The Mudcat synchronicity has been kicking in once more. I missed this thread, and opened another one called Help: Public Entertainment Licences, with this long post prompted by something that I read in a lcal folk publication:

This is quite a long post, but not overlong for the content, so bear with me.

I've just been reading in Unicorn, a local folk magazine in my part of the world (Herts Exxes border in England) about Ely Folk Club closing its doors, largely because of hassles about the Public Entertainment Licence system.

To quote the January editorial:"We believe that the right to enjoy live music is one that we should be upholding, and any restrictions to the performance or presentation of live music, provided it does not infringe the rights of other members of the public, must be eliminated.

"For our part we intend to investigate firstly what laws are in place that affect the performance of live music and secondly, what can be done either to interpret these laws to benefit ourselves, or ultimately to make representations to have these outdated laws repealed."

So I thought I'd post something here, and maybe pass it on to Unicorn (send them an email with a link to the thread).

Essentially the problem is that unless a place has a PEL, it's not supposed to have any entertainment involving more than two live performers. The interpretation of the law has been very varied, but Ely came up against an interpretation that meant that more than two performers in the course of an evening broke the rules! And pubs with function room and with PELs are pretty scarce.

One factor is that to get a PEL it can cost a bit - œ150 a year or so for the license - but more important it can bring in public safety requirements which can cost thousands. So the pubs give up the licences, get rid of live music and use canned music, which has just the same public safety implications, but gets round the law.

What seems to be the problem is that the law doesn't appear to distinguish between the kind of public entertainment which involves large audiences milling around, and that which involves at couple of dozen sitting in a room singing making music together.

Most of the sessions we have in England are quite likely strictly speaking illegal, and dependent on landlords bending the rules and the police turning a blind eye. Which makes it all a bit precarious.

So any experience, and suggestions.Both from folkies in England and people with relevant experience in other places.