Tom Watson's fight to save UK's music industry from coronavirus catastrophe
Anyone who glanced at Tom Watson's Twitter feed during his turbulent final months as Labour deputy leader, might have got the impression that music was providing a welcome escape from all the madness.
Among the jousts with Corbynistas, the tirades against gambling policy, press intrusion and the scrapping of free TV licences for the elderly, Mr Watson could regularly be found extolling the virtues of the British music industry.
He lavished praise upon Michael Kiwanuka's latest album and paid tribute to the late Scott Hutchison. He gushed over a show by The Specials like it was 1980 all over again.
Go back a little further and many will recall his race back from Glastonbury when the Labour Party began to fall apart in 2016, or the time when he name-checked Midlands rockers Drenge in a resignation letter to Ed Miliband.
As a backbencher in 2010, it was Mr Watson who persuaded Parliament to stop the BBC from scrapping 6Music.
It comes as little surprise then, that his first major gig after leaving politics is to chair UK Music, the body which lobbies on behalf of artists, record labels and promoters.
Although his position is a non-executive one, Mr Watson says it is far from the genteel role that some may assume it to be.
This he says, is chiefly down to the fact that the music industry, like every other aspect of our lives, has been hammered by coronavirus.
"Like many other sectors of the economy, music is facing a crisis," said Mr Watson, speaking from his home in Wyre Forest.
"All live music being cancelled means many musicians have lost most of their revenues.
"I am very heartened to see that everyone in the industry is playing their role to try and address the immediate hardship that musicians are facing.
"It's my job to make sure the Government knows what sacrifices are being made to hold the industry together."
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Figures published in 2019 show that music contributes £5.2 billion to the UK economy every year, supporting nearly 200,000 jobs.
Meanwhile in 2018, according to UK Music, 738,000 music tourists came to the West Midlands for a live show or festival, boosting the region's economy by £211m.
Before Covid-19 hit, many touring artists were already concerned about the impact of Brexit.
Now with the live music scene at a standstill, those figures will be decimated, and Mr Watson has warned that thousands of jobs in the sector could disappear for good unless the right support is forthcoming.
He says that while the crisis continues to hang over the nation, all music fans can do their bit to support their favourite artists.
"We don't yet know when the lockdown will be lifted, but there is a lot of effort being made to look at how to support the live music sector to get back on its feet as soon as that happens," Mr Watson said.
"In the meantime, music fans can all chip in to support their artists by streaming British bands while they are at home, buying band merchandise and sharing the joy of this country's great music makers with their friends and families."
The former West Bromwich East MP has been keeping himself busy since stepping away from politics at the end of last year.
His weight loss memoir, Downsizing, is a best seller, and his eagerly-awaited political thriller, The House, is scheduled to come out this autumn.
During the lockdown period he says he's spent a lot of his time digging his back garden, usually to a soundtrack provided by West Bromwich-born Robert Plant's Led Zeppelin.
"Thankfully the neighbours appreciate my music taste," he tells me, maintaining that even in these dark times there is a lot to be positive about music in this country.
"Now that we are all on lockdown at home, at least there is more time for us to listen to our favourite artists.
"I was listening to Paul Weller on Instagram last night and my own kids are following Easy Life on their social media platforms.
"We are blessed to have the best music industry in the world, and in the long run, we hope to be the Prime Minister's calling card in all the trade calls that are ahead of us post-Brexit.
"Above all else, our first job is to get through the weeks of lockdown that we all face."
