On Saturday night I went along to the first film being screened as part of Keep Austin Weird, the Mercury’s extravaganza of films from Austin, Texas – the so-called Live Music Capital of the US.
The film being screened was Echotone, which is screening again on Saturday 15th of October at 6PM. Here’s a little clip:
I pretty firmly believe this is a must see for anyone looking to see what happens when you disconnect development and planning policy from cultural policy – particular when cultural activity is one of the city’s major draw cards. A large part of the film centres around the decision to zone high rise, high end apartments next to long standing local music venues, thereby killing off the very ‘vibrant culture’ which made the city so attractive – and ultimately economically viable – to begin with.
Echotone is screening as part of a partnership between the Festival of Unpopular Culture and the Mercury. You can come see Angela from the Mercury talk about it tonight at 7PM at AC Arts as part of the Nigel Koop Variety Hour, and – again – I’ll be discussing these themes on Tuesday night’s City Makers Talk About Making Cities Panel, also at 7PM at AC Arts.
Austin is Adelaide’s sister city, which is interesting because Echotone makes it sound like we share a sisterly disinterest in protecting locally produced culture, indicated by a penchant for zoning high rise apartments next to music venues. Similarly the scene in the trailer in which an irate Baby Boomer demands he has a ‘right’ to shut down pre-existing cultural businesses because they’re ‘terrorizing’ him is eerily reminiscent of Adelaide.
I’ve been looking a lot at what happened to our music scene around the turn of the century, and looking into the hunch I’ve had that it decreased substantially in the wake of noise restrictions, increased inner city housing, pokies, the new BCA, increasingly paranoid liquor licensing and the rising monopoly of larger, alcohol focused venues, and a regulatory and administrative environment hostile to local music. I’ve been thinking it’d be interesting to do something comparable to what Libby Raupach’s Theatre Spaces and Venues Audit did for theatre venues, but for those smaller, less High Culture spaces not attached to the funded arts sector. That report found there was a lack of spaces, and I think the same thing is, in anything, more prevalent in the non-funded, non-government driven live music sector.
The point here isn’t the local music itself. The point is looking at venues that housed cultural activity made by people who live in and around the city of Adelaide, and thus amplifying the sense that the city ‘belongs’ to the people who use it, rather than simply serving as a great big mall with a couple of universities. What I’m trying to see is if a decrease in those venues, which supported participatory cultural activity, decreased (a) when I remember them decreasing and (b) whether that decrease synchs to any of the other ‘Adelaide in decline’ statistics from around the turn of the century.
As far as I can tell so far, they do.
Those of you who are older will be able to tell me what I’ve missed here, but I’ve been trying to trace the number of music venues that used to be active in the East End, estimate how frequently they used to host shows and make an estimate of their capacities. I’ve been looking at old gig guides from dB, Rip It Up and the Advertiser’s now defunct The Guide and there’s definitely been a shift away from live music to pre-recorded music – the volume of venues solely hosting DJs (i.e: some guy in the corner playing mp3s whilst everyone sits around drinking) has gone up exponentially, and there’s an increase in the volume of solo performers – those guys who sit in the corner playing covers on acoustic guitars quietly enough they don’t disrupt either the neighbours or the drinkers. And a pretty solid decrease in the volume of actual bands.
This stuff is harder to track because no one seems to have kept any records on it. So I’m posting my rough hunches here to get feedback from those who remember better than myself – let me know how far off you think I am:
| Venues | 1999 Estimate Capacity in band room | 1999 Estimate Frequency of Live Music per week | 2005 Est Cap | 2005 Est Frequency |
| Austral | 100 | 3 | n/a | n/a |
| Exeter | 100 | 3 | 50 | 3 |
| Madlove Bar | 100 | 3 | n/a | n/a |
| Rhino Room | 100 | 3 | 100 | 3 |
| Gate 1 Bar | 75 | 1 | n/a | n/a |
| UniBar | 250 | 2 | n/a | n/a |
| C&A | 100 | 3 | n/a | n/a |
| Tivoli | 350 | 1 | n/a | n/a |
| Producers | 275 | 4 | 150 | 2 |
| Total | 1175 | 250 |
I picked 2005 as the cut off, as I remember it being virtually impossible to get a show around that time. I think we played The Jade Monkey and the Prince Albert almost exclusively for about two years because there were no other small venues. Thank god for Zac and DK for taking the risk to set up some amazing venues.
I haven’t had time lately to connect that back to other stats on the city properly, but from what I can tell, during that time period crime in South Australia went up, and the SAPOL report on Alcohol in Crime seems to confirm it went up particularly within the city of Adelaide. The ABS stats I remember wading through a while back makes it look like the youth exodus became a real issue in 2001 and, despite truisms to the contrary, I still think it’s a major issue – and it’s identified as such in the Thirty Year Plan for Greater Adelaide. I can’t find decent longitudinal data for economic strength in the city area – I know there’s a much cited claim that Rundle Mall went from holding a 20% market share of retail in the metro area to a 5% share or something, but I can’t find anything proving that. It’s also notable that once most of the music venues closed, all the larger cinemas shut down (except the Mercury and the Palace Nova). If we combine the potential pull the cinemas and the music venues used to have, I don’t think it’s unrealistic to say they were capable of attracting somewhere around 3000 people into the city on a weeknight for a cultural purpose – as separate from a purely alcohol based night economy, distinctly divided from an office work/retail driven day time economy that ends, pretty abruptly, at 5PM.
