Radiohead drummer Philip Selway writes about the isolating pressures of touring and backs a new initiative, the Pay It Forward Fund, which aims to give musicians and crew on smaller, grassroots tours access to mental health support that bigger acts can already afford. He recalls his own struggles during Radiohead's rapid rise in the early 1990s, including a breakdown in his drumming brought on by anxiety and "impostor syndrome" while touring the US, and argues that talking openly, as he eventually did with his wife and a manager, was invaluable in helping him cope.

The fund has been set up by Tamsin Embleton and the Music Industry Therapist Collective (MITC), building on support the collective already provides to larger tours, such as the drop-in therapy sessions offered to Radiohead's touring party last autumn. Selway notes that grassroots musicians face tighter margins, heavier workloads and greater isolation than well-funded acts, often without any space to address the emotional toll of life on the road, and hopes the scheme will give them access to counsellors with genuine experience of the music industry.