Will the close of the Tote force Government to back down on tough live music laws?

JANUARY 18 may not have been the day the music died in Melbourne, but it certainly got a good kicking.
The closure of the Tote Hotel in Collingwood made the venue the first victim of tough new liquor licensing laws introduced to Victoria on January 1.

Under the new legislation, the Tote was deemed a "high-risk" venue because of its 3am closure, despite a 20-year history of almost no violence.

Is the Government killing off Melbourne's music scene? Blog with music writer Cameron Adams today from 1pm over on the right. You can leave your questions/opinions for him now.


It's not just the Tote - any venue playing live "amplified" music is now required to have security guards out front, whether it be a pub or folk music cafe or a deli.

See what the musos think of the situation below


James Young, owner of Melbourne's Cherry Bar in AC/DC Lane, says the closure of the Tote sent a "worrying message" through the city's music scene that it wouldn't be the last venue to feel the wrath of the new laws.

"I'm sure behind closed doors there were a few very powerful people doing high fives when the Tote closed, going `Excellent, one down, 20 to go'," Young says.

"It seems the Government thinks late night means after 11pm. Not all of us live in Brighton and walk big dogs. The problem with closing late-night venues is they'll close the wrong ones. People into live music, they just don't fight. A few streets away from Cherry there's blood in the gutters every weekend.

"And what they don't understand is they've ruffled the feathers of the normally lazy music industry. They got off their a---s and went to march at the Tote to send a message to (Premier John) Brumby and the Government that you've pushed us too far."

As Melbourne's live music industry was gripped by crisis, the senior Government officials responsible for liquor licensing were taking it easy this week.

Consumer Affairs Minister Tony Robinson and Liquor Licensing director Sue Maclellan took Monday off. Maclellan was on holiday and her office said she was not available for interview, even though many observers believe her job is on the line over the crisis, which could cost the Government inner-city votes at November's state election.

"Her reputation is absolute mud," one industry source says.

Maclellan's apparent nonchalance may be well placed - she has previously proved herself a tough operator by keeping the director job even after an ill-fated plan to impose a 2am nightclub lockout in 2008.

Despite being technically on holiday, Robinson has been working the phones, trying to restore relations between a Government worried about an electoral backlash and an industry that loathes and fears Maclellan.

Many live venues contacted by extraHit declined to discuss Maclellan.

"There's a real concern among licensees about speaking out," one says. "According to the Liquor Control Reform Act of 1998, the role of the director is to represent the licensees, not intimidate them."

On Tuesday, the Government signalled it was about to backpedal on the link between live music and the high-risk designation.

One of the players in the mix to take over the Tote's licence, Jon Perring, has already met with local member Dick Wynne, who cut his holiday short because of the crisis.

Together with other industry representatives, Perring, a partner in popular venues Bar Open, Yah Yahs and Pony, met Maclellan yesterday and will talk with Robinson today.

Robinson says "all options are on the table" as part of a music-industry roundtable to be held on February 10, with players including musician Dave Graney.

And last night, Maclellan extended an olive branch to the industry, saying she was open to continued discussions.

Perring has reactivated his long-standing campaign, Fair Go 4 Live Music, collecting 20,000 members on a Facebook group and about 10,000 signatures on a petition in a week.

Asked if Maclellan would survive as director, Perring says he is "focused on the issue, not the man".

"That's not for me to determine, but I don't think she has too many friends," he says. Perring says he's more interested in fighting the liquor-licensing issue than taking over the Tote, which he and his business partners are "looking at".

"I've been on the phone every day, networking like crazy," he says.

"There's a lot of support for this now. We've really been working on this since September because gigs have been dropping off all over town."

The rules covering late-trading venues with amplified music had been unchanged since the late 1990s. But the crackdown started in the middle of last year when a new compliance directorate, nicknamed "Sue's Stormtroopers", started work.

Removing the link between live music and a venue being classified as high risk would not involve a change to the law, Perring says.

Gigs, where people come together to share their love of music, are "exactly the kind of thing you want happening" in licensed venues, he says.

"People who go to see live music are part of a community, they're there to see a band -- and it's generally all over by 1am."

The Tote's closure is unfortunate timing. After years of being hit by nightclubs, live music is having a renaissance.

"Considering all the woes of the record industry, the live industry in Melbourne is alive and well," tour promoter and record company boss Michael Gudinski says.

"I have full respect for the police and Sue Maclellan trying to clean up the trouble, but live music venues, particularly the ones that support Australian music, aren't the trouble places. Live music venues are completely different to the nightclub scene. They're looking in the wrong places."

Young says the new laws are hitting the Cherry hard.

"I might want to put on Spencer P. Jones on a Tuesday night to play for an hour and hopefully bring in 20 people who are music fans. You wouldn't do that now because you have to pay security $35-$40 an hour, you have to have two of them working for a minimum of five hours," he says.

"You're in a scenario where the musician gets paid $200 and the security guard gets $500 -- and you only expected to attract 20 people. So you close on Tuesday and close on Sunday."

Young says the increased costs associated with being "high risk" -- including security, CCTV and higher licensing fees -- really hurt smaller businesses. "To large businesses, the big beer barns and Crown Casin, it's water off a duck's back."

Cherry's 5am licence means increased costs, but Young says it was their saving grace.

"We're the go-to venue of choice for bands who have finished playing. If we were compelled to shut at 3am by the Government that would kill us. That's where all our profitability is," he says.

