moonchildhippy
Group: Members
Posts: 1807
Joined: Dec. 2004 |
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Posted: Mar. 01 2007, 18:44 |
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http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/licensing/
Please add your name to this petition and pass this on to as many others as possible
The live music/licensing e-petition currently stands at no.17 in the list of 1,702 petitions on the Number 10website: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/licensing/
The Government have recently passed laws in the UK to try and suppress live music and dance. Pubs/bars 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.
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 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 Temporary
Event Notice).'
['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]. 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/ link to sign petition is here..
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/licensing/
Thanks everyone. Please email this to everyone you know, post it on other forums, myspace it, whatever you can do.
I think this proposed law is ridiculous, ludicrous, outrageous. If I was a landlady of a pub and say Mike came in one night with instruments ,(as I sure he did in Kington), and maybe with a musician friend , I'd love to see Mike and Brian May play together. I would love him/them to play an impromtu jam. But so I gather under this new law I (and any musicians too I gather) could be punished with a £20,000 fine and 6 month imprisonment Mad . However a DJ playing music , or a football match , or music from a jukebox is exempt, how absurd Confused . Kids school plays and free charity events would also be subject to this ruling.
How will this prevent crime, disorder , ensure public saftey or prevent kids from harm?? Confused . Go into any town centre on a Friday or Saturday night and I'm sure most of the problems are caused by nightclubs staying open 'till the early hours , and they play previously recorded music, or by people who drink too much and can't handle their beer, plus pub kicking out time is usually the same time across the board.
Say if I was to go to Stonehenge with a few friends and two of us were quietly playing instruments, not harming anyone, the playing musicians are breaking the law. Whereas a pub in a residential area could pump out recorded music or a sports match at more or less whatever volume the landlord pleases. The HYPOCRISY STINKS. I think this Blair government is all about taking away a persons freedom. I always thought this Fair Isle of Albion was a free country, not anymore. Does this mean I'll soon need a licence to practise playing my acoustic guitar in my own home??? I mean if it's summer neighbours could overhear me then I'm broadcasting live "music" (not that my guitar playing is musical), in public. Does this mean I can only play my guitar 12 times a year and have to decide in advance when I wish to play and give sufficient notice to my local council Confused .
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I'm going slightly mad,
It finally happened, I'm slightly mad , just very slightly mad
If you feel a little glum to Hergest Ridge you should come.
I'm challenging taboos surrounding mental health
"Part time hippy"
I'M SUPPORTING OUR SOLDIERS
BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW!!
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, then that would register as a vote but for no-one 
i think i can't sign this petition like the other petition in another topic about Mike because i'm not British . But i want to tell you , in France , we have got now a similar bad law about copyrights ,internet and music online . Nobody was interested by this too complicated law and finally it was voted by the French National Assembly who is in majority with the French government . And now we have a constraining law that nobody understand . It's a shame ! 
