This page discusses quite recent changes in the legislation governing the performance of live music in Britain. In particular it concerns the consequential loss of the freedoms previously granted to play in small groups without a licence, and the effect this may have on some musical heritage. Written by several people, you may find some common themes. If this issue has affected you directly, why not outline a short article, or open a discussion thread within the Members Forums?
Skip to Its Relevance to Druidry
Skip to The Petition
(The following is taken from words written by Doug Bailey of Wildgoose Records)
The Issue
- 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.
- The rationale is to prevent noise, crime and disorder, to ensure public safety, and the protection of children from harm.
- But broadcast entertainment, including sport and music, is exempt - no matter where, and no matter how powerfully amplified.
- In the transition to the new law, bars with jukeboxes, CD players, etc, were automatically granted a licence to play recorded music; but their automatic entitlement to one or two musicians was abolished.
- For the first time, private performances raising money for charity are licensable.
- School performances open to friends and family are licensable - they count as public performances.
- Under the old law 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).
- In December, the DCMS (the governemnt's Department of Culture Media and Sport) 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 licence 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 (ie. 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_library/Research/research_by_dcms/live_music_exec_summary.htm
The organiser of the online petition, Colin Cater, said (17 Jan 07) : 'having seen for myself the affect the new law has had with venues closing their doors to live music of any kind since its implementation and as an organiser of local music events [I] feel that this subject is one that needs to be addressed. Please find below details of an official petition to 10 Downing Street attempting to secure a review of the Licensing laws, particularly as they affect acoustic performance. Although the exemption of Morris Dancing (from the need to be licensed) was a very welcome eleventh hour concession when the Licensing Act was passed, I believe this law was drafted without proper consideration of the opinions of many likely to be affected by it, and almost total disregard for these opinions when forceful representations were made both to the Culture Department and to MPs during the passage of the Bill through Parliament. The present situation in which wide screen televisions in pubs do not require a licence while a single acoustic musician or singer does require licensing is a perversion of justice and testifies to the extent to which the present Government is the patsy of big business, particularly in the entertainment industries. ... Changing this law is about the type of country we all want to live in - for me, making a country in which many ordinary unharmful activities such as making acoustic music do not require any form of regulation from Government (at any level) at all.'
Its Relevance to Druidry
(this section written by Mark Rosher (bish))
One of the perennial discussions within Druidry revolves about what we don’t know about the earliest ‘Druids’ and how we can possibly be walking in their footsteps in the light of such scant knowledge. Others work their Druidry within the now; asserting that the old ways were for old times. Whether one takes the former position or the latter, or perhaps more likely a little of both, it is clear that much of the ancient knowledge is lost. What if the same thing happened to some of our unique musical heritage?
Druidry was said to be an oral tradition, handed down from teacher to student, carrying the knowledge through the generations, until it was suppressed and subsumed by the new religion from the East. That so powerfully resonant word Druid has often been reclaimed, such as in the seventeenth century and in the late twentieth, and it is generally reborn within the context of the society that embraces it – adopting and adapting as befits the times – but each evolution asks the same question: what was lost? What beauty, what insight, what Awen has gone forever, not handed on?
Similarly, the music of this land has been handed down across the generations in the oral tradition we now call ‘Folk Music’. As the Industrial Age took folk from their fields to the factories much of it came close to being lost through lack of use, or from a change in subject as the agrarian world was replaced by the mechanised. Many of these old songs were saved largely by the obsessive interest of one man, Cecil Sharp, who at the start of the twentieth century published a collection of folk tunes later used to reinvigorate the ailing Morris Dance tradition. It could be argued that many of the old songs, of the farmer, the seaman, the natural year, would have been lost forever without the interest he rekindled. And yet it is by everyday bards playing the music and singing the songs that the Awen is expressed, not simply by publishing the words and notation on paper.
Recent changes in legislation have provoked fears that the music of the ‘common man™’, ignored on the whole by the commercial giants, may again be at risk. Not, this time, because the common man is too busy in the mill or mine, but because spontaneous music has become outlawed. The Licensing Act 2003 makes nearly all music renditions licensable by law, removing the old ‘Two in a bar’ exemption that allowed small groups to participate in song.
The argument for the legislation was to simplify licensing, especially for alcoholic sales and to allow clubs to host music events more easily, but in killing the ‘Two in a bar’ rule it ended years of impromptu singing and playing in unlicensed pubs and bars. The licence itself has a substantial cost, which makes it less likely that a venue might apply for one ‘just in case’. For example, one news story on ‘The Stage’, an entertainments industry website, alleges all Samuel Smith pubs and clubs are to hold no more entertainment in future (many Sam Smith’s venues were used by the northern folk club fraternity).
Suppression of free speech, or any responsible form of expression, is not in keeping with the honourable tenets of Druidry. If you feel this subject is worth looking into further there are a few links on this page (each opens a new window, so you don't lose this page!). And if you feel it worthy of your support there is an ongoing petition (running until 11 June 2007) that currently (Feb 25) has more than 23,000 signatures, stating a clear objection to this ‘burdensome legislation’. And finally, for a very powerful and appropriately bardic argument against the legislation, take a look at ‘Roots’, a song written and performed by the wonderful ‘Show of Hands’, reflecting especially perhaps on the line ‘without our stories and our songs, how will we know where we come from?’
The Petition Update
When the period for signing the petition expired, on 11th june 2007ce, there were nearly eighty thousand signatures. Eighty thousand folk calling for common sense for the music of the common man. It prompted a response from the government which included the following text:
- But the Government does accept that some venues feel unnecessarily constrained by restrictive conditions. While those that have stopped hosting live music have generally been balanced by the emergence of new venues, we do recognise that the loss of an established venue can have an impact on individual musicians and music fans.
- It is in response to these concerns that DCMS has already set out areas where it thinks changes might be made to reduce further administrative burdens. The Government also set up the Live Music Forum in 2004 to monitor the impact of the Licensing Act and to recommend how government might better promote live performances. We expect to receive the Forum's findings and recommendations in the Summer and will look closely to see if action is needed.
We'll be watching... waiting... pushing for change. And we'll be singing too!
