MIKE HARDING INTERVIEWS DR KIM HOWELLS MP AND HAMISH BIRCHALL, ADVISER TO THE MUSICIANS' UNION, ON THE ISSUE OF PUBLIC ENTERTAINMENT LICENCES (PELs)
Originally broadcast 17.07.02

MH "Roger Gall has emailed us to say, and I quote, "When you introduce this new licensing system, if pubs don't have an entertainment licence, will sessions and singarounds be banned?"

KH Yes, I suppose they would be. The landlord would need to get an
entertainments licence to cover himself or herself .

MH But this is not for gain, is it, you were talking about .

KH Oh, I see, I am sorry, I'm sorry, I thought that you meant it would be professional musicians being paid .

MH No, just sessions and singarounds, people just playing for their own fun.

KH No, they certainly wouldn't and I'm very keen that we should make sure that that facility is there. There shouldn't be a problem. As long as money isn't changing hands, then there's no reason why they should have to have a licence...........

Daily Telegraph
Battle over 'last orders' for music
(Filed: 18/01/2003)
Musicians and publicans fear that the new Licensing Bill will impose a tax on music-making that many will be unable to pay. By Colin Randall.

[snip]Howells accepts that both the New Star singalongs, and the Dungworth carols, would be caught by the new legislation. As regular events, both sessions would have to be licensed.[snip]

[snip]For their part, Howells - and loyal backbenchers - accuse objectors led by the Musicians' Union of scaremongering and, as the minister put it to me this week, running "a pernicious lying campaign".[snip]

I wonder who exactly is operating a pernicious lying campaign?