Licensees thrash out music issues with Sharkey

Two North London licensees have met with Feargal Sharkey to highlight the problems pubs now face in hosting live music under the new licensing laws.

Ged O¹Sullivan, licensee of Ryan's Bar, and John Slattery, of the Prince, both in Stoke Newington, met with Sharkey, chair of the government's Live Music Forum, in a bid to convince him the new rules are not working.

The two licensees challenged Sharkey over government figures showing that 63 per cent of smaller venues were hosting live music under the new regime. Mr Slattery said: "Mr Sharkey was of the opinion that the new licensing regime was working and that the figures backed this up.

"We were made to feel like we were just isolated cases and that there may just be a problem in our area. But he did say he would look into our cases."

Prior to the Licensing Act pubs took advantage of the 'two-in-a-bar rule', which allowed one or two musicians to play without the need for a public entertainment licence.

At the Prince, Mr Slattery abandoned his weekly jazz night because of the pressures he faced over complying with the regulations. He feels it is unfair that smaller venues are subject to the same criteria as large ones.

"There¹s no difference in the risk assessment between places that have jazz once a week and places that hold 500 people every night," he said. "It doesn¹t make any sense."

Mr O'Sullivan said he was unable to host live music at Ryan's Bar since the Act due to issues over planning.

He said: "I've spent £20,000 on re-wiring the pub, introducing noise limiters and putting in CCTV. But my sales are down 50 per cent because of not having live music."

Sharkey admitted that there had been issues with some licensing authorities and how they were implementing the Act with regards to live music. But he added: "So far the Live Music Forum has not found anything to substantiate claims of a widespread negative impact on live music.

"If anyone feels they have evidence to the contrary, I urge them to get in touch with us as soon as possible."