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More live music?


Dr M
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[color=#333333][font=Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif][b]"Venues with a capacity of under 200 people will no longer need a licence for live amplified music."[/b][/font][/color]

[url="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19783855"]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19783855[/url]

Good news, I hope!

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Thats a very encouraging move by the Government and hopefully we will see a revival of small venues putting on regular live music. The scene in S.Wales has really suffered in recent years and I will be delighted to hopefully see the same buzz going on as we did 15yrs ago.

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I'm not sure this is such good news.
When they changed the licensing laws a few years ago every bar and pub in the country became a 'venue'. That lead directly to a lot more gigs being put on every night in every town. Great for the gig-goer, not so great for the band whose gig is now competing with three times as many gigs in the same town on the same night. IMO it was no coincidence that this coincided nicely with a sharp downturn in gig attendances across the country.

Maybe I'm just being cynical but this will surely have the same effect. And, let's face it, these small venues won't be passing the money they save on to bands.

Edited by joeystrange
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[quote name='joeystrange' timestamp='1349093585' post='1821598']
I'm not sure this is such good news.
When they changed the licensing laws a few years ago every bar and pub in the country became a 'venue'. That lead directly to a lot more gigs being put on every night in every town. Great for the gig-goer, not so great for the band whose gig is now competing with three times as many gigs in the same town on the same night. IMO it was no coincidence that this coincided nicely with a sharp downturn in gig attendances across the country.

Maybe I'm just being cynical but this will surely have the same effect. And, let's face it, these small venues won't be passing the money they save on to bands.
[/quote]

I can see your point, however I was pushing for a deal in the late 90's and was supporting bands such as 60ft Dolls, Catatonia, Gorkys, Super Furry Animals, Dub War, The Boot Freaks (Ether) and Tragic Love Company (Stereophonics). We rarely played in venues over 200 capacity yet all those bands (apart from mine :angry: ) were signed at pub gigs. I admit, it was very much down to a trend in the business and record labels signed any band with a Welsh accent. S.Wales was seen as a stable bedrock for upcoming bands simply because there was a demand for live music and it was easy to stroll through Cardiff and stumble upon a good band playing in a small venue.

It wasn't so much about the money because I never saw any and neither did those other bands, but the exposure was incredible back then and led to a huge flood of great Welsh bands entering into the industry in the mid-late 90's. Seeing the licensing law being relaxed for small venues may encourage better exposure for bands that have been hitting a glass roof to succeed in their careers. After all, there is nothing like creating a home fan base and it does go in your favour when hunting down a deal.

Edited by shizznit
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To follow on from this and a bit OT...a few bands round here have been going for too many years and they travel all lenghts of the country to play gigs..
It is all very well doing that... but they can't sell out a local town gig here for love nor money so when are they going to get the fact that nobody
wants to see them.
...........

In general, more bands on the circuit may well dilute the whole process...
I think any half decent band will find a way to get gigs and get rebooked...but there are a host of bands that wil play for free and if more venues
crop up, then you'll get duos and the like in their masses.

No problem with duo's as such, but what you don't want is cheap soloutions for cheaps sake... and the quality of bands needs to stay high.
Venues should review their rota and book the bands that pack them in.. and those bands are likely to know they are worth decent fees.
What bands don't need..IMO..is anyone that will gatecrash that party with a really cheap price and not be the required standard so the venue
itself no longer is the type of place that people will turn up on spec..as the rep of that place is for good bands.

So, whilst on first thought, it is a good idea to have more venues, I still think the license should cost something ..if only in terms of the venue infrastructure being good enough to support live music.

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