studio with Katherine on the other side of London hi Katherine hello Neil hello

everybody now Neil I want to ask you a question when are you next going to see

some live music well that is a good question I have tickets for two concerts

this summer and I don't think they're going to happen to be honest exactly

yeah and it's a strange story for a lot of us all around the world music events

are being cancelled due to the corona virus outbreak and that's what we're

looking at today okay so let's find out some more from this

BBC Radio one news big bulletin a top music boss doesn't think live music will

be back until the end of the year at the very least Andrea Martin from PRS for

music says coronavirus means fans could be wary of going to gigs in future music

most music in the UK and further afield have been cancelled this situation is

going to stay for some months in the UK it may be the end of the year before

there is any live music now even when the live music starts it could be that

people are too worried to attend events and it's reported that festival

organizations are in so much trouble with this they may never be able to hold

another festival ever so it's really worrying time for the music industry

you've been looking around a good story and you've picked out three words and

expressions what have you got yes we have wasteland go to the wall and

decimation wasteland go to the wall and decimation okay your first headline

please and we're starting with music radar here in the UK their headline a

wasteland uk's festival scene on verge of permanent collapse wasteland a

situation which contains nothing positive yes so wasteland is

spelt lwas te la nd it's all one word wasteland okay so we have this word

wasteland it's got waste and land in it but what

does that have to do with this story okay well let's look at the literal

meaning first waste land is land that cannot that is not being used for

anything that means it's not being used by people often it's not being used by

animals wildlife there's very little growing there so a wasteland is land

that is not being used usually a wasteland was used in the past we often

talk about industrial wastelands that means an area of land which did have

human activity but is now doesn't have any activity so a wasteland in the

idiomatic sense or in this sense means the industry the music industry will be

a wasteland it no longer has any useful activity happening within it okay

we often hear this used in a sort of economic sense don't we yes I mean we

didn't talk about an economic wasteland and it means that an an area of business

or the economy that was very successful before is now not having it any success

yeah and we can also talk about a cultural wasteland what's that well the

early yes I think a friend of yours moved out of London quite recently

didn't they they wanted a nice lots of clean air and they didn't like the

traffic and all the pollution and everything so off they went to live in a

little village and I heard they're not too happy now no well these are people

who really really liked going to the theater seeing concerts going to art

galleries and exhibitions tasting food from all over the world and they found

that even though it was really nice and quiet in the countryside

in that particular village they just said it was a bit of a waste where the

cultural wasteland cultural wasteland so not enough opera in the tiny little

village not nowhere near enough opera in the village really I don't know if I

don't know if that's a bad thing to not have operate in a little village but a

cultural wasteland is a phrase that describes a place that doesn't have a

lot of variety in terms of culture ok well let's have a summary of that word

now our second headline please Catherine yes still in the UK with louder sound

and the headline is AI F 92% of independent festivals could go to the

wall unless government to take action go to the wall fail be destroyed yes we

have a four-word phrase here Gio go to tio 30 HP and wall of W a double L so

the full phrase is go to the wall now if you if something goes to the wall it is

in very serious trouble it is fighting for its survival

it probably won't survive at all and we often use go to the wall to talk about

businesses if a business goes to the wall it really fails or it has to fight

very hard to succeed yeah so we're talking here about businesses projects

that kind of thing yes you can talk about projects I believe a project of

yours went to the board recently Neil oh well you know I've been trying this

English for cat's idea that nobody really likes I'm afraid I'm afraid it's

gone to the wall it went to the all pretty quickly really no interest

nobody's interested in it except for cups and they can't click on the

computer that's the problem it's a failure basically it's a savior and so

we stand out so we can say that it went to the wall it went to the wall it's a

curious expression isn't it we don't really know the origin well we have a

look at it's got to do some some places say that it's about fighting if you're

in a fight and you've got a wall behind you nobody can attack you from behind

but it means that you're being attacked yeah anyway it's a very memorable

expression yeah let's have a summary then please

if you like stories about music we have a good one for you don't we Catherine

well it's about another venture that went to the wall and the death of iTunes

if you want to know more click the link in the description and that's not all

they should do is it no by no means if you like anything that we do make sure

you hit the subscribe button so you'll never miss another one of our shows okay

now it's time for our final headline yes I must headline comes from the United

States that publication digital music news and the headline the association of

independent festivals AI F warns that indie UK festivals of facing decimation

decimation destruction killing of large numbers of something yes it's Dec I ma

tion decimation the see is pronounced with it sound destination there is an

interesting origin to this word isn't there the clue being in Dec at the

beginning yes do you see Dec means 10 languages and if

you know your Roman history you will know that Roman soldiers if a group of

Roman soldiers a Legion or a squadron I'm not sure what they were cold but

soldiers as a punishment for bad behavior one in every 10 of those

soldiers would be killed so a very severe punishment but one in 10 were

killed as a punishment for all of them this is where we get the idea of

decimation it means a lot of killing now in terms of the music industry people

are not being killed and it's not to do with 10% either it just means a lot of

serious destruction if something is decimated it cannot recover it cattle

recovery will be very very difficult it cannot function properly ok so we've

talked about the financial use or the economic use of this

we also here this used a lot when we're talking about the environment yes we can

talk about environmental decimation we also have the word as a verb to decimate

and we could say that something has been decimated so we can talk about numbers

of animals have been decimated the rainforest is experiencing decimation

there's lots of words about environmental destruction on an extreme

scale and we can talk about decimation okay let's have a summary of that word

time now then for a recap of our vocabulary please yes we had wasteland a

situation which contains nothing positive we had go to the wall which

means fail or be destroyed and finally decimation destruction killing of large

numbers of something if you want to test yourself on the vocabulary we have a

quiz on our website BBC learning english.com

until next time stay safe see you everybody stay safe