Musique: Lancashire’s premier live music troupe defying the Covid odds to keep the show on the road

Now, however, the Ribble Valley-based company is one of the area’s top creative businesses, providing exceptional live musicians for weddings, corporates, and private events thanks to MD Jamie Turner and booking manager Arthur Phillips’ tireless work in securing deposits for future events.

And, having damned market conditions to persevere, Musique is now bringing smiles to faces post-lockdown, boasting a dedicated team from a multitude of backgrounds across the entertainment industry and also works with well-established event bands The Party Fettlers, Vintage Swing Thing, and Desire DJ Live.

“The pandemic provided unprecedented challenges to a business like ours,” explains Jamie Turner, Musique’s Managing Director. “Despite years of experience in the sector, nothing could prepare us for the challenges of government restrictions against holding events. The business had to adapt fast to an ever-changing legal landscape through that time.

“Ensuring survival and maintaining good relationships with clients was a challenge and clients were often rearranging dates several times with no income associated with the extra work,” he adds. “We bought the rights to a bank of high-quality video content that we produced while working with our former partners, and repurposed this for ads on Facebook and Instagram.

“We wanted to create a luxurious brand feel to go alongside our videos and worked with a web designer and developer to create a compelling visual brand and website to match. The idea was that the website, combined with the social media accounts and reviews, would give clients all the information and detail they needed to make an informed decision on their event entertainment.”

Despite restrictions on live events in the UK as a result of the pandemic remaining in place until March 2022 and the UK live industry as a whole suffering losses of £57bn, Musique has gone from strength to strength and is now inundated with bookings through to 2026. Plus, Musique is growing: last year, they welcomed full-time team member Josh Hart to the company as well as a growing team of freelance professionals.

As a result of its sterling efforts over the past three years, Musique was also named as the winner in the Creative Business category at the Ribble Valley Business Awards 2023, demonstrating not only their bouncebackability against all odds, but their determination to go on to bigger and better things, too.

Speaking about their recognition by the awards, Jamie says: “It’s fantastic to receive recognition for the tireless work the team have delivered over the past three years. Despite our team having lived all over the North West, the Ribble Valley has given us the most consistent business opportunities with its outstanding hospitality, events, and leisure sector.

“It’s a great place to do business and we’re delighted to be considered one of the best creative businesses in the area.”