The Stage

Scrap live music Licensing Act, urges MU

Published Tuesday 12 June 2007 at 16:10 by Alistair Smith

Musicians’ Union general secretary John Smith has called for live music to be exempted from the Licensing Act, complaining that the legislation has not provided the benefits to the entertainment sector which were promised by the government prior to its introduction.

The move marks a significant revisal of union policy, and the first time the organisation has called for music to be freed from the restrictions of the act since it received Royal Assent. It follows an extended period of investigation by the MU, in which it discovered that the overall effect of the act had been ‘neutral’ for the sector, but that the law had actually had a negative impact on some smaller venues wishing to host live music.

Smith explained: “The act has not decimated live music, as some feared it would. Certain areas have suffered, others have improved, but what it hasn’t done is have an overall positive effect. It’s not harmful, it is just a waste of time.”

A statement of policy issued by the MU explained that it is “of the opinion that the inclusion of regulated entertainment in the Licensing Act is unnecessary, and at the first opportunity it will campaign for its removal from the prevailing legislation”.

However, union officials believe that this is unlikely to be possible for some time, and are therefore putting forward a number of recommendations to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, in a bid to improve the current regulations.

These suggestions include an increased exemption for ‘incidental music’, with a broader definition of what this constitutes, an introduction of a fast-track system to introduce entertainment provision to a premises licence, and a total exemption for ‘micro-venues’ of less than 100 capacity, so that these could host live music, without the need for a licence.

The Live Music Forum - the advisory body set up by the government to oversee the effects of the act on the entertainment sector - is expected to publish its own response to the legislation next month, and Smith says he believes many of its recommendation will be similar.

Live music campaigner Hamish Birchall, who has been an outspoken critic of the act and its effect on the entertainment sector, welcomed the statement by the MU as “a welcome and long overdue U-turn by the union”.