The Live Music Forum

Hamish Birchall Bulletin

Friday 24th February 2006 -Landlady's response to Feargal

Following Feargal Sharkey's claims last Monday about not being able to find live music problems (The Publican, 20 Feb 06), the landlady of a north London pub contacted me. Here is an extract from her email. The 'two in a bar' gigs she used to provide were cancelled from 24 November last year following confused advice from her local authority. She has since submitted a variation application to restore live music, but as this is ongoing she asked not to be named:

'Live music will be curtailed without question.  It already has.  Post 24th November we have not hired anyone.  We previously booked live entertainment three times each week at an average cost of £150 per act.  That's around £5,500 in lost wages to musicians and an average of £1500 per week in lost revenue to us not to mention the customers that have gone that we have to try to recover in the event we are successful in our application.

'Feargal Sharkey reports "having looked at around 7000 applications we can find no examples where conditions have been imposed by local authorities".   I beg to differ.  A co-licencee in [location deleted] has just had to engage the services of sound engineers to take readings inside and outside his premises and in the sitting rooms of his immediate neighbours.  Also he will have to put a sound limiter in place - as I write the jury is still out as to whether he will be granted his variation.'

Hamish Birchall

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