Not sure if any of you have been following this Live Music Bill stuff (can't say I have but I was aware of the campaign when there was a fair bit of fanfare back in 2003) but basically what they wanna do is stop all the bureaucracy involved into putting on gigs for less than 200 people (info about it in legalese here: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/2010-2012/0241/en/2012241en.htm ) and basically making it much easier for people to put on small events between 8am and 11pm.

Currently, [hits copy-paste] to obtain a Temporary Event Notice at a minimum cost of £21 each time they wish to allow live music performance. The additional administration and expenditure involved has already seen a 5% reduction in secondary venues, such as pubs and church halls, offering live music.

From what I can tell, this is kinda getting buried by a heap of other things and on Friday, when its meant to be getting discussed in parliament, it might not get a mention http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16600243

According to louderthanwar, we should all be hassling MPs by Twitter and email to ensure they turn up and represent their constituents... details about that here: http://louderthanwar.com/featured/support-the-live-music-bill - any of you got any suggestions of what we should write?

If anyone's interested, there's more info about it here: http://www.ism.org/news/article/ism_welcomes_continued_progress_of_live_music_bill