I thought that Steve Rubie's concerns were posted here but I can't see them, so I will post them here now.

Steve Rubie, Proprietor 606 Jazz Club, Chelsea
e-mail to Andy Knight
Deputy General Secretary - Musicians Union
Wed 30 January 2002

Caveat re Government's proposals for two in a bar reform

Andy

I just had a very interesting chat this morning with a couple of guys I know pretty well from the Council (Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea) who deal with Licensing and Building Regs for this area. In fact they just popped in to approve some minor work here, but we got chatting about the new licensing regulations which are likely to be announced in November and implemented some time next year.

As I'm sure you are aware the intention is to transfer all licensing to local government, which will include liquor and entertainment as well as food. Every premises that sells food or liquor will be obliged to re-apply for their license under these new regulations. The way they see this being implemented is that each license application will be basically divided into 3 "modules", Food, Liquor and Entertainment.

This means that each licensee will be required to make the choice, at the point of application, as to whether or not they want to add Entertainment to their license application. Should they decide not to, for whatever reason, then that premises will not be licensed for music of any kind. In other words, the"2 in the Bar" rule will be gone, but if the applicants, who may have had duos for possibly years, do not fully appreciate the situation and just assume that they still don't need a license for duos, and so fail to apply for one, then they will lose the ability to put on live music altogether.

It is also quite possible that a number of venues that have put on live music in the past may be required to make so many changes under the new regulations that it's not worth their while, and will subsequently stop the provision of live music. The biggest problem, it seems to me though, is that licensee's really need to be educated to the fact that even if they only want to put on music once a year, say New Year's Eve, then they must still add "Entertainment" to their licence at the point of application otherwise it will not be possible.

Is the Union planning any sort of campaign to ensure that those who are affected by this, primarily pubs and restaurants (most Clubs, like us, are already in the "Entertainment Licensing" system) are aware of what's going to happen and what they need to do to ensure the provision of live music in their venue? It could be a great boost to the promotion of live music if handled properly, but it does seem to me that if not it could actually backfire and lead to fewer, rather than more, venues promoting live music. Anyway, sorry to go on but I thought it was maybe worth bringing this up now, before any concrete decisions are made by Government.