Official UK Live music petition

[RapidEyE]

I've just recieved an email from my mate Jay which is quite disturbing if you are involved in UK live music, please read, consider and sign ASAP, and could we make this sticky.

please & thanks

 

 

Everybody needs to look at this!!!!!!!

 

''The Government have recently passed laws in the UK to try and suppress

live music and dance. Pubs which could previously offer work to solo singers

or duos now have to pay for a special licence and can only have 12 of these

per year. Even school Xmas concerts need to be licensed.

 

If you don't know there is a UK government web site where anyone can now

start a petition and that's what is being done. we've just received the

following email which explains things more clearly and gives the site

address . If you care about keeping music live please take the time to sign

the petition.

 

Subject: Music/Licensing Laws - Official Downing Street petition

 

Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2007 12:36:37

 

Please circulate

 

The live music/licensing e-petition now has nearly 20,000 signatures. It

currently stands at no.17 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. (CLOSING DATE: 11 June 2007). 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:

 

a.. The unlicensed provision of even one musician is a potential criminal

offence (although some places are exempt, including places of public

religious worship, royal palaces and moving vehicles). Max penalty:

£20,000 fine and six months in prison.

 

b.. The rationale is to prevent noise, crime and disorder, to ensure public

safety, and the protection of children from harm.

 

c.. But broadcast entertainment, including sport and music, is exempt - no

matter where, and no matter how powerfully amplified.

 

d.. In the transition to the new regime, bars with jukeboxes, CD players etc

were automatically granted a license to play recorded music; but their

automatic entitlement to one or two musicians was abolished.

 

e.. For the first time, private performances raising money for charity are

licensable.

 

f.. School performances open to friends and family are licensable - they

count as public performances.

 

g.. Under the old regime all premises licensed to sell alcohol for

consumption on the premises were automatically allowed up to two live

musicians (the 'two in a bar rule').

 

h.. In December, DCMS published research confirming that about 40% of these

have lost any automatic entitlement to live music as a result of the new

Act:

 

'Very few establishments that wanted a new license 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 authorization'; 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_...ec_summary.htm

 

link to sign petition is here.. http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/licensing

[Zealot]

Basicaly they want to kill the "litle" bands and its spot.That law sucks real bad .

 

Pd:sorry ,im not from the UK. but i will be glad to spread the voice over this.

 

Zealot

[Callysto]

Consider it signed

[68030]

given that, when i was in london not a month ago, all they did talk on the tv was their prisons

already being stuffed to the rim and some judge made a show of letting some pedophile off

and didn't send him to prison after some secretary or other (reid?) made a speech to that

effect, i wonder where they will put these big criminals that dare to have live music more

often and possibly (quite probably) totally unlicensed. what a farce. besides that, does a

karaoke event fall into this? i mean, seriously that's more that a dozen single artists onstage

in a single night. what hefty fine that could prompt. especially as it's most likely not licensed.

the outrage.

anyway, i'd have thought your politicians over there had a little more sense than our own.

guess they're all alike, anywhere on the planet.

[djpc47]

everyone loves the RIAA.... those people are clearly pirating music in order to have gigs

[solaar]

Oh dear... as if there aren't any more urgent issues. What's next? Enforcing fees on everybody who sings or whistles a tune in the loo? and another

 

Petition signed