The Stage

Pub giggers find licensing loophole

Published Wednesday 23 November 2005 at 11:10 by Nuala Calvi

As the new Licensing Act comes into force this week, live music campaigners have called for a broad interpretation of the law to allow musicians to continue playing in certain situations where a venue does not hold an entertainment licence.

The act does away with the old “two in a bar” rule, which allowed up to two musicians to play in a pub, club or restaurant without a live music licence. Instead, a new clause states that “incidental music” may not be regarded as entertainment requiring regulation under certain circumstances. It is this section that campaigners hope will allow musicians to perform occasionally in premises without entertainment licences.

Government advice for local authorities on interpreting the law gives examples such as the use of jukeboxes in pubs, or of music by comedians as part of their act. However, musicians’ groups believe that if live music is not advertised as a key part of a venue’s activities and simply adds value to another kind of service provision, it could be categorised as incidental - such as background music in a restaurant. They also suggest that whether or not people have to pay for tickets to hear live music could be one way of defining whether a site should be exempt from licensing.

The National Campaign for the Arts, along with Equity, wants the government to provide a clearer definition of the term as it applies to live music, in order to avoid contradicting interpretations by local authorities, venue owners and the courts. The Live Music Forum, created by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to independently monitor the application of the act, has also set up a sub-group to look at the issue.

NCA director Victoria Todd said: “We are trying to seek clarification for musicians and local authorities as to what this clause actually means and whether it is misleading. We are about to do a survey with Jazz Services to sort this out once and for all.”

A DCMS spokeswoman said the department would be conducting a three-month review of the way in which local authorities were interpreting the clause and would issue more guidance if necessary.

She added: “There are cases where live music could be considered incidental. It does need to be judged on a case by case basis. It will ultimately be for the courts to decide if music is incidental.”

The Musicians’ Union is also asking all its members to report back on the impact the act has on live music in their area. A spokesman said: “Until it is fully implemented no one will know what the impact of the act will be but we are doing our own research for the next three months to get a real grass roots sense of things. We will then prepare our own report to give to the DCMS. We are not making any presumptions about what that will say until we get the feedback.”