It begins

:(

oh ffs

jesus

Fuck.

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE FUCKING JOKING

Ah, crap. Have spent many a gig over the years at the Arty. This is atrocious. Now this is exactly why pressure needs to be maintained on elected officials re: liquor licensing for live music venues.
Can I also publically thank the Arty staff for their love and support for sending over four huge boxes of muffins for all the Tote staff during Monday's show. It made a whole bunch of us cry.

Yeah, something tells me it's not going to incite as much furor as the Tote...

Fuck! My first ever gig was there.

FUCK!!!!!!!

I don't want this to turn into a game of ''who's next?''.

lots of furor potential in that scene, judy.

FUCKING HELL

We need a anti Liquor Licensing regulations protest!!!!

Where is MacLellan's office?

it will incite a different community of protesters. The virus of hardline regulation spreads...

A frosty relationship with The Arthouse’s current landlord has also been a major factor in the family’s decision not to renew the lease.

Did the building change hands at some point, or has it always been this way?

Modi said 2 minutes ago:

I don't want this to turn into a game of ''who's next?'

But?

My boss just got a bit worked up, cause he met his now wife here at a poetry night.
hehe...
Made me smile cause I've been going on about the tote to him, now he's talking about this one.

Right - someone needs to get this shit organised. Start some kind of lobby group encompassing all people unduly affected and get these laws ammended.

This includes: music venues, sports eg: bowls clubs, wine stores, small bars (I know of at least one nth Melb. bar with licencing issues in regard to the beer garden) and everyone else.

Who has serious time, dedication and monies to draw all the strands together, consult with the exeprts, industry and law enforment to get this done properly??

I promise I'll do it if my tatts ticket from last night has come through........

we went to a hilarious open mike night there

So, from what many of you are saying, is that you're not actually that fussed about seeing bands if they don't fit into you narrow 11pm-1am window of availability, and that the Tote was less about music and more about hanging out musos and looking cool...

I didn't get that feeling at all from what they said.

Culture change just doesn't happen quickly enough to work as a quick fix.

Slightly off-topic but still relevant to the issue, I just perused the legislative bills being discussed when parliament resumes in February and found this, which has passed through Assembly and is now being discussed in the Council, introduced to parliament by Tony Robinson in 2008, btw.

http://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/domino/Web_Notes/LDMS/PubPDocs.nsf/ee665e366dcb6cb0ca256da400837f6b/3B6548D6A3A4ADFDCA2574DB007FE0A2/$FILE/561294bi1.pdf

Essentially it proposes to introduce the ability for the Director of Liquor Licensing to apply 'lock-outs' (a late hour entry declaration) on a temporary or ongoing basis to individual venues.

It reads '' 58C Temporary late hour entry declaration

The Director, by notice published in the Government Gazette, may make a temporary
late hour entry declaration for an area or a locality if the Director believes on
reasonable grounds that—

(a) alcohol-related violence or disorder has occurred in the area or locality; and

(b) a temporary late hour entry declaration is reasonably likely to be an effective
means of reducing or preventing the occurrence of alcohol-related violence
or disorder in the area or locality.

(2) The Director may determine an area or locality to which a temporary late hour entry
declaration applies in any manner he or she thinks fit.''

And then: ''58H Certain criteria not to be taken into
account

In making or varying a late hour entry declaration, the Director must not take into
account—

(a) whether the declaration or variation would have any adverse financial
consequences for any licensee of licensed premises in the area or locality
to which the declaration, or the declaration as varied, will apply; or

(b) whether any particular licensed premises in the area or locality has contributed or is likely to contribute to alcohol-related violence or disorder in the area or locality.''

My concern is this- if a venue does have a lock-out enforced and drunk yobbos can't get back into their chosen watering hole doesn't that just mean they will stumble on down the street until they find another venue that doesn't have a lock-out???

The bill will next be debated in parliament on 2 February. Head along and represent!

I STILL blame bloody Jeff for starting all this back in the 90's... this has been coming for a long time, along with the violence on the streets of Melbourne, my (once) favourite city in Australia (perhaps the world).

Travesty. RIP.

I think internationalbs is actually Sue McLellan.

nah, just dipshit marketing blogger.

dnzr, you don't read very well if you think i have anything to with marketing as a ''discipline''.

It astounds me how quickly you lot are willing to dismiss what is far from a supportive view for the regulators. I am NOT saying it is a good legislation or that the regulators are doing a smart thing. What I AM saying is that some venues should (and perhaps already are) see this as a chance to revisit a tradition (i.e. unnecessarily late shows) that may not actually be what ALL potential customers are after.

There is money to be made (and joy to be provided) in thinking outside the narrow (e.g. ''must be late at night'') box. The folks who launched ''Day on a Green'' were smart enough to go ''maybe folks would like to see acts who might otherwise play on bars/standup gigs in a more cosy/daytime environment'' and it worked. That doesn't mean night-time gigs then have to die. I'm just saying adversity can be a trigger for diversity.

But, feel to continue your ''the sky is falling'', ''we're going to hell in a handbasket'' kneejerk reactions (which is not that far removed from the hysteria about supposed increases in violence that has triggered this crackdown in the first place). Are you really that far removed from the talk-show callers and Herald Sun readers who jump at every news story as indicative of a world in crisis?

ok you're a business strategy academic. But please don't patronise people on here. Yes isn't it lovely that musicians now play in a variety of venues at a variety of times - wineries, cinemas, cruises up the river, the forum etc etc. It's all lovely. It's also lovely that we can go out late at night.

