To address the confusion re: the PRS fee......
The venue has to raise their licence fee in whatever way they see fit.
At PRS we SUGGEST that they swallow the fee themselves or add a penny on a pint, but some venues charge the bands for this.
Should they do that? No, of course not.... but we can't stop them.
If you don't like it then you should complain to the venue that the bands shouldn't be charged for PRS since it is a requirement for the venue to stay in the business of 'live music'. You could of course choose not to play there..... but then you'd have to find another gig at a similarly good venue.
However, all of this is idealistic and the fact is that almost everyone who plays in a 'live concert' licensed venue pays the PRS regardless of whether they realise they are doing so. I've lost count of the times I've found out that the PRS fee has simply been added into the fee for 'security', 'use of PA', 'engineers'. 'ticket printing' etc etc and the bands have been none the wiser.