LONDON – Government plans in England to allow only fully vaccinated patrons into nightclubs and large music venues have been criticized as a “hammer blow” for the country’s struggling live and night-time industries as they seek to rebuild.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that the new measures would come into force by the end of September, by which time everyone in England aged over 18 will have been offered both COVID-19 vaccine doses.

The prime minister — who is self-isolating at his Chequers country home after health minister Sajid Javid tested positive for COVID-19 — said the reversal in government policy was prompted by fears over the risk of coronavirus transmission in venues where people are in close contact, such as clubs and music venues.

The announcement was made on the same day that England lifted its last remaining COVID-19 restrictions, bringing an end to capacity limits and social distancing measures inside music and entertainment venues.

That prompted scores of nightclubs across the country to open just after midnight local time Monday to welcome back their first customers in almost 17 months.

The news that those same businesses will soon be required to make so-called “COVID passports” a condition of entry for all customers drew condemnation from nightclub industry execs. UKHospitality chief executive Kate Nicholl said the plans dealt a devastating “hammer blow” to the sector and “risks hitting these fragile businesses and derailing their recovery.”

Michael Kill, CEO of the U.K. Night Time Industries Association (NTIA), said that mandatory enforcement of COVID-19 vaccination passports for nightclubs placed them at a “competitive disadvantage with pubs and bars that aren’t subject to the same restrictions.”

According to research cited by the NTIA, 80% of nightclubs do not want to implement vaccination passports due to concerns over enforcing the certification and a reduction in spontaneous customers.

Earlier this month, the government gave hope to the sector when it indicated that COVID passports would not be compulsory for venue operators. At present, nightclubs are encouraged to ask clubbers to show proof of vaccination or a negative test result but are not legally required to do so. Nightclubs in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland remain closed.

Responding to Boris Johnson’s July 19 announcement, which took many in the sector by surprise, Kill slammed the change in policy as “yet another chaotic U-turn” and an “absolute shambles.”

U.K. live industry body LIVE said it needed to see more detail about the government’s plans and how it will implement them to assess “the full impact for the live music industry.”

Elsewhere in Europe, a recent rise in COVID-19 infections in the Netherlands led to the government closing its nightclubs on July 10, only two weeks after they reopened. The Dutch government said most infections had occurred “in nightlife settings and parties with high numbers of people” and that extra safety measures were needed this summer as a result.

Venue operators and live execs in the U.K. are hoping that the same doesn’t happen there, with promoters increasingly desperate to save what remains of the British festival season.

Tentpole events scheduled to take place later this summer include the 185,000-capacity dual-site Reading and Leeds festivals headlined by Liam Gallagher, Stormzy and Post Malone, and the 70,000-capacity Creamfields, which features David Guetta, deadmau5, The Chemical Brothers, Alesso and Martin Garrix.

Indoor live shows booked for August and September include gigs by Gorillaz and Burna Boy at London’s The O2 arena, and Blossoms and Genesis at Manchester’s AO Arena, although the vast majority of U.K. touring is not scheduled to resume until the fall.

Despite the end of lockdown restrictions in England, concerns remain over the lack of a government-backed insurance scheme covering the cost of event cancellations as a result of COVID-19, similar to what’s been introduced in other European markets, like Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium.

Without that safety net in place, promoters are risking “huge financial losses and even bankruptcy” to stage events, warns Greg Parmley, CEO of LIVE. He calls the end of lockdown “bittersweet for the live music sector” due to the lack of insurance and calls on the government to urgently provide financial backing if it “wants to avoid a summer of silence.”

On Tuesday, the U.K. recorded 46,558 new cases of COVID-19 and the seven-day case average rose 40% compared with the week before. Over the past seven days, 342 people have died within 28 days of testing positive — a rise of 60% compared with the week before.

According to the latest data, over 36 million people in the U.K. have had both vaccine doses, equivalent to 69% of the adult population, and 46 million people have had one dose, or 88% of adults.

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Bodyguards for troubled rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine turned New York City into the Wild West last summer, piling into SUVs and chasing a man for 20 blocks with lights flashing after he attempted to record cellphone video of the recording star, prosecutors said Monday (July 19).

Five members of 6ix9ine’s security team, including a retired New York City police detective accused of lying and attempting to cover up the incident, were indicted Monday on robbery, false impersonation and other charges stemming from the pursuit last August in Harlem.

