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By SUNITA RAPPAI
 

Ronan Keating
Axe falls on concerts at Kenwood

Two star acts face cancellations

CONCERTS at Kenwood House in Hampstead are to be cut this summer from 10 to eight, a Town Hall licensing committee decided this week.
Leading artists such as former Boyzone star Ronan Keating, singer Art Garfunkel and Abba tribute band Bjorn Again have been lined up to appear. Two of the star acts already booked will have to be cancelled.
Red-faced organisers have sold tickets, at prices up to £38, for the Saturday evening performances and produced adverts for the shows. Axing the concerts could cost them thousands of pounds.
Yesterday (Wednesday) IMG, which organises the shows for English Heritage, confirmed it would be lodging an immediate appeal against the decision.
Licensing chiefs, including chairman Councillor Abdul Qadir and councillors Sue Vincent and Dawn Somper, decided to cut the number of concerts at a marathon four-hour hearing at the Town Hall on Monday.
In addition, they have asked for the concert schedule to be rearranged to allow residents a break from events every fortnight.
The decision was an unexpected victory for objectors who have complained bitterly about excessive noise levels from the Kenwood concerts. Many were present at the hearing.
Anita Morgan, who lives in Highgate West Hill, said: “On occasions the noise is so loud we can hear it even with the doors and windows closed. It is intolerable.”
But lawyer Michael Bromley-Martin, representing IMG and English Heritage, told councillors that concert organisers had made strenuous efforts to reduce noise levels, including employing new noise consultants and creating a sound-proofed floating stage.
He added: “The changes due to take place will almost certainly ensure that noise levels are less than last year.”
In addition to axing two of the dates, licensing chiefs have imposed an audience limit of 8,000 for each concert instead of the 9,000 applied for. They have also asked IMG to set up a manned telephone line during concerts to take complaints from residents.
But the panel agreed to IMG’s request to increase the sound limit at a monitoring point in Dancer’s End to 55 decibels to bring it into line with three other monitoring points.
After the meeting, Paul Fishman, a music producer and writer from Oakshott Avenue, Highgate, said the decision was a “terrible thing for concert lovers”.
He added: “I find it simply staggering. It was a decision that seemed to come from nowhere – they were discussing noise levels, not reducing the number of concerts. It’s restricting the programming and making it difficult for English Heritage to run the place.”
He added: “No one’s bothered to ask the concert lovers. They are too busy listening to a small group of objectors with too much time on their hands. They are totally selfish.”
 
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