sorry i copied this from an e mail but i thought it quite relevant to our industry.

x x x
red



There is a government move afoot to make it verydifficult for
>musicians to perform live in small venues, or for
schools, pubs and
>charities to raise money for causes through musical
events. The new
>legislation inhibits the central role music making
has in our lives
and
>communities. If you circulate this group to your
friends, all each
>person has to do is go to the government's petitions
website below,
>give yourname, email and address.Iit takes about 30
seconds. Success
>could make a vital difference to the nurturing of
community music
>making, and enabling young musicians to find their
feet in the
>performing world. The live music/licensing e-petition
now has over
>71,000 signatures. It currently stands at no.3 in the
list of
petitions
>on the Number 10 site. -and there are three more
months in which
people
>can sign. But the petition needs to do much better to
make an
>impression on ministers,and to encourage DCMS to
implement
>music-friendly amendments.



Petition to: recognise that music and dance should not be restricted by burdensome licensing regulations.

>The new law bans two or more musicians playing in a
public place without
>paying a large amount of money for a license. This
has effectively
>brought an end to fringe festivals, busking, and
small musical venues
>are strugguling to function. The new law also effects
dances and the
>likes. So if you've been busking recently or are
currently having a
>fringe festival on public property, you are in fact
breaking the law
if
>you havent got a license and could face a fine of up
to £20,000(The
law
>came into act in febuary, but very quietly, no one
made a fuss because
no
>one really knew about it)The deadline is 11th June___

__________________
Winner "Best Female Performer 2007" MOB Awards
Mistress of Make Believe
Veteran of Circus and British Burlesque
http://www.redsarah.com
http://www.myspace.com/cherrybombola

Ooh I heard about this new legislation about a year ago! Many of my musician friends were really miffed about it so glad I can do my bit to help x

Damn! its like...:WALLBASH:

any idea where we can look at the actual legislation?

Love and frilly knickers!

Caburlesque

XX

Caburlesque welcomes you

That makes me so angry are the government trying to eradicate the arts all together? it makes me angry that they can get away with it.

wallace Sneak-A-Peak

Grrrr!! It just makes me so cross!

There's also plans afoot for the radio frequencies that are used for radio microphones to be sold off to the highest bidder, who will then be able to restrict / charge for their use. Not as catastrophic for our industry as the licensing issue perhaps, but it's another area where ultimately the extra cost will either prevent people from undertaking smaller ventures, and even in the case of big theatre and music shows, the extra cost will be passed on the the paying public...

Anyone would think the government would rather we all stayed in and watched the telly.... hmmm

__________________
"Me and men are like pianos - when they get upright I feel grand!"
www.libertypink.com

I just had a quick google but to no fruition... I'd like to read the legislation too.

__________________
"Star attraction" - News of the World
Website | Blog | BVB on MySpace | BVB on Facebook

Yeah, I stage manage in a London venue and was looking into the radio mic freq thing as well, that'd be a real nightmare our show can easily use up to ten radio packs at a time!

I think it'd be much less thrilling to watch ten performers trying to dance our routines whilst singing into wired mics!
(Although the comedy value might be worth it)

we'll just have to give them all blue tooth headsets, plug the phones into the mixing desk...

Love and frilly knickers!

Caburlesque

XX

Caburlesque welcomes you

that is the most silly thing i have ever read!!!!!! i am not amused :WALLBASH:

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr !

__________________
buxom bimbo and political poltergeist

this refers to the old 'two on a stage' rule, which said that if there were only two people performing at a venue, the venue didn't need a separate entertainment licence. so for instance a singer and guitarist, or a stand-up comic, were covered. however, this dates back to a time when an entertainment licence was a separate thing to a licence to sell alcohol. since the new licensing laws came into power, the provision of alcohol, entertainment, and various other things, all become conditions of a single venue licence.

the crucial thing was if a given venue didn't include 'live entertainment' on their licence conditions and then had live singers/musicians, they were in breach.

however, as far as i can recall, it costs no more to have a licence including live entertainment than one without, so no venue has a good reason not to have an entertainment licence.

a temporary licence can be granted for one-off events. it's issued by your local council (which now controls all licensing) and it's very cheap - about £90 as i recall.

NB: it's the VENUE, not the artist, who has to pay for the licence. all the new legislation refers to a venue licence and the venue is the one can risks the fine by being in breach of its conditions.

so before we panic about the government trying to ruin the arts, this might be worth double-checking. if you go to any local council website and check their licensing section, you should find all the legislation there.

as an aside, the new licensing laws - which in fact came into effect a couple of years ago - are a huge improvement on the old ones and give venues much more flexibility in terms of opening hours, entertainment and so forth. they didn't really address the arts situation directly, so we artists might get caught in the crossfire.