Right, three letters (basically the same letter rejigged each time) sent off to:

The Guardian - letters@guardian.co.uk
The Daily Telegraph - dtletters@telegraph.co.uk
The Independent - letters@independent.co.uk

Here's the Guardian version:

The news that Kim Howells is backing away from hammering music in churches and other places of worship is good news.

But his Licensing Bill is still going to hammer music-making in all other public places which don't have the designated licence, in clear breach of a promise by Kim Howells last summer on BBC2 that it would not affect music sessions and singarounds "As long as money isn't changing hands".(BBC 2 July 17th, Mike Harding)

The assumption throughout the Bill is that making music is always a matter of proprietors "putting on events" - completely missing the fact that very often its the matter of proprietors allowing people to make music for their own pleasure. That's what happens when people get together for folk sessions, or singarounds. Even the pub piano is now going to have to be locked up to prevent anyone playing it, in any pubs that haven't gone for the entertainment extension on its licence application. (And that has been clearly stated in a Departmental press release - it is not a "myth" put out by the Musicians' Union.)

Moreover the licensing requirement doesn't just apply to pubs - it applies to any public place. Why is there no music in coffee bars in England these days? Because the two-in-a-bar extension didn't apply to them. And the ban on music in the very places that fifty years ago gave us the whole musical explosion of skiffle that led on to the Beatles and their successors on one hand, and people like Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson and Eliza Carthy on the other - it is going to continue.

And this is the Minister of Culture? I get the impression he has somewhat the same approach as that indicated in the words generally attributed to Hermann Goering "When I hear the word culture I reach for my revolver."

Bottom line - if you don't want the law to threaten some kinds of musical activities, Kim Howells, put a specifc exemption in the Act that will ensure it isn't used in ways you do not intend. Don't just issue statements accusing other people of lies - stop telling them yourself.


Whether any of them get in is questionable. But the important thing is thta tehy get a bunch of letters from other people as well, to prod them into seeing this as a story that shoudl be covered in the news columns.