Sting, Simon Cowell and the unintended consequences of government regulation

Posted: November 17th, 2009 | Author: Adam Macchi | Filed under: Politics, Pop-Culture | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

The news is Simon Cowell has gotten into a bit of a tizzy over Stings disparaging remarks about X Factor, the British talent show Cowell conceived.

The X Factor is a preposterous show … and you have judges who have no recognisable talent, apart from self-promotion, advising them what to wear and how to look. It is appalling.
The real shopfloor for musical talent is pubs and clubs. That is where the original work is. But they are being closed down on a daily basis.
It is impossible to put an act on in a pub. It has become too expensive through excessive regulations.

What’s alarming to me about this juicy bit of non-important celebrity gossip is not two grown prima donnas in a cat fight but the fact that, according to Sting, the young blood needed to inspire the music business in England is quickly disappearing due to club and pub over-regulation. Between the smoking ban, heavy taxes on rent and excessive duty fees on alcohol, pubs have become almost inaccessible to burgeoning artists.

Additionally, “Virtually every activity in pubs – from dancing, singalongs, music, to darts and chess – now requires a specific council licence. A Cambridge pub had to cancel a poetry reading recently, because it didn’t have a ’spoken word licence’.”

Perhaps they need to establish some sort of government committee to investigate the problem. :)

Do you think government should have limits?

http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2009/11/16/x-factor-simon-cowell-furious-as-sting-hits-out-115875-21825723/

One Comment on “Sting, Simon Cowell and the unintended consequences of government regulation”

  1. Nathaniel Lodge
    1 Nathaniel Lodge said at 10:32 pm on December 7th, 2009:

    Sting is absolutely correct through his statment. The Music of the 00’s decade in my oppinion has been a huge let down compared to other decades, yet i know and have seen many great musicians around The UK who struggle to get the gigs and oppertunities the so desperatly require, leading to there act giving up or fading away. The Pub and Club industry is in big decline and Live acts are seen to be unprofitable. So a good answer would be for acts to close in on huge pub co-operations such as wetherspoons, to have there act play on a basis on percentage of bar profetts for a trial start leading to decent pay. With them being great acts they will pull in the customers and with these co-operations having much cheaper alcohol everybody wins. Except the X Factor hopefully :)

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