Richard, maybe it is a case of living in different areas (not that I would expect the law to cater for that) but I can assure you that I am a supporter of live music in all forms and do turn out to pubs that are putting on local bands of all styles incuding punk when I can and have not observed any trouble.

In this area (and I would suspect others), the trouble tends to come in the "dodgy" pubs and night clubs where I believe drugs play a big factor and under age drinking is another. I see no reason to blame or penalise music for this.

I feel that the law should cater, as it does, for certain controls and standards of behaviour and it should be up to the licencee to ensure that these requirement are adhered to but I still fail to see why this should require a PER (as opposed to other licensing laws) and why music should appear to be so singled out.

Jon