I have been peddling the idea for about 15 years. Many, in both political parties, have lent me their ear and allowed me to sing my song. Most have agreed with it but no one has done anything about it. I suppose I will have to get by without a little help from my friends.

The problem is quite simple. Anyone interested in any genre of music has to travel to a European metropolis to see their favourite artist live. Whether you want to take in Jose Carreras, Eminem, Coldplay or Robbie Williams you have to hop on a plane and go to London, Milan, Paris or Berlin to satiate your eyes and ears.

The total expenses for a single concert would be in the region of Lm200-300. On 14 December, for instance, a friend managed to snatch a ticket to Coldplay's concert in London for me. Even though I am staying with him, toting up flights, meals and sundry expenses, the joy of listening to Clocks, Fix You and Yellow will put me back around Lm250.

And yet, I consider myself a lottery winner. The concert tickets were sold faster than Chris Martin could say Stars. I have no other choice if I want to hear him sing it. Some Maltese travel agencies have recognised that the various species of musical culture vultures constitute a sizeble market and are selling package tours with the concert ticket included. Such an option tends to be cheaper but not much.

Unless music lovers of all sorts are willing to continue paying through the nose there is only one solution. We need these singers and bands to come to Malta rather than us following them around.

Over the years, some local concert promoters have taken the risk and brought over some big or fairly big names in the business. On balance, it has been a hit and miss financial affair. The risk involved in making the bottom line work has acted as a powerful deterrent against sustained private initiative. The result has been that over the last several years the only authentic world class pop/rock artist brought to our shores was Sir Elton – and what a magnificent evening that was. Otherwise, concert promoters have tended to risk their capital on the smaller constellation of stars.

Is there a solution? Do Maltese music lovers of all sorts – from rock to baroque – have to keep forking out Lm250 and take two days off work to watch a two-hour concert? For a decade and a half I have argued that there is.

Let us start out with a basic question. Does the government have an obligation to subsidise the enjoyment of live, top-notch rock, opera or pop music? As a liberal, my answer is a rather categorical no. Yet the matter is not so simple.

For starters, there are various European States which, for one reason or another, support and subsidise concerts. Austria and France immediately come to mind.

More forcefully, the Maltese government is already heavily subsidising all sorts musical concerts that cater for specialised as well as populist tastes. What are the tens of thousands of liri spent by the government on the yearly Jazz Festival if not a subsidy to satisfy the tastes of a few hundred jazz fans? What is the global figure of around Lm60,000 spent by the government on the Eurovision except a subsidy of affectionately kitch musical tastes? And, of course, there are myriad other musical and other types of performances to which government makes direct or a indirect financial contribution.

The point is clear. Government is already subsidising concerts. The question then is which ones? Why this and not the other? Why opera but not rock, jazz but not pop?

My solution to make as many Maltese music lovers as happy as possible would be this. Each year the government would vote Lm100,000 specifically to bring four A-class acts to Malta, Lm25,000 for one every three months. In the context of overall government expenditure, allocation and sheer wastage, Lm100,00 is just a drop in the ocean.

Through an independent board, government would enter into a public-private partnership venture and the private promoter would be obliged to match the government's Lm25,000. This tots up to Lm50,000. This can, not only make it possible to book the best acts, but also make the risk-taking more palatable to the private investor.

Obviously, profits or losses from ticket sales would be shared equally by the government and the promoter. If the costs of a particular act would exceed the Lm50,000 mark, the promoter would have the option to put up the balance. Obviously, his share of the profits, if there are any, would increase proportionately.

Profits due to government from each concert would be put in a professionally managed investment trust fund. This fund would have three financial goals. To:

• Cover the losses incurred on any particular concert

• In the long term, make the yearly government subsidy unnecessary

• Help deserving Maltese artists develop their talents and break into foreign markets

On a financial level I would recommend one further stipulation. There would be the strong possibility that one or two seasoned local promoters with established contacts abroad gain automatic access to the quarterly Lm25,000 capital outlay from government. To avoid such a monopoly situation, each promoter would qualify for the subsidy once a year.

The question that remains is an artistic one. Which musical genres would qualify for such a scheme? Would a promoter touting a reformed Sex Pistols concert have the same claim to the Lm25,000 cushion as another brandishing a Sting or a Pavarotti in government's face? In a choice between the latter two, which one should government be involved with?

These are not easy issues for the proposed independent board to grapple with. And I don't forsee that such questions can ever be answered once and for all.

As a solution I propose that the board constantly play off two guidelines against each other: on the one hand to cater to as wide a range of musical tastes as possible in the course of a year and, on the other, the financial viability of each concert.

I have no doubt that with the right people on the board this financial formula would be win-win. For promoters, music fans of all stripes and government. And the bottom line would be that once every three months we would get a world-class concert ... and pay no more for it than what every European pays in his own country. And there is an added bonus. Regularly held top-notch concerts are a tourist attraction in themselves and word spreads around.

One final financial point. It is being said that in the course of a week CHOGM cost around Lm2.5 million. I have absolutely no doubt that the country got its money's worth in exposure and clout. But put this expenditure in the perspective of the humble scheme I am proposing. Even if the government were to lose all the Lm25,000 it puts into every concert every three months, 25 years would have to elapse before it reaches the Lm2.5 million in red ink. Think about it.

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