From Hamish Birchall- For circulation

Look out for an item about the government's licensing reforms and their implications for live music on Monday 11 Nov, sometime between 7-9am, BBC1 Breakfast programme.

The government has about a week in which to decide on the final form of its proposed Alcohol and Entertainment Licensing Bill, due to be announced in the Queen's Speech on 13 November.

Its current plan is that 'two in a bar' will become 'none in a bar', i.e. hosting one unamplified guitarist in a restaurant once a week is to become a criminal offence - unless first licensed. Broadcast entertainment on satellite or terrestrial tv, or radio, is to remain exempt. The government says that capping and standardising licence fees (no premium for live music) will lead to more live gigs.

However, licensing Minister Kim Howells has also said that the hospitality and leisure industry would resist 'robustly' if the Musicians' Union were to lobby for satellite tv to be a licensable public entertainment.

He didn't say why, but the reasons are obvious: they fear the bureaucratic licensing process, the consultation with local residents, and the potential for onerous local authority licensing conditions, such as monitored safe capacities and CCTV (becoming standard in many local authorities for PELs). Clearly the government's assurance that local authorities will be bound to take published guidance into account doesn't cut much ice with the big pubcos.

The MU is not currently lobbying for satellite tv to become a licensable entertainment. It is lobbying for a licensing regime like that operating successfully in Scotland where live music in a typical bar is allowed during permitted hours without a PEL, provided it is ancillary to the main business. The significance of the comparison is that safety and noise in these premises is regulated by UK-wide public safety and noise legislation.

New York

In 1988 jazz musicians in New York City successfully overturned a 'three in a bar rule' that had operated in zoned areas since 1955. They brought a law suit against the city authorities arguing that the rule breached their first amendment rights. Their case was argued by a jazz-loving civil liberties lawyer, Professor Paul Chevigny. They won.

Professor Chevigny, who is based at the New York University School of Law, has kindly given me help and advice over the last three years. Yesterday he provided me with an outline of how live music is regulated now in New York City:

A New York Bar or restaurant accommodating less than 200 listeners does not need a license to have live music or canned music. There are some fire regulations about exits and sprinklers that apply to places that have entertainment, but not licensing requirements. There are stringent noise regulations, enforced by environmental officers who will listen for decibels in the street. The enforcement is usually provoked by a complaint. The police will also respond to a noise complaint, but the only way to get something done systematically about noise is to get an environmental proceeding. Social dancing requires a cabaret license.