What I would really like to know is, does PRS have a special legal position which enables them to send out bills (which would otherwise require a contract of some sort between PRS and the organiser) and require people to fill in forms without first demonstrating that their members' music is being used, or can they actually be required to provide the same standard of proof as anyone else in English civil litigation? Oh yes, and does the old criminal offence of demanding money with menaces still exist? Just thought I'd ask.
Come to think of it, I've been playing live music for something over 40 years from pubs to the Royal Festival Hall, and the PRS seems consistently to have been the most universally loathed organisation that I can think of in connection with the music business during that time. If it was so vital to us all, you'd think it would have generated a bit of respect in forty years...