The Stage

Live music Licensing Act is a ‘disappointment’

Published Thursday 15 March 2007 at 11:20 by Nuala Calvi

Feargal Sharkey is to tell the government that its Licensing Act has failed to deliver the “explosion” in live music promised by ministers, and has in fact made no difference whatsoever to the UK music scene.

A report by the Live Music Forum, headed by Sharkey and set up by the government to advise them on the impact of the act, is expected to, in effect, call for a return to the days when smaller gigs did not require licensing - demanding that either more weight be given to an exemption for “incidental” music, or that an all-out exemption be made for venues of 100 capacity or less.

A submission by the Impact of the Act Sub-Group, which is expected to form the basis of the report, says there has been “no noticeable change” in the live music scene overall, and that provision has even deteriorated in some areas.

It says 7% of small venues that put on live music under the old ‘two in a bar’ rule, which allowed one or two musicians to play without the need for a licence, are no longer programming any live music, while some local authorities are imposing crippling conditions on venues applying for licences.

Musicians’ Union general secretary John Smith, who chairs the sub-group, told The Stage: “[The act] is a disappointment. Kim Howells, Richard Caborn and James Purnell all promised me, face to face, that it would be good for live music. If we’re going through all this pain, it should be good. But the more we have researched it, the more we think it’s neutral.”

The sub-group’s report was drawn up using evidence from a MORI survey commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which found 60% of smaller venues are now licensed to put on live entertainment, and one by the MU which gathered anecdotal evidence from musicians. Its analysis of the research contrasts to the DCMS line that the results are “encouraging”.

Live music campaigner Hamish Birchall commented: “The sub-group’s report makes a mockery of government promises that the act would help live music, and of recent DCMS claims that the initial evidence of the act’s impact has been positive.

“It calls for the very things that campaigners wanted, but that this government ignored when it drew up the act in the first place - a better incidental music exemption and a small-scale venue exemption.”

Smith said he would be “surprised” if the sub-group’s findings were not taken forward by the forum, but a DCMS spokeswoman played down their importance.

She said: “From what we understand, this is a very early internal discussion document and therefore no assumption should be made that the contents of this draft document will form any part of the final report.”