The following from Hamish BIrchall http://www.livemusicforum.co.uk/

Terence Blacker of the Independent has written the best article yet on 
recent entertainment licensing developments:

'Where are the guitar riots and accordian assaults? Terence Blacker - The 
Independent - Tuesday 21 July 2009
'This Government has developed a bizarre hatred for a certain kind of live 
music. Chilling with the kids at the Latitude Festival this weekend, the 
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Ben Bradshaw, looked 
extraordinarily relaxed for someone whose ministry had just dealt a hammer 
blow to musical expression in the UK. Participating in a packed debate about 
media, Bradshaw had been amiable, almost liberal, in his views about Page 
Three girls and the celebrity culture.

'It is music for which his Government has developed a bizarre, sustained 
hatred - or, to be more accurate, a certain kind of music. There is no 
problem with the big, moneyed, well-sponsored acts of the type performing on 
the main stages of Latitude and other festivals. It is the kind of acts 
found on the fringes of these events - small, scruffy, dangerously 
individual and spontaneous - which seems to frighten ministers, and has 
caused them to dump yet another mess of pointless legislation on to the 
statute books.

'Six years ago, the Blair Government decided, for reasons which were and 
remain mysterious, that live music - that is, any music, acoustic or 
amplified, played by one musician or more in a public place - causes a 
threat to public order. It passed the Licensing Act, which required pubs or 
clubs to fill out a complicated form and pay for a permit from the local 
council.

'There would be no exceptions. A person playing a ukulele accompanied by 
someone else on a triangle would be breaking the law if the act appeared in 
a pub without the required license. There was no control, on the other hand, 
over noise blaring from a large TV screen or from recorded music.

'This bafflingly silly piece of legislation, which punished musicians and 
publicans, two professions that were already in difficulty, had the effect 
of causing many pubs to abandon live music. After a long campaign, headed by 
the charity UK Music, sanity seemed to have broken through in May when a 
Commons Select Committee looking into the act concluded that music should 
not automatically be considered a disruptive activity. The 'draconian' law 
had discouraged performance, 'especially by young musicians'.

'The Government has just rejected the committee's recommendations. Ben 
Bradshaw has decreed that, when it comes to music's potential for stirring 
violence, the number of musicians or the size of audience is irrelevant. 
Clearly bored by the subject, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport has 
said that the subject is now closed.

'Could someone in government, in the ministry, in the police, explain the 
thinking behind this idiocy? Surely even the most blinkered, 
legislation-addicted minister can see that it is not music which causes 
trouble when people are gathered together, but alcohol. It is asinine to 
blame musicians for what is a general social problem.

'There has been extraordinarily little evidence to back up the Government's 
position - no sobering statistics about guitar riots, or chilling accounts 
of accordion-related violence. Feebly, a civil servant has argued that, in 
spite of the Licensing Act, the venues putting on live music in the UK have 
increased since 2007.

'Of course they have. Surely, the news has reached Whitehall by now that 
Britain is going through a musical renaissance. There has been a huge 
increase in the numbers of those who attend concerts and festivals. In an 
age of control and corporatism, when so much of life and work is mediated 
through screens, performed music is a defiant, and increasingly powerful, 
expression of the individual human spirit.

'Could that, just possibly, be the problem? Is the reason why politicians 
fear the kind of music which is not controlled by sponsors or huge marketing 
interests that it represents freedom? A government which likes to boast of 
the country's "creative industries" is one which deals with life as if it 
were part of a big business. Everything must be licensed, controlled.

'There is a sad irony here for those who have voted Labour down the years. 
The last time there was an explosion of song-writing outside the power of 
record companies was some 45 years ago. At that time, a Labour government 
briefly had the courage to embrace musical performance as part of a young 
and changing Britain.

'Today, those in charge are wary of unlicensed spontaneity. This absurd 
campaign against musicians, particularly young musicians, may not be the 
most grievous act of this Government but it represents a spirit of 
petty-mindedness and fear which will cost it dearly over the next 12 
months.'

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/terence-blacker/terence-blacker-where-are-the-guitar-riots-and-accordian-assaults-1754426.html

ENDS

Roger Gall wrote:

> Terence Blacker of the Independent has written the best article yet on 
> recent entertainment licensing developments:


> 'The Government has just rejected the committee's recommendations. Ben 
> Bradshaw has decreed that, when it comes to music's potential for stirring 
> violence, the number of musicians or the size of audience is irrelevant. 
> Clearly bored by the subject, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport has 
> said that the subject is now closed.
> 
> 'Could someone in government, in the ministry, in the police, explain the 
> thinking behind this idiocy? Surely even the most blinkered, 
> legislation-addicted minister can see that it is not music which causes 
> trouble when people are gathered together, but alcohol. It is asinine to 
> blame musicians for what is a general social problem.
> 
> 'There has been extraordinarily little evidence to back up the Government's 
> position - no sobering statistics about guitar riots, or chilling accounts 
> of accordion-related violence. Feebly, a civil servant has argued that, in 
> spite of the Licensing Act, the venues putting on live music in the UK have 
> increased since 2007.


> 'Could that, just possibly, be the problem? Is the reason why politicians 
> fear the kind of music which is not controlled by sponsors or huge marketing 
> interests that it represents freedom? A government which likes to boast of 
> the country's "creative industries" is one which deals with life as if it 
> were part of a big business. Everything must be licensed, controlled.

This is something similar to what I said the other day.

There's something going on in the background that we're not aware of.

Are the police worried that Djembe recitals will be used as cover by the 
Muslim Brotherhood?

-- 
William Black

So I looked at the script
It was six weeks filming in the desert.
No girls,  no dialogue,  just guys with guns.
They said "Do you want wages or a percentage?"
It looked like a certain turkey.
When they came the second time I was ready.
I haven't had to work since...

Eli Wallach on his roles in
"The Magnificent Seven"
and "The Good the Bad and The Ugly