Eric Clapton recently said that he wouldn’t play at any gig that stipulates full vaccination for the audience. Industry stakeholders in Mumbai explain why he’s wrong
A pre-pandemic edition of Nariyal Paani
A few weeks ago, Eric Clapton joined a dubious list of musicians who have publicly declared their reservations about vaccines for COVID-19, when he announced that he wouldn’t play at any concert that makes two doses mandatory for audience members. He even shared a link for an anti-vaccine song that he made with Van Morrison, another musician on that same dubious list. This was after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that people need to get a double dose of vaccination if they want to visit nightclubs or music venues. In response, Clapton wrote in a post that he feels “honour-bound” to take this stand since such measures discriminate between audience members. Earlier, he had spoken about how he had suffered a “disastrous” health experience after getting vaccinated for the virus. That’s where his “honour-bound” stance stems from, regardless of the fact that he probably knows as little about the science involved as the Queen of England knows about death-metal music.
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Harry Styles is one musician who’s vocal about the need for vaccination. Pic/wireimages
Industry stakeholders in Mumbai, too, feel that Clapton has set a dangerous precedent with this statement. Everyone can have an opinion, feels Balraj Ghai, owner of The Habitat, a Khar-based venue for music and comedy. He says, “Many people are wondering if this is propaganda or reality, whether vaccines are just a way for big pharmaceutical companies to make more money. But no matter what you say, we all know that the virus has had really bad implications. We also know that there is enough research to show that the number of COVID-19 cases have dwindled after vaccination drives were kicked off around the world.”
Eric Clapton. Pic/Facebook
That’s why he feels that it’s important to follow the law of the land, which, in Maharashtra at the moment, mandates at least one vaccination jab for people visiting a venue for a live gig. Clapton cocked a snook at the British PM, but Ghai tells us, “The government is creating a system to make things safer for people, and a minimum of one dose is all we can follow right now because of the logistics behind getting everyone vaccinated fully. Also, as an owner, I feel more comfortable knowing that everyone in the room is safer, and I will anyway have no choice but to implement it if the authorities make two shots mandatory.”
Tanvi Gupta and Balraj Ghai
That’s a sentiment that Tanvi Gupta, founder of events management firm Pinwheelers that organises the Nariyal Paani festival in Alibaug, echoes as well. The Mumbaikar is in Goa at the moment and tells us that she recently attended an event where, if people were unable to provide a vaccination certificate at the point of entry, they were given the option of taking a rapid Covid-19 test that furnished results then and there. “I know that it might not be 100-per cent accurate, but the point is that you have to do whatever you can to make people safe. No concert is bigger than one’s life, and how will you listen to music if you are dead? And why should I even feel mild symptoms because of somebody else?” she questions.
Gupta also adds that it was especially irresponsible for Clapton to make the statement he did because musicians have a large following who hang on to their every word. “His stand was an extremely selfish way of looking at things because it was based on his own experience, and not on medical terms,” she says, pointing out that it would have been a way better idea if Clapton had just kept his lips sealed.
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