A good deal of live music no longer needs a licence at all. Knowing exactly where that boundary falls saves the most time of anything in this guide.
Live music, and what the 2012 Act changed
North London Venue Guide Live music, and what the 2012 Act changed
Before 2012, almost any live performance to an audience required authorisation as regulated entertainment. The Live Music Act 2012 and the deregulation that followed it removed the requirement for a substantial slice of small-scale performance, and the effect on small venues has been significant.
Where the exemption applies
In broad terms, and subject to conditions that are worth checking against the current position rather than taken from any summary including this one, live music is deregulated where it takes place between 8am and 11pm, before an audience below a stated threshold, and on premises authorised to sell alcohol for consumption on the premises, or in certain workplaces.
Three points follow, and they are the ones that matter in practice.
The exemption stops at 11pm. After that, live music is regulated entertainment again and must be covered by the premises licence. This is why so many north London venues stop live music at eleven and continue with recorded music, which sits under different provision.
The exemption is capped by audience size. Above the threshold, the licence must cover it.
The exemption does not override conditions imposed for other reasons. A venue with noise conditions on its licence still has to meet them, and a licensing authority retains the power to add conditions on review.
What this means when you are booking
If your event is a private party with a three-piece playing until half past ten in a licensed pub room, the odds are that no additional authorisation is needed and the venue can simply say yes.
If it runs past eleven, or the audience is large, or the venue does not sell alcohol, check the licence. See licensing for how to read it.
Recorded music and DJs
Handled separately and generally less exempt in practice. Recorded music has its own deregulation but the audience threshold and hours matter, and most venues that host DJs regularly hold a licence covering it rather than relying on an exemption. If a DJ is central to your event, treat it as requiring licensed cover until the venue shows you otherwise.
The practical checklist for a gig
Ask what the noise limiter is set to and whether bands of your type have played at that setting. A number in decibels is meaningless without that second answer. See noise and curfews.
Ask what the load-in is: what time, through which door, and whether a vehicle can get within reach. A first-floor room reached by a single domestic staircase is a real constraint on a drum kit and a bass rig, and it is better discovered in daylight. See access and parking.
Ask what power is available at the stage end and whether it is on the same circuit as the kitchen. Tripping the building because the urn and the PA share a ring is a familiar way to lose twenty minutes.
Ask who provides the PA and whether an engineer comes with it. A venue PA with nobody who knows it is often worse than hiring in.
Ask what time the music has to stop, and separately what time the room has to be cleared. They are rarely the same and the second one governs your get-out.
Grassroots venues
North London has lost a number of small music venues over the past decade, to redevelopment, to lease decisions taken by operators rather than by the venues themselves, and to the economics of small-room live music. The Music Venue Trust campaigns on precisely this and publishes work on the pressures involved.
The practical consequence for anyone booking: availability in this category is thinner than listings suggest, lead times are longer, and a room that hosted gigs three years ago may no longer be permitted to. Confirm the current licence rather than the reputation.
Published