Visited that and unfortunately you seem to be right Cllr. The PRS seems to be a legalised protection racket. They demand money from the organisers of events with the threat of dire consequences if you don't pay up.

In theory you only have to pay a fee for any song performed that is in copyright. All my legal contacts tell me that if you are sure that you perform ONLY public domain songs and tunes or your own stuff then the PRS would not have a case at all. But even then are you that sure you are not infringing any copyright of an arrangement?

Remember that it would be up to them to prove that you had infringed copyright and take a personal suit against the instigator of this infringement. There is no criminal recourse, unlike the PEL, for them to prevent your gala or stop people performing there. They do have recourse to take a (un!)civil action if they feel copyright has been breached.

The other thing is that the owners of venues often have a 'blanket' PRS cover and charging both the venue and the organiser for what ammounts to the same thing is pretty poor indeed. But they seem to get away with it because we let them!

Final rant against the PRS. Ask any of your local PRS registered songwriters how much they get from the them. It may may you smile. It may not...

You could always try telling them to bugger off and risk a court action but, as dirty Harry says, do you feel lucky?

Cheers

Dave the Gnome