The Live Music Forum

Hamish Birchall Bulletin

 

Thursday 11th January - Licensing petition in top 20

Please circulate

The live music/licensing e-petition now has nearly 2,800 signatures. It currently stands at no.19 in the list of 1,702 petitions on the Number 10 website: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/licensing/

This is good, especially in just under a month - and there are five more months in which people can sign. But the petition needs to do much better to make an impression on ministers, and to encourage DCMS to implement music-friendly amendments.

The petition is for everyone, not just musicians. Please consider signing if you haven't already done so. If you have signed, encourage friends to sign.  Points to remember about the new legislation:

'Very few establishments that wanted a new licence were denied it, and many who were previously limited to 2-in-a-bar now have the ability to stage music with 2 or more musicians... This contrasts, of course, with the fact that 40% of establishments now have no automatic means of putting on live music (i.e. they would have to give a TEN).'

['Licensing Act 2003, The experience of smaller establishments in applying for live music authorisation', December 2006', paragraphs 6.1.1 and 6.1.2 'Conclusions', p54; Caroline Callahan, Andy Martin, Anna Pierce, Ipsos-MORI]

'TEN' stands for Temporary Event Notice - in effect a temporary entertainment licence. Only 12 are allowed per premises per year. They cost £21 each.  See the full MORI reports on this site: http://www.culture.gov.uk/Reference_library/Research/research_by_dcms/live_music_exec_summary.htm

Hamish Birchall

BACK

 

--