http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/jan/08/police-accused-discriminating-urban-music?CMP=twt_gu

Police say that following "concerns" the form had been modified to remove "any reference to music genre".

But the current form, which asks for details about events "that predominantly feature DJs or MCs performing to a recorded backing track", clearly targeted urban artists, said Dipple.

"This is unacceptable. Performers being searched goes way beyond the stated guidance of this supposedly voluntary process," she said, arguing that police were hampering one of the UK's successful music exports, which has seen artists like Dizzee Rascal and Ms Dynamite achieve international success.

In a statement the Met said the form was a "voluntary risk assessment form", but the current form recognised that it may be "a licence condition on some premises licence", in which case it would be "mandatory".

A spokeswoman said that form 696 was "intended to identify where an event might be at risk from crime and take steps to prevent it.

"To date shootings linked to licensed premises have been significantly reduced and we believe the risk assessment process has contributed to this.

It is an inconvenient fact that musicians refuse to be criminals.

Especially for those employed in the police and local authorities, who really seem to think that increasing the red tape involved in live music and activly preventing and limiting live music, is some form of short-cut answer for them to address crime.