Touring can take musicians to isolating, anxious extremes. Access to therapy on the road is a vital support — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Philip Selway, Radiohead's drummer, describes severe anxiety and impostor syndrome during the band's 1992-1993 US tours, including a specific show opening for Tears for Fears where his drumming collapsed under overwhelm
- Radiohead partnered with the Music Industry Therapist Collective (MITC) on last autumn's tour to offer well-being sessions during rehearsals and confidential drop-in therapy for all touring personnel
- The Pay It Forward Fund, established by Tamsin Embleton and MITC, will deploy £272,000 over three years to finance practitioner teams for 150 smaller-tour crews
- Selway says early-career touring artists face the tightest squeeze: nonexistent margins, loading gear, self-driving between shows, and no exit from the touring treadmill until they get home
- MITC's book Touring And Mental Health: the Music Industry Manual, edited by Embleton, is published by Omnibus; applications for the new fund are now open
Why it matters: The fund directs £272,000 to smaller-tour teams — the tier Selway describes as most isolated, where crews load gear and self-drive between shows with no margin to seek help. MITC's model embeds therapists with lived industry experience inside tours, addressing the exact gap Selway identified in his own early-1990s breakdowns before larger-tour support existed.
Ask SkimNews
