The Null Device

FG4LM

I went along to the Fair Go 4 Live Music meeting at Trades Hall this evening. There were a lot of people there; the meeting room was packed solid, and many people who showed up later had to listen to proceedings on speakers placed outside, in the bar. A number of speakers spoke: Sandra from the Empress (who's leading this fight, faced with her own yuppie neighbour from hell), a home-owner from Sydney who sued to shut down a pub (apparently a really badly run one, though) and gave some advice on the good fight, and one of the people involved in a similar battle in Adelaide, which ended with victory and legal reforms (partially) protecting venues from noise complaints.

Points which came up: telephoning or writing letters to politicians/councillors is a good idea, as is writing to newspapers (the major ones, as well as local community papers and ethnic papers) explaining the issues (in a nutshell, that the current regulations are biased against established venues, allowing new residents to shut them down with a single complaint, not recognising that the venues contribute to the local community, and placing no burden on real-estate developers to inform their clients of the locale or install soundproofing). Getting an established spokesperson, even if they're "not cool", may be good; the general public would respect a campaign fronted by, say, John Farnham, more than one fronted by Machine Gun Fellatio. Finally, the residents aren't the enemy (regardless of how many jibes about Saab-driving warehouse dwellers one hears); the problem is the unfair and unreasonable regulations.

So far, it looks good. With the momentum building up, we may well come out of this with our live music scene intact; though we can't afford to be complacent. So if you don't want to see Melbourne turn into Sydney or someplace, phone your MLA, or write a letter to your newspaper. Or both.

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