Licensing laws look set to be revised, after an announcement on Dec 31st by licensing Minister Gerry Sutcliffe. Prior to the last licensing review, when 24 hour alcohol licensing was introduced, a license was not required for staging groups of less than 2 performers, or for putting on ‘background music’, like a piano in a hotel lobby, or a jazz quartet in a pizza restaurant. The review meant that any and all performances of live music were licensable ativities, and required a venue to have permission from the local authority to be put on.
Under the new proposals, an exemption from the Licensing Act for small live music events, i.e. those performed to less than 100 people, would make it easier for a wide range of venues to put on live music, and help musicians who want to play to a live audience.
“Going to see a band, musician or singer is a very important part of many people’s lives and we’re keen to do what we can to support audiences and musicians [and] an exemption for venues with 100 people or less would benefit many small venues, particularly unlicensed premises such as village halls and cafes, which may currently be put off by licensing requirements… But we are also proposing that the exemption can be revoked at individual premises if there have been problems with noise, nuisance or disorder.” Stated Mr. Sutcliffe.
Great news for little venues and artists starting out in their careers – just make sure you fill out those playlists for the PRS!!!!1!
Hypebot reports that the US Justice Department is close to a positive ruling on whether or not to allow a merger between live music giants Live Nation (LYV) and Ticket Master (TKTM). The deal has already been approved by UK bodies, and if it goes ahead will create the biggest live music and ticket sales company in the world (hence the scrutiny from monopoly legislators). Shares in both companies have jumped more than 3.5% after this hopeful news, but are still more than a third down on their pre-crash values (Aug ’08).
The live music industry has seen a difficult couple of years, with a lot of smaller festivals being postponed or cancelled – consolidation makes a lot of sense for these two big companies, and we’ve seen them selling underperforming assets and shedding debt, I’d guess the upshot will be more uniform ticket prices, and a smaller range of venues being played by massive artists as they get signed to lucrative exclusives by the newborn giant as it exploits the new confidence inevitably born of being the biggest player in the market.
Pulp are one (were?) of the best live bands I’ve ever seen, second only to Glass Shark, who are also defunct now, so it’s nice to know Jarvis can still rock it live. He’s the only person who I’ve ever seen get a cheer from a festival crowd for his cardigan alone.
Here’s a fan submitted video (via Pitchfork) of him performing with Florence and the Machine in London’s Tabernacle.
You should by now be thinking of how you’re going to manage your band’s triumphant rise to fame over the Festival Season next summer. To make things a little easier for you, we thought we’d collect together the contact details of a few of the major ones here:
A London based talent competition during May that doesn’t really fit into the festival bracket, but would still be a good platform to get some publicity for your band. More details here:
Born from a birthday party in a barn, this growing festival is now in it’s seventh year, definitely worth checking out for it’s friendly, grungy vibe. Held over the weekend of 7th-9th August, near Sixpenny Handley
Glastonbury are running their ‘Emerging Talent Competition’ again this year – to enter, get two tracks ready to upload to their competition visit this page:
A recent arrival in London’s calendar, this year’s lineup is rumoured to include the fabulous Fat Freddy’s Drop – if you fancy treading the boards with them, apply here:
Not a tents in a muddy field number, this, more a kind of Nationwide, multi venue festival. Last year’s competition was won by Ben Howard, a young man from our neck of the woods who’s gone on to support Jason Mraz and Fink. Apply for this years competition here:
All the way up in Scotland, this one. Again official applications aren’t open yet, but you can get in ahead of the crowd by mailing demos to this address:
BIG DAY OUT LTD
PO BOX 25241
GLASGOW
G2 5XS
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V Festival
Across two venues, Chemsford and Staffordshire, this is one of the big mainstream festivals – more people means more competition for slots, but more exposure if you get lucky…
You’ve got a great band together, some great ideas, you’ve polished your performance, you’re happy with your sound and you’ve got the perfect 15 tracks to lay down on the debut album that’s going to be the major weapon in your assault on the charts. One problem. You haven’t got the ten grand you need to have it recorded and mastered in a professional recording studio. What’s the solution? Chicago based rockersI Fight Dragons had the rather brilliant idea of getting their fans to fund them, with a hundred dollar contribution to the recording fund buying a ‘membership’ including all the band’s previous recordings on a specially produced USB drive, “and they guarantee[d] the owner a free digital copy of anything we ever release, as well as free admission to any live show of ours now and forever. And there will only be 100 ever made.” They posted a link on their website, sent an email out to their mailing list, and the drive/membership combination sold out in 48 hrs. This is a great example of a band that’s connected with its fans, and has given a huge amount of added value to a small group of committed fans that will continue to support them throughout their career, cherish their relationship with the band, and recommend them to all their fans. Read Hypebot’s take on the matter here, and the rest of IFD Brian’s post here, on the WeAreListening blog.
