Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Kazoo protest over Camden’s draconian new busking bye-laws

rikki | 14.10.2013 22:40 | Culture | Policing | Repression | London

This afternoon, Mark Thomas joined a ‘Citizens’ Kazoo Orchestra’ of buskers in Camden, to highlight and protest proposed new bye-laws criminalising street music of all kinds. The presence of senior officers and intelligence suggested to me the possibility of future use against protestors.




Camden High Street is a world-renowned tourist centre famed for its market, and its street culture. Part of that culture has always included music, with performers and buskers of all types entertaining visitors throughout the year.

But Labour-controlled Camden Borough Council apparently believes that current laws covering general and noise nuisance, already often used to move or close down performance, are nowhere near powerful enough. They want to bring in a licence system, charging more than a hundred pounds for a permit which must then be on display and which still allows ‘authorised’ officials to stop performances for any reason.

Anyone playing wind or percussion instruments (including any home-made perc like plastic bottles or bins!) and anyone using ANY amplification, will then be committing a CRIMINAL offence (with a £1000 max fine) if they are not displaying their licence.

New powers will also give police, council officials, and even authorised private contractors, the power to seize and confiscate instruments, and if any fine is not paid within 28 days, then the instruments can be sold. This is, I believe, the first time in UK law that the state can seize a person’s tools of trade, and it is certainly one of the most restrictive busking laws in the land.

In response to the proposals, Johnny Walker, a well-established and accomplished travelling busker, has formed the campaign group, ‘Keep Streets Live’, and in association with comedian/activist Mark Thomas, who sees it as one of his ‘100 Acts of Minor Dissent’, they have formed the CKO (Citizens’ Kazoo Orchestra) who performed this afternoon, in rather soggy conditions, outside Camden tube.
At around 4.30, they set up an open mic, and handed out leaflets and kazoos, inviting all to brave the rain and join them in a medley of popular tunes.

They were visited briefly by Johnny Bucknell, a local Tory councillor, who made a short speech despite some heckling. When I questioned him later, he told me he was in favour of special ‘busking areas’ rather than a licence system. So although against the Labour plans, he is, as is often the case with opposition politicians on either side, only offering something incrementally better, and while potentially an ally for the moment, is certainly not promoting any real freedom on behalf of buskers and street musicians.

Due to concerns over legal challenges under religion and equality laws, there is already a clause that gives exemption to Morris Dancers, and so, in solidarity, a folk violinist turned up this afternoon along with a Morris Dancer to entertain the kazooers during a well-earned break.

Campaigners point out that buskers often travel from borough to borough, and even between cities, and if licences were required in each area it would be prohibitively expensive. Also, busking is by nature often a spontaneous business, and there is no recognition of this in any licensing system.

Kazoos are a great means of protest against the proposal, and should the law come in, they will be cheap to replace if seized. The orchestra has vowed to continue performances in Camden whether ‘legal’ or not, and they welcome all to join them (no experience necessary).

Although the proposals appear to be Council driven, there was a lot of interest from the Met this afternoon. Apart from around half a dozen police keeping an eye on proceedings, the campaigners received a visit from a Chief Inspector, an Inspector, and from Constable Catrell, who is well-known to activists as an intelligence-gathering baby-blue-tabarded Police Liaison Officer. Her cover story was that she was just a Camden bobby on the beat today, but she swiftly pocketed copies of the campaign literature, and was later seen driving away with the superiors in an unmarked car.

Could the Met be a driving force in this attack on freedom? Perhaps Camden is a testing ground? It would make sense that the new bye-law be tried in an area particularly busy with buskers, and if “successful” as a control mechanism, could then be rolled out across the City. Could it then be used against noisy protests, or samba-driven marches? Given the current proposals I can’t see why not!

More info at The Association of Street Artists and Performers campaign site  http://www.keepstreetslive.com where you can also sign their PETITION, or follow @keepstreetslive

More pics of today's action at  http://indyrikki.wordpress.com


rikki
- e-mail: rikkiindymedia[At]gmail(d0t)com
- Homepage: indyrikki.wordpress.com

Comments

Display the following comment

  1. Is that regulation for real???? — MDN
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech