City of Sydney’s Live Music Matters Action Plan Fosters Gigs and Venues

Making council-owned spaces available as rehearsal and performance space, modifying the liquor laws to make it easier to open licensed entertainment venues, dealing with noise complaints through mediation and creating a live music and performance liaison officer — these are some of the ideas to come out of the City of Sydney Council Live Music Matters Action Plan, released to the public on Monday.

The report comes after six months of research into Sydney's live music scene, which has been steadily in decline since the '90s. What was once a thriving pub rock scene where bands like AC/DC, INXS and Midnight Oil made their names has gradually given way to quieter, more food-and-drink-based venues, such as El Loco and Newtown Social Club (as much as we love them) in former live music hubs The Excelsior and The Sandringham.

The report was commissioned by the City of Sydney Live Music and Live Performance Taskforce, headed by musician, teacher and activist John Wardle. As well as noise complaints from locals, the report identifies regulatory barriers, the popularity of poker machines as income for venues, lack of performance and rehearsal space and "changes in leisure culture" (sports screens in pubs, more digitally available music) as reasons for the decline.

But one thing that's definitely not lacking is demand from the public. A recent study by Ernst and Young revealed that in 2009 10 venue-based live music injected over $1.2 billion into the Australian economy, supported almost 15,000 full-time jobs and drew crowds of nearly 42 million patrons at various events across Australia.

In a press conference at Goodgod Small Club, Lord Mayor Clover Moore said that live music was an important part of Sydney's night-time economy, and that the more options young people had, the less likely they would be to rely on alcohol for entertainment.

"One of my major objectives for pushing for small bars ... was a renaissance of our live music scene," she said. “The industry has been hit hard in recent years by regulatory and legislative changes that have led to fewer venues for live music.

“Over the past decade, there has been a dramatic increase in residential living in parts of the city that were traditionally home to live entertainment ... As a council, we need to balance everyone’s needs, and to do that we need to understand the issues.”

The report is available online, and the council is inviting Sydneysiders to share their thoughts at sydneyyoursay.com.au. The consultation period will end on January 18, 2014.

Image: Gue?rgui via photopin cc.