The Tote is dead

08 February 2010

by Lars Brandle

Victoria’s tough licensing rules and security conditions are squeezing the life out of Melbourne’s grassroots live music scene, local venue owners warn. The search is now on to find strong support from the music industry, a white knight who can exert some of its own pressure. Whatever the outcome, it’ll be much too late to save the Tote. A symbol of inner-city Melbourne’s buzzing live music circuit since 1980, the Tote Hotel closed its doors for the last time on January 18th. Bruce Milne, proprietor of the iconic Collingwood music venue, says the Tote was a victim of harsh new liquor licensing measures.

Under the rules, any bar or pub which hosted live music and operated outside the defined “ordinary” trading hours of 9am to 11pm could be considered a “high risk” venue, meaning the licensee would face expensive new levels of safety and security compliance.

Victorian Police recommended a “high risk” status for the Tote, pegging the venue on a par with the city’s roughest and toughest boozers. “It was a simple case where I couldn’t operate profitably under the ‘high risk’ (category). And we couldn’t afford to keep fighting it,” explains Milne, who says alcohol-related incidents were an extremely rare spectacle at his venue. “I had to sack 16 people. For me, I was seething with anger at the unfairness of it all.”

Victoria’s director of liquor licensing sue McClellan says the rules are firm but fair. In 2010, the Tote’s liquor licensing fees would have risen by $1,673 to $5,962.50, a hike of almost 40% in one year, the director of liquor licensing confirms to TMN. “License fees are about recouping the costs for regulating the industry,” says a spokesperson for McClellan. “Previously, regulation of the industry came out of the tax-payer’s pocket. Now licensees pay for the licensing of their own industry.”

Jaddan Comerford, co-owner of the Staple Group, says the laws are causing “direct damage” to Victoria’s live music community. It’s a sector which - according to APRA - is worth approximately $30 million in annual payments to performers. “We need to engage with government and discuss the issues that are important to our industry,” notes Comerford. “We’re trying (through indie trade association AIR), but it’s not always easy to get the message through.”

The untimely closure of the 330-capacity Tote sparked a period of mourning. Thousands of regulars gathered outside the Johnston street venue to pay their final respects for a site which had hosted gigs by Spiderbait, You Am I, Paul Kelly, Silverchair and Jet, among many others. Milne, who acquired the Collingwood venue’s licence with his brother James in 2001, says the music industry needs to take action, and soon.

“We need to have statements of support from across the board from the John Farnhams, the Paul Kellys, saying (music venues) mean something to people out there in the community,” comments Milne. “If the government is smart, we’ll see some dramatic changes soon. They’re desperate to make this problem go away. Hopefully what happened to the Tote won’t happen to other venues.”

Apparently, The Tote isn’t the only Melbourne venue to feel the pinch. A number of Melbourne’s smaller music sites are considering whether to pull the plug on live music. The Railway Hotel in North Fitzroy has already yanked its live music programming because its operators couldn’t soak-up the inflated costs. “We were told we must have two security guards on with any live entertainment, even if we had just six people in the room,” explains Peter Negrelli, manager and booker of the 180-capacity Railway Hotel. “If you have a performance where you know you’ll have 200-300 people, sure. But if you’ve got a weeknight gig with acoustic, low- level amplified music, the rules are crazy.”

Tim Northeast, owner of the larger Corner and Northcote Social Club venues, cautions that the government’s crackdown on licensed premises was a “threat” to the music industry. “The people of Melbourne and the music industry at large must fight hard to protect the smaller venues from becoming collateral damage in the fight against street violence,” he says. Help might be on the way. Kathleen Maltzahn, the Greens Party candidate for the Melbourne district of Richmond, has challenged the state government to back away. In an open letter to the government entitled “Keep Melbourne Live,” Maltzahn has proposed a four-step compromise to safeguard the region’s live sector.

The action doesn’t stop there. Local lobbying group Fair Go 4 Live Music recently met with Tony Robinson, Minister for Gaming and Consumer Affairs, to air the industry’s concerns about the knock-on effects of the Liquor Licensing regulations. Falling short of making a change to policy, Robinson did agree to investigate the issue in the coming weeks and would meet with McClellan on the issue. In the meantime, the Tone Deaf Website is hosting an online petition to persuade a change in legislative mood. In its call to arms, the petition warns that the liquor licensing laws and regulations are “destroying the vibrancy and viability” of the live music circuit. Another action-group, which goes under the working title Save Live Australian Music (SLAM), is organizing an inner-city rally on February 27th to protest the lack of government support for live music.

“When I started out in the music business, there were a whole lot less rules about music venues and there were a whole lot more of them. There was music playing on every corner, and it was a pretty good time,” says Warner Music Australasia president and CEO Ed St John. “It feels like this sector of the industry has been squeezed tighter and tighter over the years. We seem to have become a more regulated society, and rock ‘n’ roll is something some people have a real objection to.”