Lib Dems celebrate victory for live music

5.3.03

"Government plans would have ended live music as we know it"

Liberal Democrat Peers, supported by the Conservatives, recently celebrated a victory for live music as the Government was defeated by 151 votes to 115 on exempting "incidental" live music from licensing. The Government also accepted, without a vote, the exemption of unamplified music from licensing in House of Lords on the Licensing Bill.

Local MP, Edward Davey, has described this as a "victory for commonsense", describing the Government originals proposals as "nanny state nonsense".

The overall purpose of the Licensing Bill is to introduce one licensing law that will replace the numerous licensing regimes that have been in place for almost forty years, which has broad cross-party support.

However, the Government were also proposing that all public live musical activity would have to have a licence. The unnecessary costs and bureaucracy had led many to believe it would have spelt the death-knell to unamplified live music, and the measure was opposed by many musicians and religious groups.

Edward Davey commented:

"Many of my constituents will be thrilled with this news. This is a victory for common sense. The Bill is now truly a deregulatory Bill that will allow greater freedom for playing live music. Our amendments make it explicit in law that unamplified music should not be licensed.

"There has also been huge public support for our proposals in an online petition sponsored by the Musicians Union "Live music does not cause nuisance, should not be regulated and is indeed a human right that needs protecting."

"Loud amplified music that sometimes does cause a nuisance will still be subject to controls, but "incidental" and "unamplified" music will now be regulation-free."