"I wouldn't want to be telling Eddie Vedder or Kings of Leon, `Sorry guys you're in Melbourne, it shuts at 2am, welcome to Tidy Town'. Josh Homme was in the bar on Friday. He'll go around the world telling people how great Melbourne is because of its vibrant music scene, in live venues and small, lovable dirty rock-and-roll bars."

TOTE licensee Bruce Milne, who is dealing with what he calls the "brutal reality" of cleaning out his venue, says the rules have to change quickly or the pub will remain empty.

"Unless there is a change, no one can run it at a profit, so no one will take it over," he says.

Milne owed about $100,000 when he decided to pull the plug on the Tote, but a week of bumper trading looks likely to dramatically shrink the debt.

"I'll maybe walk out of it with $10,000 to $20,000 of debt. I'm still way out of pocket."

The pressure needs to stay on if there is to be any change to the rules, he says.

"If they string it out until the election and get over the line, I'm sure it will just disappear."

Young says that though the Government has aimed to help musicians with the Victoria Rocks program, the liquor licensing situation is negating their good work.

"They've been doing a good job giving out modest-sized grants to bands to help the music industry and foster this reputation we have for being the music capital of Australia. The irony is the Government is giving with one hand and taking with the other. They don't understand the link between licensing and late nights and the Melbourne music scene.

"Does the Government really think a town full of venues that close at 10pm that are jam-packed with poker machines is healthier in terms of anti-social behaviour than a city full of live music venues with people having a ball?"



What the musos think

MELBOURNE'S musicians have been riled by the closure of the Tote and the threats to shut other venues.

"They shut down the Tote. The Duke of Windsor shut, the Greyhound, Punters Club, now the Arthouse is closing," Melbourne singer/songwriter Dan Sultan says.

"Why don't they shut down Hungry Jack's on Chapel St? People are getting strangled in there. Shut down the strip clubs where people are getting shot and stabbed. Shut down QBH, which has massive all-in brawls. I'm sick of this anti-social behaviour. That didn't happen at the Tote."

Sultan says Melbourne's live culture is at risk.

"Rock and roll is where my faith lies. And a lot of people in this town and country, not just musicians but music fans, feel the same. They can take away as many churches as they want but they'll never stop us. All we need is a guitar. We're going to do whatever we want. We'll play if we want, where we want. We're not doing anything evil. I'll just point at the scoreboard -- stabbings: zero, punch-ons: zero, women being assaulted: zero, drinks being spiked: zero. Just fun."

Dave Graney agrees.

"Many female friends have pointed out that these clubs and pubs like the Tote have always been places where they can go and not be hit on, monstered, groped and pawed by drunk and horny dopes. People go to these places to listen to music. Many women have said they always felt they could go to these Melbourne rock clubs by themselves and stand around, listening to the bands by themselves, and not feel as if they were in a swingers' bar. It was a legitimate place to be."

Graney sees the new laws as a "blunt instrument" causing damage to "the quite vulnerable and delicate" Melbourne live music scene.

"The bureaucrats are blind and have to listen to the people that are being affected.

"The story of the Tote itself is bad. Really it seems to be the tip of the iceberg. The Melbourne music scene is not Rod Laver Arena and whoever is playing at the Grand Prix, it's the small clubs.

"I really think it's time for the State Government to foster the scene and to nurture it. They should not be making it harder and harder for the venues just to appear as if they are tough and hard."

Musician Megan Washington moved to Melbourne for its vibrant arts and culture scene. She played her first Melbourne gig at the Spanish Club and her first Sydney gig at the Hopetoun. Both venues are now closed.

"Tragedy always brings people together," Washington says. "There is a real sense of the national music community going `We need our venues, this is s---'.

"I'd hate to see any more venues in Melbourne go."

However, she remains positive this isn't the death knell of the local live scene. "Necessity is the mother of invention. I'm sure there'll be more warehouse parties with live bands. It's not going to kill the live music scene, but I do think it's really really short-sighted of the powers that be."

Ben Birchall, now a Triple R Breakfaster, has played an array of gigs around Melbourne with bands Klinger and the Corrections.

He sees the Tote closure and the Arthouse's closure next year as an example of inflexible bureaucracy.

"You only need to walk down King St on a Saturday night to realise there are venues causing problems and they need to do things about that. No one's arguing about that. But unfortunately, if you're inflexible with these things, there are needless casualties.

"This could be catastrophic unless something's done. These venues are disappearing anyway out of commercial reality. The Government is adding needless fees to people trying to make a living out of what's really a very unprofitable thing, but a very necessary thing for Melbourne. That's what the State Government and liquor licensing need to look at, how they're affecting the character of the city."

Similarly, small venues like the Tote and the Arthouse let young bands find their musical chops.

"That's how a band gets good, from show to show," Birchall says. "The Tote would have bands on a Tuesday where it was just their friends bolstering them through that period. Every band needs that period. They need to get through that, the good ones do and the bad ones don't. It's a filtering process."

Brendan Suppression, singer in Eddy Current Suppression Ring (who played the Tote's farewell show) says the live scene will adapt, but hopes it doesn't get worse.

"We haven't yet seen much of the effects of these laws. Clearly the people who make these laws have just chucked it all in one bag. They're lazy. Hopefully all this outrage is not falling on deaf ears."

Tom Hartney from Little Red says the fallout from the Tote has had one positive effect.

"This law change is a wake-up call to people who are passionate about music to get out and support it. We get lazy as we get older, but we need to make a conscious effort to go out and support live music and not baulk at paying $5. All you can do is vote with your feet."

Issued by Herald Sun 29th January 2010
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainment/music/will-the-close-of-the-tote-force-government-to-back-down-on-tough-live-music-laws/story-e6frf9hf-1225824301309