Heybrook Music News

The MIA and the entire UK music industry are celebrating after the Live Music Bill passed its third reading and report stage in the House of Commons.

The Bill, introduced by Liberal Democrat Peer Tim Clement-Jones – and promoted in the House of Commons by Bath MP Don Foster – should now proceed to Royal Assent.

As a result, small venues wanting to host live music events will no longer need a local authority entertainment licence and it will now be easier for pubs and clubs to host live performances.

Paul McManus, CEO of the MIA, said:

“This is wonderful news and a great day for live music. The Live Music Bill will make a real and positive impact on musicians. The current Licensing Act has created an excess of bureaucracy – making it almost prohibitive for pubs and other small venues to host live gigs. We are extremely grateful to Lord Clement-Jones and Don Foster MP who have made this change possible.”

We know this is a bit dry, but if you like gigging it’s important. There are people out there actively working to remove some of the pointless restrictions that are throttling the live music scene in the UK

There was a Westminster Media Forum last week about the future of the UK Music Industry. We especially wanted to hear an update from Lord Clement-Jones, the Peer whom we have been supporting to get concessions for small venues putting on live music.

Here’s the update……

Proposals to de-regulate small scale live music events could become law in 2012 after the Live Music Bill made it through its committee stage in the House of Lords.

Lord Clement-Jones highlighted the ‘great encouragement’ it would give to young musicians ‘performing in all kinds of venues, who will be able to take advantage of these provisions.’

The Bill now has just two readings left before it finally reaches the House of Commons!

Baroness Garden of Frognal re-iterated the Government’s support of the Bill in the Lords in light of a concession to change the time limit from midnight to 11pm and announced that the Government was ‘planning to consult shortly on wider reforms to live entertainment’.

Lord Stevenson of Balmacara backed the Bill on behalf of the Labour Party.

For more details of the concessions being sought, see this extract from a recent B2B newsletter

• Unamplified live music is exempted anywhere between 8 am and midnight on the same day, but this can be disapplied in alcohol-licensed premises if complaints are upheld. Conditions could then be applied. (This is a proportionate solution, because it allows, for example, cafés to put on such entertainment without the cost of applying for a full license.)
• A broad exemption is introduced for any premises not already licensed under the Licensing Act that qualify as a workplace for the purpose of health and safety legislation. This covers not only hospitals, schools et cetera, but factories, offices and any place covered by the workplace definition. This is an important new addition to the Bill.
• The removal altogether of the entertainment facilities provisions. There would no longer be a separate requirement to authorise the provision of musical instruments such as the piano for a school concert open to the public.
• A new exemption under the Bill to allow live and recorded music to accompany morris dancing.

Baroness Rawlings, Conservative spokesperson for the arts, culture and media in the Lords, speaking for the Government stated, “We are pleased to announce that it is the Government’s intention to be supportive of the Live Music Bill.

Right we’re off our soapbox now. Time to plug an SG into a valve amp

At the very top of our ‘must-try’ list is the latest stompbox treading the fine line between awesomeness and madness from the guys at Electro-Harmonix in NYC. We’ll let you know more as soon as we get our hands on it. In the meantime here’s the skinny:

The puntastic Ravish Sitar certainly looks like a more practical way to add an Indian flavour to your sound than either getting hold of the real thing, tracking down an original Coral Sitar or picking up a second-hand, not-at-all-convincing Danelectro Sitar Swami pedal.

According to EHX, the Ravish Sitar boasts the following features:

• Lead sitar voice tracks polyphonically
• Sympathetic string drone simulation
• Selectable keys and scales including major, minor and exotic
• Select the sympathetic key by playing a note on your guitar
• Bend the pitch of your lead voice using an optional expression pedal
• Save and recall nine presets

SUMMER NAMM 2011: Legendary British amp-maker Vox has unveiled a new addition to its AC Custom Series of valve amps.

The AC15C2 ‘Twin’ is a two-channel, 15-watt combo similar to the company’s AC15C1 but with a second 12-inch Celestion Greenback speaker and larger spring reverb tank.

The AC15C2 ‘Twin’ is set to hit stores early autumn and will be priced at $1100 .We’ll let you know UK pricing as soon as we get it. See below for more details:

The AC15C2 ‘Twin’ offers both Normal and Top Boost channels, tremolo, spring reverb, an effects loop, and footswitching capabilities. The tube amp design uses three 12AX7 dual triode vacuum tubes in the pre-amp section, and two EL84 pentode tubes in the power stage.

Each channel is equipped with its own Volume control, and the Top Boost channel offers highly interactive Treble and Bass tone controls. Both channels rely on the Tone Cut and Volume controls in the Master section.

The Tone Cut control operates in the power stage rather than the preamp stage, allowing an additional degree of sound-shaping. The Master Volume control works in conjunction with the individual volumes of each channel to create just the right degree of gain-staging.

By balancing the individual and Master volumes, the AC15C2 ‘Twin’ can deliver the coveted clean Vox ‘chimey’ sound or a powerful overdriven tone – and everything in between.

The classic Vox tremolo effect is equipped with adjustable controls for both the speed and the depth. A warm Spring Reverb is also included. With its larger dual speaker housing, the AC15C2 ‘Twin’ features the larger reverb tank normally used on the AC30C2, adding spaciousness to the sound.

The Fabulous Electro-harmonix Micro Pog is back in stock! The Electro Harmonix Micro POG can simultaneously generate multiple octaves from your input signal. Whether you play single notes, arpeggios or full chords, the MICRO POG will track, every note or chord that you play, with precision. With the MICRO POG, you can mix together your original “dry signal” with two different octaves (one above and one below your original note) to create totally new inspiring tones. Get one here

http://www.heybrookmusic.co.uk/electro-harmonix-micro-pog-polyphonic-octave-generator.html

See it put through its paces here.

Micro POG – Demo by Larry DeMarco

With Paypal being such a great payment gateway and with so many users now on the portal, it gives me great pleasure to announce that we are now integrated with Paypal – allowing you to place your order using your existing PayPal account.

PayPal are one of the biggest online payment gateways and one of the safest ways to pay online. It’s a convenient, easy to use system and also, similarly all major credits cards, it’s accepted worldwide.

To use PayPal, please checkout as normal – add products to your basket and then go to the checkout page. When you’re ready to place you order press “Proceed to Payment” – when you’ve done that you’ll see the screen below. Simply press the “Paypal” button to continue.webscr