http://www.kerrymccarthymp.org/news/westminster_news/news.aspx?p=109994

Significantly, the Local Government Association which represents councils has also announced that they are now fully supporting the Bill, following some important amendments. In a statement, the LGA said: "We are pleased that the Bill will leave councils with more levers to protect residents than other proposals currently being consulted on by DCMS, and that is has more stringent requirements on group size and a pre-determined finish time of 11pm."

I don't like to put a damper on things but the writing is clearly on the (LGA Group lobby) wall.

I see no real hope of the Govt's proposals bringing any more benefit to live music, than what eventually surfaces from the Live Music Bill.

The 11pm curfew, where all live music is to subject to additional entertaiment licensing, whether it is a cause of noise pollution or not, will be set in legislation.

I suspect that even should the Govt's proposals go on - that all the measures for live music will be excluded and the group size will remain at the figure set by the LMB. The argument being that the level of red tape has already been sufficiently lifted from live music but that other activities may still require some help.