Band Ban Banned

Another piece of useless legislation looks set to bite the dust.

Because of the Governments failure to control gun crime back in 2003, it did the next best thing, smother the public’s rights. The Licensing Law 2003, introduced in 2005, has made it nigh on impossible to promote regulated entertainment in pubs and clubs.

It’s even worse in London where as an addition, a promoter has to submit ‘Form 696’ in which the Metropolitan Police not only want to know details of the promoter and premises, but the target audience as well. The deal breaker must be the section where the promoter has to fill in the real name, stage name, date of birth, contact telephone number and address of each and every performer. Quite a Herculean task if a Russian symphony orchestra is about to perform at the local working mans club!

The Culture Media and Sport select committee have expressed "concern at the linkage of live music and public order issues" and music should not automatically be treated as a "disruptive activity, which will inevitably lead to nuisance and disorder."

The chairman of the committee, John Whittingdale MP said, "We were particularly concerned to hear of the way the Act may be hampering live music performances especially by young musicians, who often get their first break though performing live at small venues such as pubs."

On Form 696, the committee said it imposes "unreasonable conditions on events" and "goes beyond the Act". It has recommended that the form should be scrapped.

The Licensing Law 2003 and Form 696 were introduced in an attempt to reduce gun crime in pubs and clubs with entertainment.

I don’t know about bands, but I have seen a few pub comedians that needed shooting!