Tekashi 6ix9ine, whose real name is Daniel Hernandez, was not charged.

“A celebrity entourage is not a police department, and Manhattan is not the Wild West,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said in a written statement announcing the indictments.

“As alleged, these highly-compensated vigilantes caravanned through the streets of Harlem with sirens flashing in order to track a man down and steal and break his phone,” Vance said.

The former NYPD detective, Daniel Laperuta, falsely claimed to police officers and a 911 dispatcher that the man being chased had threatened 6ix9ine’s team with a gun, Vance said.

When 6ix9ine’s bodyguards finally confronted the man, boxing him in with their SUVs near the Apollo Theater, they knocked his cell phone out and stomped it, Vance said.

As the man wrestled with one of the bodyguards in an attempt to get the phone back, Laperuta approached with his hand on his holstered gun and another bodyguard pointed a stun gun at the man, Vance said.

The security team fled in the SUVs as an unmarked police car drove up with lights flashing, Vance said.

Laperuta pleaded not guilty Monday and was expected to post bail Monday afternoon. Other members of the security team were expected to be arraigned later Monday.

Laperuta’s lawyer, Todd Cushner, said he was reviewing the charges against the former detective.

“For the most part, they’re unfounded,” Cushner said.

Online court records didn’t list lawyers for the other members of Tekashi 6ix9ine’s security team who were charged. Messages seeking comment were left with lawyers who’ve represented the rapper in the past.

6ix9ine, a Brooklyn native, rocketed to fame as a hip-hop artist after becoming a social media phenomenon with millions of followers on Instagram. He had a multiplatinum hit song, “Fefe,” with Nicki Minaj, which peaked at No. 3 on the pop charts in 2018, and “Stoopid,” featuring the incarcerated rapper Bobby Shmurda.

Since then, he’s been in and out of court — and prison.

Facing a mandatory minimum of 37 years in prison for gang crimes including allegedly orchestrating a shooting that left an innocent bystander wounded, 6ix9ine started cooperating with federal prosecutors and testifying against members of the gang, the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods.

He also testified that two men kidnapped him in July 2018, forcing him into a stolen car at gunpoint and stopping at times to beat and taunt him before taking him to his Brooklyn home and stealing a bag full of jewelry.

6ix9ine’s cooperation earned him leniency from prosecutors and scorn from fellow rappers, with Snoop Dogg calling him a “snitch.” In December 2019, 6ix9ine was sentenced to two years in federal prison. Just a few months later, a judge ordered him released to home confinement because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Testifying in 2019, Tekashi 6ix9ine explained to jurors that his role in the Nine Trey gang was to “just keep making hits and be the financial support … so they could buy guns and stuff like that.”

Asked what he got in return, 6ix9ine responded: “My career. I got the street credibility. The videos, the music, the protection — all of the above.”

KSI is on target for his first U.K. No. 1 with All Over The Place (BMG).

The English rapper and YouTuber’s sophomore album leads the Official Chart Update, and it’ll be difficult to catch.

All Over The Place is outselling the rest of the Top 5 combined, the OCC reports, and it’s the market leader on physical and digital sales.

KSI will hope to go one better than the performance of his debut album Dissimulation, which peaked at No. 2 in 2020.

Also new to the chart blast is John Mayer with Sob Rock (Columbia), his eighth studio album. It’s at No. 3 on the midweek chart, and should give Mayer his third U.K. Top 10.

Just one place behind is Pop Smoke’s second posthumous LP, Faith (Republic Records), new at No. 4 midweek.

Meanwhile, Hail Satin (Columbia), the Record Store Day release from Foo Fighters, as the disco alter-ego Dee Gees, is tracking for a No. 7 bow. If it holds it momentum, it’ll mark the Foos’ 12th Top 10 album.

Over on the Official Singles Chart Update, Ed Sheeran stays on track for a fourth week at No. 1 with “Bad Habits” (Asylum), ahead of the fast-rising “Heartbreak Anthem” by Galantis, David Guetta and Little Mix (up 5-2 via Atlantic/RCA) and Jonasu’s “Black Magic” (up 15-3 via 3 Beat).

Finally, Tones And I enters the Top 20 with “Fly Away” (Parlophone), up 25-17. Its Tones’ second Top 20 hit, following the former leader “Dance Monkey.”

The Official U.K. Singles and Albums Charts are published late Friday, local time.