Any who has a better memory of the local music scene of the nineties and early two thousands – please do get in touch, I’d love to get your thoughts on the topic.
There was also the Producers which sometimes ran as two venues at once. They had gigs in their beer garden, which sometimes had 200 ppl & also in the side room for another 75 ppl or so. For quite a while in the mid- nineties i remember they boasted live music every night.
Don would give anyone a chance. It was great. Both of the terrible punk bands I was in had our debut gigs there.
Is is not possible that there has just been a westward shift in live music venues? The Metro (replacing the PA) and the Jade still exist. There’s also the Grace Emily, the Wheatsheaf, the Ed Castle, sporadically Format, Fowler’s and Jive (although they’re bigger), Enigma (despite mostly catering to specific taste), with gigs popping up at the Franklin Hotel now too. It seems there are more inner-city venues now than any time since I turned 18 – of all the things that concern me about Adelaide, space for live music is not one of them. The gentrification of the east end is a shame for other reasons, but I’d be more concerned about the absence of suburban venues (the Holdfast Hotel, etc.) than the cover duos at the Austral.
The suburban venues have really very clearly decreased, which jumps out at you when you compare the old gig guides to modern ones. That’s particularly true for the South – the old Southie music scene has completely disappeared.
As for venues in the West – that area used to include Mojo, Minke, Cartoons, Supermild (played my second ever show there, on a Sunday afternoon), Allure, Swing Cat, briefly the Royal Admiral, the Union on Waymouth and there’s a few others I can’t remember. It’s picked up since 2005, but it still hasn’t reached the strength it used to have.
There was also the Producers Ianto. Capacity in the beer garden was pretty big, probably 2-3 gigs a week. Since 05 I guess there has been use of the side room (now called the Producers), but it’s been intermittent.
That’s all I’ve got so far. Good luck.
You’ve got C&A twice, I guess one is supposed to be C&S? They were still having live music sometimes in 2005, just not indie anymore. Not sure how often.
The Ex were still using the beer garden for gigs in 2005.
New venues in 2005 that weren’t around in 1999 (as well as PA & JM) would include Jive and Enigma, though both more for tours … usually with local supports though.
The Lizard Lounge had some gigs occasionally as well.
Overall, I’m in agreement, 2005 was the year of the Jade Monkey for me (even the PA didn’t get going until quite late in the year), with occasional visits to the C&A, Ex and Grace, and Jive, Enigma & The Gov for tours from interstate/os.
I can pass on my archive of gig guide emails which covers 2005 pretty well if you like. Not 1999 though. I used to have a list of all the gigs I went to which may have been useful for 1999 but I lost it.
From memory, the Seven Stars was going in ’99, a mix of locals and tours. What about FAD?
I never went to the Tivoli so I’m not sure that much was still happening there by 1999. Pretty sure Madlove shut in 1998 as well. Never even heard of Gate 1 so would wonder if that was still around then as well. I’d say for me 1999 would have been big on the C&S, also with The Ex, Austral, Rhino Room, Seven Stars quite a bit. Unibar mostly big tours only. I remember going to Producers in ’98 (The Sea Scouts!) but not again until they renovated the side bit years later. Might seem a bit picky about the years but there is a tendency for places to disappear and then get replaced by new ones so there is a danger of double counting with venues that closed one year and others that opened the next (e.g. if you were using 2008 or whenever it was then it wouldn’t be fair to count both the PA & Metro).
Also, is 2005 a good comparison or a bit of an anomaly in the long term? Do you think it’s improved since 2005? Now I see local bands fairly regularly at The Metro, Jade Monkey, Exeter, Wheaty, Grace Emily, Format, Jive. Also stuff happening at some other places like The Franklin, Squatters Arms, Producers.
Also, it’s certainly not an Adelaide thing, around the end of the 90′s and into the 00′s Sydney’s live music scene was not exacty healthy and you could have compiled a similar list.
(and for the record I sometimes DJ with vinyl, not just mp3s!)
YES PLEASE.
I thought the exact same thing, regarding the Theatre Spaces and Venue Audit report, and how I’d like to see something similar for small-scale live music venues.
There’s been a report released lately that live music pumps $1billion into the economy each year across Australia – though I’m fairly sure that the small-scale venues we’re talking about here wouldn’t have the reporting infrastructure set up to really be included in the report.
I only turned 18 in 2002, and probably still didn’t go out to heaps of gigs until a few years after that, so I don’t have much knowledge on the period you’re referring to, but Adelaide Music has been my main passion since then, so if there’s any way I can help, please do let me know.
There was also
Seven Stars
The Royal Hotel (Kent Town)
Crown & Sceptre
The Holdfast Hotel (Glenelg)
YES +1!!
