Explore things tagged 'metropolitanpolice'

This is a pretty easy one surely. Put on a gig somewhere in the UK.

OK, we're not asking you to put on a gig really, this is pretend. So please, just imagine that you want to put on a gig. For a friend, or just for the fun of it, in a place that isn't normally a music venue.

It could be in your local bar - just a couple of local musicians playing acoustic in the corner. Or it could be a slightly bigger pub for your friend's 21st / 30th / 40th birthday party - a covers band of four people for instance. Or you've got ambitions - how about putting on a bigger act in one of those huge pubs which regularly has at least 300 people screaming at football on giant TV screens?

So just imagine the scenario. Now what?

Well the first thing to cross your mind would probably be 'I think I need permission' or perhaps 'I wonder if there's something about licensing music I need to know about'.

Today's challenge is: Find that information. Then let us know how you got on.

Was the information easily available? As a non-musician layperson who just wants to put on a fun party for a friend, was it clear? And after searching, are you any the wiser about what you are and aren't allowed to do, or even more confused?

Please leave comments and tweets letting us know what you found out and if you're on Twitter finding out stuff too use the hashtag #uklive

Have fun, we'd love to know how you got on. But please note, if you already had extensive experience in this field this experiment is not for you. We're trying to find out how easy it is for laypeople to put on an event involving music, not asking promoters to wade in with personal experience. We'll save that for another blog post.

So get searching!

Live music has recently been in the news. Here's a recent Guardian article:

As more and more people keep telling bands like us 'All the money's in live music now innit?' we'd like the same people to show us how that is true.

A Georgian Burglar Alarm and The Hackney Vigilantes-

This entry from October 1736 in the ever-interesting Gentlemen's Magazine records one man's attempt to protect his business (sadly, this one was a real 'fail'):

Mr Jones, a Florist near Kent-Street, Turn

Pike: He having been several Times Robb'd

of Valuable Flowers-Roots, had provided a

Gun with Several Wires to the Trigger that

when touch'd would go off, which unawares

doing himself, it shatter'd his Shoulder to Pieces.

Poor Mr Jones was suffering from one of the many notorious Hackney crime waves. What made Hackney quite such a hot-bed of nefarious activity is unclear. It was after all, a pretty little suburb at the time, but by 1617 there was a company of 16 nightwatchmen or constables patrolling the area. By 1657 a 'cage' had been built in the corner of St Leonard's church yard (I think it can be seen in the engraving in the gallery) to imprison offenders caught by the Hackney watch. In 1686, the constables were prosecuted for not keeping a proper watch. By 1740, the beats were well-defined and the constables patrolled in pairs between the Turnpike and Cambridge Heath, where their watch house was located. The little map section in the gallery shows the territory quite clearly (the turnpike is at the bottom). In 1756, four more watch houses were ordered, to be paid for by parish funds and the subscriptions of residents. Offenders were no longer kept in the cage at the church, but put under lock and key at various public houses until morning. In 1763, the landlords of the Mermaid and the Bird in Hand protested about having to keep the prisoners and refused to take any more. The watch was a serious business: each constable was equipped with a gun and bayonet and keen to use them.

Just north of the turnpike, you can see Mad Ho., or the Mad House, actually called Brooke House (the grand house in the gallery). It was purchased in 1759 to be converted into an asylum and continued on until 1940, when it was badly damaged by a bomb. Hackney was associated with private asylums, as was Hoxton and later, Bethnal Green. The inmates were not always as well-contained as they might be, and in 1755 a Hoxton girl was found with a knife through her skull after being assaulted by an escapee. He was caught and confessed immediately.

In 1763, Hackney raised enough money for street lighting on the worst section of the road. Night-time robberies, of both people and premises seem to have been the big problem, but by May 1828, the parish declared itself free of night-time crime. By this time there were 30 constables patrolling every evening after nightfall. Hackney even petitioned against the Metropolitan Police Act of 1829, and provided evidence of over a century of efforts to control their own crime. They also said they had driven all the criminals into lawless Tottenham.