Feargal Sharkey, chief executive of UK Music on the effects of the Licensing Act on live music:
Last week I bumped into Ed Vaizey at the Daily Politics show. He was talking about the new book SuperFreakonomics and zeitgeist politics with Gillian Tett from the FT. I was on with Gerry Sutcliffe, the Minister in charge of licensing to talk about the Licensing Act.
One thing that Ed said, which would have given him a perfect excuse to stay on the sofa for my session, was how the law of unintended consequences could and often does have the effect of making well intentioned legislation backfire on those sections of the community it was introduced to help.
It’s not hard to work out that my passion in life is music and particularly live music. I was Chair of the Live Music Forum, a Government advisory body, and have spent the last six years debating, with three different Secretaries of State, how some of the measures contained in the Licensing Act that have been interpreted and how they are having a very detrimental effect on live music overall but particularly small scale live music.
Prior to the Act, the law said that you could have up to two musicians playing in a bar without any formal approval, Government or otherwise. As a result this country had a huge tradition of live music in pubs, clubs, bars, restaurants and venues of every type. Live music was very much part of our history, our culture, our society.
In general terms the Licensing Act has introduced measures which not only meant the removal of the 2-in-a-bar rule, but now require that pretty much any performance of live music, no matter how small, requires a license and formal approval. By way of example, I know of a record shop which is being prosecuted for allowing a 16-year old girl to sing Ave Maria. They failed to obtain a licence. That of course has opened up the potential of a £20,000 fine and/or six months imprisonment for the shop owner. No, I’m not kidding.
These licensing requirements were introduced just before a crushing recession hit our pub and club sector.
The result, venues that used to play live music have stopped. This point and the effect it’s having on your local community was actually mentioned by Lembit Opik, MP who spoke at the recent Westminster Hall debate on the Licensing Act. The British Beer and Pub Association estimate we are currently loosing 55 local pubs per week.
DCMS, on the other hand claim that the Licensing Act has actually delivered an 11% increase in live music from 2007-2009! I’ll try and put this rather kindly, it is shall I suggest, somewhat misleading if not bordering on the ridiculous. This estimate includes whole new ranges of venues like schools and hospitals, plus others not even licensed for live music so quite frankly shouldn’t count.
As it transpires, Government’s own research shows that there has been a decrease in live music in small scale live music venues. British Market Research Bureau’s research, commissioned by DCMS, showed that there has been a 5% decrease in the provision of live music in secondary live music venues since Government’s baseline survey was conducted in 2004 (from 47 per cent in 2004 to 42 per cent in 2007).
The Licensing Act was meant to encourage live music. But the unintended consequence is one of active discouragement. The sooner this Act is amended to exempt small scale venues the better.
Live music is vital to our local communities and to my industry. It provides a focal point of local community interest and is sometimes the only outlet for a jobbing musician. It is the bedrock upon which rests the future of the incredible success story which is the British music industry.
I applaud Ed’s comments that if the Conservative Party were to form the next Government they will conduct a root and branch review of this legislation.
I understand that the UK Statistics Authority have already agreed to look into the latest DCMS figures in response to a complaint from another music campaigner.
I have also drawn the Authority’s attention to other serious ‘oversights’ in statements made by both the DCMS and Gerry Sutcliffe.
The headline statistic of 83,600 premises with live music provision includes schools (as confirmed by a spokesman in the House of Lords). There are apparently 24,000+ schools in England & Wales and in some areas all of these now have premises licences with live music provision. If these were stripped out of the figures, the bulletins may well have shown a decrease in live music provision since Apr 2006.
The headline statistic also includes hospitals, retirement homes, public places, museums, art galleries, warehouses, shops, premises which cannot host live music due to noise abatement notice, and even premises which are closed. It appears that the DCMS statisticians have done everything in their power to inflate these live music statistics.
An article on the University of Westminster Music Tank website (written by a colleague of mine) reveals that ‘114,261 licensed premises in England and Wales are not licensed to host live music events’ http://www.musictank.co.uk/newsletters/nov-09/#op...
This number is taken from the DCMS’s own statistical bulletin, and demonstrates that 58% of premises are no longer available for performances of live music except by applying for a TEN.
The DCMS’s claim that an increase in the number of TEN applications demonstrates that the live music sector ‘is booming right now’ shouldn’t fool anybody except Gerry Sutcliffe. In the Government’s reply to the Culture Committee recommendations in July, the DCMS revealed: 'The National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations suggests that up to half the temporary event notices could be given by Parent Teacher Associations.' If so, the increase in TENs merely demonstrate how effective the Licensing Act has been in deterring fund raising events for schools.
Even LACORS November newsletter admits ‘We are aware that some Council Licensing Committees are not keen on delegating the decision making process to officers, and that some have taken a blanket approach to rejecting any applications for live music.’
[...] http://www.culturepolitick.com/cms/2009/11/20/the-licensing-act-statistics-and-music/ [...]
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You need to write more often you do a good job
Trying to view your post. The format isn’t working properly wiht chrome.