BUT DON'T TELL US WE HAVE TO BE IN BED BY 1.30AM

How embarrassing if we have visitors from London (yes London), New York, Japan etc, and have to tell them, no we have no venues open after midnight here - it's not allowed..... we have to be in bed before 1.30am according to our nanny regulators.

Let the market decide Surely a business strategist is for letting the market decide?

Are you really that far removed from the talk-show callers and Herald Sun readers

God, I hope so!

internationalbs, you clearly have no idea how live music works in this kind of venue sense. I'm not even sure where to begin. You say you go out to shows - do you go to shows say at the Old Bar where the headliner comes on at 11pm or do you go exclusively to arena shows where everyone's safely tucked up in bed by 11pm? You want headliners on at 9.30pm? That means on a regular three band bill, the headliner comes on at 7.30pm. Now, I'm sure most people enjoy heading home to freshen up and have dinner between leaving work and heading out for an evening's entertainment at said live music venues. That's a lot of rushing around if you want to get there in time for all the bands, and that model would mean many support bands starting out would not be exposed to the kind of crowds they get now as most people wouldn't bother turning up at 7.30 to see a band.

Fuck, you really do come across as a stuffed shirt who thinks it's naughty to be out at Pony at 5am. Go to your Day On The Green shows all you want. Some of us enjoy a leisurely evening's entertainment that lingers on long into the night.

see this as a chance to revisit a tradition (i.e. unnecessarily late shows) that may not actually be what ALL potential customers are after.

What tradition? The 60s? I've been going to gigs at the Tote since '88 or '89 and, as far as I recall, playing times haven't changed all that much. ALL potential customers may not be after that, but the tens of thousands of customers who have been frequenting the place over the last 30 years do. Plenty of places to fill your early timeslot wishes if that's more your style.

..and on that note, I'm off to a gig where I may not leave until 2am! Unbelievable, eh?

you also seem to be forgetting that not all of us work 9-5 monday-friday. i finish work at 9:30 on most saturday nights, and even if i head straight out from work without going home, i won't meet up with my friends til usually around 10:30.

there are all sorts of people who work strange hours, hospital workers, hospitality workers, airport staff, taxi drivers, and we/they would like to have the choice and the options to still go out. just as you would like the choice to go to earlier gigs.

It would be nice to have gigs that start earlier though. I'm really enjoying gigs with only one support. It's like an early mark. What I do with the rest of that time is another thing.

I don't see any problem with starting weeknight gigs a bit earlier. It would allow 9-5ers, parents, and older music fans to still indulge their passion without it adversely impacting on their lives, jobs or hip pockets (midweek babysitters are hard to come by as it is, but as soon as you say 'the last band's on at midnight' they lose interest or ask for extra $$). Leave weekends -- or at least Thursdays to Sundays -- as is though.

this is what you get for mocking sydney, now we're ALL fucked.

Some gigs I've been helping organize have been going very well at a little shithole called hotlips. It's normally wednesday nights and our promise is to have the music finished by 10pm. I think it works; most people get there by 7:45 and can leave before 10. Anti-blowout policy or whatever.

The last couple of posts indicating that earlier shows DO work is what I was suggesting. I am not saying late night shows should not be allowed, or that there is NO market for them. All I am saying is that this regulatory imposition and potential crisis should prompt some venues to rethink the norm and consider whether there is an alternative.

As for the claim I must only go to arena shows, I can't remember the last one of those I went to (I've never seen the appeal of sitting/standing amongst thousands watching some rockstar go through some pantomine). I have indeed been the Old Bar and find it one of the more fun ''newer'' venues, reminiscent of the shows that the Public Bar in Nth Melb used to deliver.

The support band aspect is cetainly a weakness in my argument. Interestingly in London and NYC I've seen middle-of-the-bill headliners work well... i.e. those who do want to hang aorund can do so... a little like Pony has done in the past....

what you said was: but the continued pursuit of 3am closing is pretty unnecessary.

for everyone to have the choices of where they want to go when and why, then yes, it kind of is necessary.

a great number of venues that have shows also have dinner. They don't want people having dinner to not eat there because there's loud music on... when people eat they usually like to converse at the same time. So the music has to start after the busy meal times. No this doesn't apply to the arthouse / tote... just sayin.

there's a sensible article in this weeks freebie Melbourne Times by Bianca Hall on the liquor licensing fiasco.

I went to a show in London tonight and the headline band came on at 10. It was ok.

I went to see a show in NYC last month where the headline band came on at 1. It was ok.

I went to see a show in Milan last week where the opening band (of a 5 band bill) played at 11. It was ok.

internationalbs - I don't think you're really creating any kind of conversation. People are aware that early shows are possible and work. Late ones do too.

And just for the record, pubs in London close at 11 and it's fuckin' shit. Don't make that happen in Australia. ;)

and for your further contemplation, sam, of the six hundred or so 24-hour licensed drinking venues around Australia, 60% are in NSW.

I have indeed been the Old Bar and find it one of the more fun ''newer'' venues

Old bar has been going for almost eight years now.
Just saying...