I’ve blogged about my love for Fat Freddy’s Drop before, and lucky for you, they’re back in the UK later this month for two dates: the Hammersmith Apollo in London on the 30th, in Manchester on the 1st of Oct.
Billing itself as “Europe’s leading festival for new music” Brighton’s 3 day festival in May has just opened its artist registration page, hoping to attract new bands to play at their May 2010 event. While we can’t agree with their recommendation that you sign up with Zimbalam for your digital distribution needs, we do recommend that you give yourself every chance of getting on stage at as many festivals as possible next year!
The two live entertainment giants released profit reports today, Ticketmaster having gained on last year’s figures, and Live Nation having declined slightly, year on year. The real news here is that talks for the merging of the two companies are looking positive, and the deal is looked for at the beginning of next year, a forecast that has seen the stock price of both companies jump by almost 10% in a single morning’s trading. Both companies are capped at over $600m, and will look for massive marketing and staffing synergies from a merger, hopefully amking them both a lot more profitable. You can read Live Nation’s press releases and filings here: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=194146&p=irol-irhome
It remains to be seen whether this is good news for the gig-going public, as there’ll be almost no-one in the UK market able to compete with the giant that’s created for running really big mainstream gigs, and a lack of competition means there’s no need to keep ticket prices down and beat your neighbour.
You know it’s tough all over when one of the biggest success stories in recent years is flogging the silver to reduce it’s debts. Live Nation, the biggest live music company in the States, who have been signing massive deals all over in the past couple of years, including those with Madonna, U2 and Jay-Z. Now the company has divested itself of three profitable London venues; The Lyceum, the Apollo Victoria and The Dominion. The sale is reportedly worth $160 million to the company, allowing them to ‘de-lever’ their balance sheet, or in laymans terms, reduce the operating debt that was previously balanced against the worth of the companies assets. So why the slim-down? Last month there was opposition from the Office of Fair Trading to a proposed merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation, a move which if allowed to go ahead would create a ‘near monopoly’ in the live music market, the fear being that the merged entity could essentially set the price of live music in the majority of venues across the country without fear of being undercut by any serious opposition, effectively eliminating any threat of competition (sorry if this is baby-speak).
Of course, if one wanted to take a less pessimistic view of Live Nation’s cash raising activities in the context of the proposed Ticketmaster deal, one could comment that the two companies’ stock prices have been essentially mirroring one another since the move was first posited at the beginning of the year, and it’s possible that Live Nation is trying to break this match, make the balance sheets look better and get a little more cash in the coffers, gain a stronger stock price and share buying war chest in advance of permission being granted by the OFC (nothing but the wildest speculation, of course!).
SICK BOY: Well, at one time, you’ve got it, and then you lose it, and it’s gone forever…
I don’t mean to be dismissive, but that quote pretty much sums up Muse’s latest offering from me. I understand that they’re one of the biggest bands in the country, if not the world, and that nothing I say here is going to have the slightest effect on their huge popularity, towering album sales, or the droves of fans who will be attending their next run of sell-out gigs. Their reputation is built mainly on the back of their big album, ‘Showbiz’ and a great live act, but I get the feeling that they’ve either lost heart, or something’s turned bitter in the emotional and creative cocktail that they used to get this far. The new album pulls in a load of odd and disparate influences, from the warbling strains of the Dr. Who theme tune heard in ‘Uprising’, or the strangely mangled Queen-like bursting operatic harmonies in ‘United States of Eurasia’ (A 1984 reference?In my anti-establishment band?).
The whole album feels forced, thrown together with a mish-mash of conflicting styles and rather samey material that doesn’t really take the band forward. I don’t know whether they’re trying to emulate bands like Radiohead and Portishead in trying for something avant-garde and different by sticking in these weird elements, but it doesn’t work for me. I now prepare to take flak for the rest of the week. As a small compensation, here’s a link to the Guardian’s rather white-washy piece with a We7 streaming widget where you can listen to the whole album.
You know it’s tough all over when one of the biggest success stories in recent years is 
