Entertainment Licence Restrictions?

[Chienmortbb]

A couple have just taken over a pub in Bournemouth. They are advertising for acts to play there but only have a licence for up to three people. So solo, duo or trios. I have never heard of this before, Is this common?

[TimR]

When you apply for a premises licence you state what type of entertainment you will be providing. The local authority then grants a licence on what you've told them you will be doing. 

 

Or the LA may have knocked them back and told them only duos and trios.

 

AFAIA you don't apply for a specific entertainments licence for bands/orchestras/soloists, it's all one premises licence with permitted activities. 

[Chienmortbb]

18 minutes ago, TimR said:

When you apply for a premises licence you state what type of entertainment you will be providing. The local authority then grants a licence on what you've told them you will be doing. 

 

Or the LA may have knocked them back and told them only duos and trios.

 

AFAIA you don't apply for a specific entertainments licence for bands/orchestras/soloists, it's all one premises licence with permitted activities. 

AFAIA the previous licencee applied for the current licence.

 

[Cliff Edge]

1 hour ago, Chienmortbb said:

A couple have just taken over a pub in Bournemouth. They are advertising for acts to play there but only have a licence for up to three people. So solo, duo or trios. I have never heard of this before, Is this common?

I don’t know if it’s common but I have seen it before. 

[Balcro]

The thought behind it is probably an alternative but feeble way of keeping noise levels down. The thinking (sic) being that 2 or 3 players will make less noise than a standard 4 piece rock group.

It's possible that in the distant past the L.A had a few problems with noise levels affecting local residents. Rather than going into the technicalities of setting decibel levels (usually with the wrong  weighting) and worrying about the meaning & precision of " inaudibility" in a notice, the LA  settled for this second rate form of control. Maybe when the Licensing Act was introduced the LA didn't have anyone on the staff who was sufficiently technical to set dB levels.

[tauzero]

12 hours ago, Chienmortbb said:

A couple have just taken over a pub in Bournemouth. They are advertising for acts to play there but only have a licence for up to three people. So solo, duo or trios. I have never heard of this before, Is this common?

 

I have a vague memory of this happening or almost happening at a pub-cum-microbrewery in the Black Country that the ceilidh band used to rehearse in. The licence application had assorted tick boxes for the amount of entertainers to be allowed - it didn't make any difference to the cost of the licence, I'm not sure what else it might have affected.

[dave_bass5]

My old band encountered with licence type years ago. Quite a few of the pubs we used to play went over to this. We then started getting offered gigs at these places for duo or trio money. Never went back.