The Austral beer garden use to be amazing for bands. Unfortunately that was encased in a concrete sarcophagus, creating a cold, sterile environment that now panders to the DJ set, and “acoustic rock sunday” crowd as i like to call it. All because of noise complaints. The Exeter had a great beer garden too, until the building of the apartments behind and therefore pushing the live music inside. MadLove, Tivoli, Cartoons (whatever happened there… it burnt down and now sits empty on Hindley Street), Big Ticket, Seven Stars, Proscenium (changed to O2 and then closed, again empty)… the list goes on. The other main problem i see is the destruction of the classic front bar. Big corporations buy the pub out, rip out everything that had any history or “Soul” out, and replace it with stainless steel, marble, granite, downlights and BIG SCREEN TVs advertising premix drinks, football, rugby…. thank god for places like the Grace Emily and JM for being live music venues FOR live music performers. The Crown & Anchor – whilst i now have some hope in the place recovering from the years of bad management now that the Exeter has taken ownership has some ridiculous rules in regards to what time people can sit outside at night. All because some cashed up retiree decides he wants to live SMACK BANG in the middle of the city in a new flash “architect-designed cube”…
Anyway – rant over
I would love to help out too, dont hesitate to let me know!
Pingback: So there’s life, and then there’s this | theScenery.com.au
I think there’s at least a few more – FAD comes to mind and places like supermild (now just a club) – I am sure the old hands would have plenty to say about this. Also, unlicensed/’illegal’ type places that make an important contribution – SEAS gallery (a good example of inflexible licencing laws crushing an otherwise excellent space), Action Park, various house shows. I think looking at say ’99 vs ’09 would be even more striking since things seem to have really dropped off in the last 3-4 years (in my experience at least).
Another important point is that closing a venue (or not helping one stay open) exponentially effects the whole thing. Less opportunities leads to more people moving east, leads to less people supporting/playing at venues so that its even harder for them to stay open. I can think of at least 4 or 5 friends who’ve moved since the start of this year, taking with them 2 or 3 relatively popular bands who would have otherwise been giving people a reason to visit local venues – I am sure the same applies to the other areas of the arts, which I have no experience with.
On a side note, almost all of those involved in smaller scale contemporary music in Adelaide have some other form of rent-paying occupation, so it’s not just a loss of unemployed musicians – its nurses, chefs, social workers, scientists, whatever – for whom not being able to be involved in music (or whatever) on the weekend is enough to tip the scales in favour of moving elsewhere.
Keep up the good work!
The loss of nurses, chefs, social workers, scientists and pretty much everyone else is sort of the thing that really hits me – more so because I hear this claim they’ll all move back when they want to have kids, but I see no proof of that. I’d like to see if I can get people who’ve left to do a short email interview talking about why they went because there’s a real stubborn refusal to recognise that we (a) have an exodus problem and (b) that it’s cultural as well as economic in nature. Let me know if you’d be keen to maybe do something like that – and the same goes for anyone else who has left and might have the time to answer a few questions on the topic.
Yeah, of course, I’d be happy to do an interview.
Interesting article! I’m sure given the time period you’ve selected, that the rise of electronically available music via downloads may have played a part as well with the concomitant lowering to the entry cost of DJ’s (ie. vinyl isn’t cheap, but downloads are, as well as dj software availability, though that’s a bit later time wise). The ever expanding availability of DJ’s (and Ipods for that matter), comparatively cheaper than live music, I’m sure would have contributed to the decline in live music as well around that time. Thanks for the good read!
Le Rox, The Old Lion, The Tivoli and the Uni Bar (Adelaide and Flinders) were all major live music venues ‘in mar day’ (late 80′s – 90′s) that I think you missed. Others were Toucan Two, Limbo, Cargo, Lark and Tina’s, Club Foot, KoKlub and a few others that I played in over the years. The scene thrived during this time and provided a handy income for students like myself with a social life to boot.
The development of residential apartments was not wholly to blame. As far as my experience goes, the rise of the ‘E’ fueled rave scene can be atributed to many of the venues changing their format. The kids weren’t interested in live music anymore, so other kids didn’t pick up a guitar and form a band, they invested in some decks and a laptop loaded with pirated cubase and became a DJ. It seems by the 90′s there were two tribes – ravers or indie punks – which pretty much split the venue formats as well. Obviously the pokies and the apartments are also responsible, but only partly. I do believe however there is a bit of a shift back to a live music scene. Maybe more people are getting sick of the DJ thing and are after something different and new? Maybe the offspring of my generation are picking are picking up those discarded instruments and forming bands?
Ianto – have you seen this? Not sure if it’s of any help….
http://www.cmc.gov.au/media_releases/other_media_releases2/supporting_australias_live_music_industry
Maybe I missed it, but the Synagogue hosted some amazing bands in the early 1990s. And what about the Abbadon (sp?) on North Tce?
P
Interesting read.
http://www.hinesproperty.com.au/hotel-122grenfell.htm
One developer, pretty much killing Producers/Electric Light, Austral, Crown & Anchor, and now the Jade Monkey?