[Lord] Grade said that under the current act, anyone who plays without a licence "can tune up and get banged up" and added that acts such as Gilbert and Sullivan and the Beatles would not have been so successful had they been forced to operate under the act.
"They all had to start somewhere, and I am certain that wherever they did start, they were not burdened with the redundant bureaucracy of filling out forms to apply for a licence for a harmless pursuit," he said.
Grade also said that in an "iPod and headphone world" more should be done to "encourage and promote live performance".
He also claimed the act "threatens musical life in our nations at its most fragile point – grassroots level".