City of Edinburgh Council seek to improve local music scene

November 18, 2014 Yesterday evening saw the in  host a meeting between representatives of the  (CEC) and the local rock and pop music scene. The meeting was dominated with local musicians' complaints over the "zero tolerance" policy Edinburgh is viewed as having adopted towards amplified music. The meeting began with the leading panel &mdash; Norma Austin Hart, vice-convener for Culture and Sport; John Stout, promoter from Regular Music; Kevin Buckle, of local store Avalanche Records; and Karl Chapman, manager of the Usher Hall &mdash; introducing themselves and outlining the purpose of the meeting. This being best-summarised as a desire to emulate the vibrant music scene of places as far-flung as, and ,.

Councillor Hart indicated officials from Austin had already offered to get involved in improving the live music scene in the city; although none were present from Austin, -born local musician Pat Dennis provided his frank opinion on where Edinburgh fails to nurture the local music scene: that failure to support a grass-roots, small venue, music scene prevents the city being capable of organising events similar to Austin's festival outwith August, when Edinburgh hosts the.

Coming in for the lion's share of criticism, staff from CEC's Licensing Board were visibly uncomfortable when the topic of the "single complainant" was brought up time and time again. Unlike any other business within the city, or residential properties, noise pollution within premises permitted to sell alcohol is not managed by environmental health staff. That responsibility is bundled with the alcohol license, which leaves publicans fearful that their premises will be forced to close if they do not comply with demands to cease use of any amplification, or hosting live music. This was characterised as a 'tyranny of the minority', a most-undemocratic approach where one person &mdash; for example, recently moved into a property adjacent to a long-established premises hosting live music &mdash; could force the closure of a business which has hosted local talent for 30+ years.

Taking heed of the strength of feeling from the majority present, Councillor Hart made a number of personal commitments towards the end of the meeting. Those included setting up a working group, Music is Audible, to look at how the council could better work with venues, and to have a follow-up meeting in March next year.