Stories


Here is a collection of stories to depress you (sorry). Though the Labor Government made a big deal of the Live Music Accord they signed Feb 22, and said it supported music, only three out of 700 venues have had their licence conditions requiring security guards and CCTV any time music plays rolled back (as of April 2011).
  • Rick Dempster tells the very sad story of what happened at the Railway Hotel, Nicholson Street, North Fitzroy, in his speech Rick Dempster at the SLAM rally.
  • Honeytree Thomas writes about the damage done to Melbourne’s music culture, in Memory and Reflection: Live Music at the Railway Hotel. “It is devastating that the Government has been able to change the course of Melbourne’s music history so suddenly, in such an arbitrary way. It is inexcusable that this can happen whilst The Railway Hotel remains advertised on the State governed Tourism Victoria’s website as a pub popular for hosting live acoustic music. The hypocrisy is laughable. Is this all our culture means to Government – a sales pitch?”
  • Martin Cooper writes about gun-carrying plainclothes police raiding a Brunswick bar just FIVE days before the SLAM rally, closing down the music. A band of over-50 year-olds were playing relatively quiet music that was due to finish at 11pm, to a room of 12 people—I find it horrifying that musicians and venues are treated like this. Here it is: Death by Centimetres - All-out Attack on Live Music
  • Andy Sugg tells another sad and disturbing story, about his band being stopped at Cape Live, at around the start of 2009. It’s here: Andy Sugg’s speech at the SLAM rally.
  • Jon von Goes talks about the situation at the Lomond Hotel in East Brunswick, before and after the hotel was forced to hire security guards in the middle of 2009. The story is here: Jon von Goes speaks at the SLAM rally.
  • Ian Bland also talks about life at the Lomond, in his moving poem: Ian Bland at the SLAM rally.
  • Irene Vela's story tells us about the incredible growth of Melbourne's music scene over the past 30 years, and how The Greek Deli in Chapel St now can't amplify their musicians, who play folk music to mature patrons, with unfortunate consequences for everybody. Read it here: Irene Vela at the SLAM rally.
  • Here is a story about world-renowned classical violinist Nigel Kennedy having to abandon an all-night jazz jam at the Abbotsford Convent at 1.40am, because of the expense of continuing to pay the two security guards present: Strings attached in live music fight.