The Musicians' Union (MU) is mounting a nationwide campaign against the use of pre-recorded music in Christmas pantomimes.

The pantomime season traditionally provides extra employment for musicians in theatre pits, but the union says there is a growing trend for pre-recorded tapes instead of live music.

The union's Bob Wearn told BBC News Online: "This new trend in pantomime production is ultimately leading to the loss of seasonal employment for large numbers of musicians."

The union has organised demonstrations at the first nights of some pantomimes.

Denial

Pantomime production firm Sound Business - whose parent company, Midas Media, has Jim Davidson as creative director - had phased out live music, the union said.

But Midas Media denied they were putting musicians out of work.

"We are employing musicians to digitally pre-record the music," said chief executive Barrie Stead in a statement.

"We are paying them for the duration of the pantomime but they are simply not required to perform live in the theatre.

"Our style of presentation of pantos, using modern technology requires the music to trigger special effects... The same effects could not be achieved by a live performance."

Mr Wearn said: "We estimate that across the country 400 to 500 musicians are employed in pantomime every Christmas.

Agreement

"Many of them rely on the season for their 'bread and butter' work and a large proportion of them have been performing alongside top pantomime stars for decades."

The union also argues that savings produced by not employing musicians are rarely reflected in ticket pricing.

"The savings tend to disappear straight into the pocket of the production company involved," said Mr Wearn.

But Mr Stead added: "It is not done to save money.

"We are not only paying the musicians for the studio sessions and for the duration of the pantomime run - we are also paying studio costs and employing highly trained sound technicians.

"We use more live musicians throughout the year than many other production companies."

The MU has an agreement with the Theatrical Management Association (TMA) not to allow musicians to be replaced by recordings.

But the agreement is only binding on TMA members, and many companies, such as Sound Business, are not members.