2010 Melbourne live music rally
The rally was an act of protest against effects of liquor licensing laws on live music venues in the city.
The Tote Hotel, located in the inner-city Melbourne suburb of Collingwood, closed in January 2010, due to the owners' inability to continue payments related to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT)'s regulations that deemed live music venues that opened beyond 1am "high risk".
The Tote was classified alongside mainstream nightclubs on King Street located in the city's central business district (CBD), receiving the label a "high-risk" venue.
[2] In a January 2010 interview with The Age newspaper, Bruce Milne stated, 27 years after the building was first erected, "I have simply run out of money.
[5] Representing SLAM, rally co-organiser, and former Blue Ruin singer, Quincy McLean, contacted police and the Melbourne City Council on 1 February 2010 to securing a permit for a larger protest to publicise the issue that was affecting venues like the Tote, the Lomond Hotel and the Railway Hotel in North Fitzroy.
[3]With the involvement of the second co-organiser Helen Marcou,[6] a planning meeting was then held on 2 February at the Bakehouse Studios complex in the inner-eastern Melbourne suburb of Richmond.
The crowd eventually arrived at the state's Parliament House building on Spring Street, where a variety of speakers and musical performances occurred.
"[9] Many individuals, groups and bands were in attendance at the rally, including; Paul Kelly, Missy Higgins, Paul Dempsey (Something For Kate), Tim Rogers (You Am I), Wilbur Wilde, Kram (Spiderbait), Scott Owen (The Living End), Clare Bowditch, Cut Copy, Evelyn Morris, My Disco and Amanda Palmer.
Venue closures throughout Sydney and Brisbane have forced live music to struggle in inner city suburban homes, warehouses, art spaces and anywhere that will host it in a desperate effort to save a once flourishing community.
As venue owners in our city now face increased licensing fees, cut backs on hours of operation and strict decibel restriction, we are forced to realize that without active community participation, Melbourne could soon become a mere shadow of what was once heralded as the greatest live music community in the southern hemisphere.
[citation needed]Dempster, harmonica player for the Brunswick Blues Shooters,[6] stated during the rally, while alongside Kelly: As far as I’m concerned, the small venue is a centre of community cohesion, people know each other, and they’re drawn together.
I understand the social function and humanitarian value of live music, that’s part of a way of life, as much as food, drink, conversation and laughter are.
Shortly after my gig folded due to the financial impracticality of employing two crown controllers insisted by the liquor licensing directorate, the same body approved two clubs in the Docklands area.
The petition was eventually delivered to the Legislative Council at Parliament House on 7 April 2010 by musicians who were from the different decades within the time period from the 1930s to the 1980s.
[11]The Tote Hotel was reopened in June 2010 after new owners, John Perring, Andy Portokallis and Sam Crupi, resumed the venue's day-to-day business with the same team of employees.
Furthermore, as with any industry, the conditions affecting the ongoing commercial viability of live music are subject to a range of influences, particularly in relation to regulatory and policy developments.
