"if the Government didn't have an unnecessary, overbearing attitude towards live music, we wouldn't have to have entertainment licenses anyway."

It isn't just that. At some Sam Smiths pubs, like The Jolly Sailor in Whitby, they don't allow children in, either. I've spoken to a number of previous managers and he treats them like dirt - for example, like having the locks changed at Nellie's in Beverley when the managers had gone out. Apparantly they had a hell of a battle just to get their personal belongings out. He doesn't care if they take him to industrial tribunals - if he loses it's no skin off his nose as he's reputed to be one of the richest men in Yorkshire. Basically he's just a completely miserable bastard.