club you visit regularly or every band you like, but the good will is definitely noticeable on all sides. Be it concessions, donations or just a few encouraging words from all sides. As we see it, the real and so important solidarity between bands, fans and clubs has always existed.

MHMB: Nobody knows right now what will come next. Festivals and bigger events are cancelled until the end of August. What is your cautious guess about concerts in the future? How do you think such concerts could look like?

Motörizer – Motörhead Tribute Band: It is very difficult to give a prognosis from our point of view on how and if concerts can take place in the next weeks and months. We, as a band, but also as concert visitors, don’t want to imagine a concert as a live experience being different from what we know. We very much hope that it will be possible again in late summer / autumn to organize live concerts in front of an audience.

MHMB: I think that the Corona crisis makes clear to everybody how crucial live music is. Only when you don’t have concerts anymore, you see how important they are. To what extent can music fans support you to survive the crisis?

Motörizer – Motörhead Tribute Band: We think that the most important thing is to continue to believe in clubs, bands and concerts in the future and especially to attend concerts the moment they will take place again. Selling merchandise works for us as a tribute band only in connection with concerts as a small extra income and we don’t really earn money with it.

MHMB: Peter, thanks for making some time. Is there anything else from your side you would like to mention?

Motörizer – Motörhead Tribute Band: We will survive this crisis as a band and hope that our partners (bookers / booking agency / promoters / clubs / photographers / other bands) will do the same with appropriate financial support (as far as necessary and possible). We wish all those affected the longest possible stamina to survive this crisis.