The Live Music Forum
This page contains links to:-
Hastings Live Music Forum How it came about
The Hastings Observer - November 1993 Local Press Coverage of The Forums
Michael Foster MP 10th September 1999 A letter from MP Michael Foster honouring his promise to us
In 1980/81 the Musicians Union staged a feeble talking shop called 'The Pubs Issue' after pub gigs in London really plummeted in the post punk years. I attended several meetings including the first one whch was held in a pub in the West End. The Chairman refused to discuss Mechanical Copyright and the effect that had on live music in pubs.
A couple of months later I attended another meeting in Clapham with information and ideas on citing the duplication of safety laws as a means to lobby for change. But they were plainly not interested, even when I took along an expert to offer free advice. Unbelievably, it seemed to me and still does, as though the Musicians Union did not want to press for changes which would open up more work in pubs. They certainly discouraged any positive action from their own members.
Phil Little
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There was a Campaign for Live Music based in Brighton in the late 1980's. Also certain groups like pub chain Hobgoblin have been keen and vociferous supporters of live music. And members of the Folk community always dedicated to the cause.
But, for an idea of how the recent Musicians Union PEL campaign really started out, have a look at the following webpage.
In 1993 Phil Little staged a Live Music Forum in Hastings. It was a passionate success and a committed pressure group formed out of the event, calling itself the Hastings Live Music Forum. Following Public elections a committee of five volunteers published a free event guide which became a model for similar publications along the South Coast and elsewhere in the country. In Hastings, Music Files became so influential that it was able to help Michael Foster become Hastings Labour MP in the biggest swing constituency of the 1997 General Election.
In the months prior to Polling Day, Phil Little had extracted a Pre-Election Promise from Michael Foster to do something to ease the licensing restrictions on live music.
At a series of MU Branch meetings in 1997/1998, Phil Little advanced ideas to press for a review of the Public Entertainment Licensing issues, which he had campaigned for continually over the previous six years, and had written about in Music Files many times, each article having been read by his branch colleagues. They included the anomaly of inconsistent License Fees between different Boroughs and the resistance of landlords to high costs, as well as the existing duplication of legislation. These were originally reported in The Hastings Observer - November 1993 .
The ideas were enthusiastically taken on board by the members and officials present at the meetings. It was agreed that Phil Little and the Branch Secretary would research the inconsistency in PEL fees in different Boroughs around the country and that, the Branch Secretary would prepare a report to the local MP since it might carry more weight on MU headed paper. The Wealden Downs Branch Secretary did a good job but the document he submitted was just too long and ended up languishing in a pending tray as Phil Little discovered after he insisted at a Branch meeting that he personally visit the MP to bring the matter up again. At the previous two branch meetings the 'line management' had rejected Phil's offer to chase the matter up.
The whole thing had dragged on for one year since Phil had first raised the issue at the branch meetings. Plenty of time, you would have thought, for somebody at Union HQ to get some kind of contact going with the Government so they wouldn't be overtaken by a one man band.
Here is the letter from Hastings MP Michael Foster following Phil Little's visit in September 1999,
Michael Foster MP 10th September 1999
Thereafter the Musicians Union took up the matter at Head Office and little was heard until 2002. The Musicians Union employed Jazz drummer, Hamish Birchall, to lobby the Government on license reform and as an individual faced with a mountainous task he did a fantastic job. But why was he left to work on his own. The MU head office could have connected him with other activists and volunteers within the Union to form a more effective pressure group. But they failed in this and I believe Hamish himself felt that some senior officials in the MU were cold on really pursuing a result.
Union Fossilises
As the chance to improve working opportunities for all kinds of musicians was squandered, the MU closed 72 local branches and raised subscriptions, channeling funds that were traditionally intended for the benefit of the members into the main account to plug the financial holes created by years of preferential mis-management. Thousands of grass roots members have since left and, as other organisiations who are more prepared to help musicians are easily contacted through the internet, the Musicians Union has become somewhat of a dinosaur, maintaining its position only through the Musicians Union name and their sycophantic relationship with new Labour.
They probably proposed the name of Live Music Forum, having had a taste themselves, and their Executive sits on the panel chaired by Feargal Sharkey.
Government Spins
The Government panel calling themselves the Live Music Forum put out statements claiming live music in this country would improve as a result of the Licesning Act. That is absolute rubbish and this site shows you how. For details and facts on the progression of the legislation, go to Hamish Birchall's Bulletins.
The Government Live Music panel has disbanded now, but, really it was just a diversion, assembled to put out New Labour spin and use it's power and media connections to drown out any chance of this serious message getting through to the general public before it was too late. Even to the point of delaying and obfuscating information contained in supposedly believable surveys carried out by a company who lost the data on the original survey. Meaning that they can't do another survey exactly the same to make a before and after comparison. Neat trick. They did that too with information available from local councils, I found when I carried out my own survey of 25 Councils.I gathered a list of licensed premises for each Borough. But low and behold, when I came to repeat my survey two and a half years later. The laws on information had also been changed and the Councils no longer had an obligation to provide the data. In fact the majority of them didn't even reply. Shout out to Swansea City Council who were most co-operative as were some large city councils.
New Labour care far more about Sport, as televised by Sky, and keeping happy certain newpaper proprietors. And they care about the revenue generated from massive sales of alcohol far more than about the positive effect that actual live music, singing and dancing have on people's spirits.
Following the Licensing Act there can be no live music in pubs and restauarants without the premises license which involves a complicated 20 page application and stringent electrical and safety demands. Building plans have to be submitted and this extra cost alone is sufficient to put off the majority of landlords of small pubs, restaurants and Cafe's who don't normally retain such documentation.
'Live music performances at schools, church halls, hospitals and care homes, for example, if open to friends and family, are illegal unless licensed, irrespective of whether there is a charge for admission. Even private concerts are licensable if the intention is to raise money for good causes.', added Hamish Birchall.
Just where is all this promised explosion of live music supposed to take place if it's illegal in most places ?
What is the need for all the control ?
Phil Little