People Help The People

The silence of live music is deafening.
Barely a quarter of pubs and small venues have a music licence to show live music due to the complex and confusing Licensing Act of 2003. Small gig venues are dying through out the country and a change is needed to prevent the British music industry from wilting away into manufactured abyss.

Fortunately there is a voice at the end of the mic in the shape of the Live Music Bill which is currently in Parliament. Liberal Democrat Peer Lord Tim Clement-Jones raised the Bill in the House of Lords in an attempt to stop the “absurdities of the Licensing Act which is stifling emerging artists” he said in an article for the Guardian last year.
The House of Lords spokesperson for Culture, Media and Sport is keen to promote Britain’s creative culture and he is concerned that the domination of British music worldwide is potentially being thwarted by the current legislation. The Bill proposes to change the current Licensing Act to allow small venues (200 people or less) with alcohol licences the liberty to show live music without having a music licence however, local authorities can remove the exemption if complaints from residents are upheld. This change would also allow schools, hospitals and other venues that don’t sell alcohol complete exemption from the licence for events with 200 people or less.

Clearly these exemptions allow up and coming talent to grow and show off what they have to give to the music world. The freedom for pubs and other small venues to allow live music will encourage more people into the pubs which, may been seen as a negative by some groups as it may encourage binge drinking but it will also give many more bands and artists the opportunity to hone their talent. Small venues will also benefit financially from this change in law as it allows them the choice, which they may not have been able to afford before, to offer more variety to their customers, which could draw in more custom.

Lord Clement-Jones said last year: “The decrease in live music in small venues, as evidenced by the DCMS’s (Department of Culture Media and Sport) survey into the act, is potentially denying us a generation of new performers.”
In a plastic pop generation, the music industry is hungry for a variety of new and fresh acts to diversify the charts. The new law will allow more and more venues to open their doors to live bands, which can only strengthen and improve the quality of music in this country. Most of our current successful bands started off gigging in small pubs and clubs and it would be a shame to lose that culture in the UK.

 Former guitarist of the Beautifully Decayed, Hannah Linne said: “I think it is a great idea [The Live Music Bill] because it will give local bands much more opportunity to play live and get good at playing live. And it gives the chance for record labels to gauge a bands popularity too, they can see an actual reaction from crowds rather than a number of hits on Youtube or MySpace.”
No doubt the music industry will continue to grow and make more money of the back of this Bill and perhaps that’s why it is going through Parliament – to try and save an industry which is losing money year on year to pirate downloads and Spotify. But surely the increased competitiveness of the market would lead to better quality artists and we would be left with the cream of the crop of talent from the UK.

 Regular gig-goer Gillian Ashton, said: “In the X-Factor age we are ending up with no creativity in the industry. It would be great to allow more venues to open their doors to new music – it will encourage creativity.”

The Live Music Bill had its Third Reading in the House of Lords last week and is now to go to the House of Commons.

The Incorporated Society of Musicians (ISM) said earlier this month: “We are delighted that this Bill, with Coalition and Opposition support has made it to the House of Commons. The government must now urgently support this Bill through to its conclusion and deregulate live music.”

It’s hard to find a problem with this Bill passing through Parliament and the lack of opposition to it leads to the question why live music was regulated in the first place. The support which this Act will give to our home grown talent will encourage more and more talented people to share their gifts with the world which can only be a good thing.

To track the passage of this Bill go to The Live Music Bill Parliamentary site.

Rx