Aussie music venues face tougher regulations, fees

BRISBANE, Australia (Billboard) - Touring professionals Down Under fear that new alcohol licensing regulations could strangle the vital pub/club scene in Australia's live music capital, Melbourne.

Hefty increases in late-night licensing fees on top of costly security requirements for pubs and clubs rolled out last year have already claimed one high-profile casualty, the 330-capacity Tote Hotel, which shuttered January 18 after 27 years.

"The Tote was always like our CBGB," Sydney-based EMI Music Australia A&R manager Glenn Dickie says.

Jet, the Hoodoo Gurus and Silverchair all played the Tote, as did international acts like the White Stripes and Mudhoney. Such pub venues have proved essential in developing the rock acts that have been Australia's prime music exports in recent years.

Tote proprietor Bruce Milne is calling for voices in the "upper echelons of the music industry" to lobby for changes to the regulations. But as of yet, he's elicited little more than sympathy, although Australian Independent Record Labels Association chairman David Vodicka promises "strong support" for any lobbying efforts by the local live community. At Albert Music, the Australian label/publishing home to rock band AC/DC, CEO Tim Prescott warns that the Tote's closure could be followed by that of other small venues, meaning "fewer places to break new talent."

The January 1 regulations applied new "risk factors" to determine a venue's 2010 licensing fees. Venues serving alcohol after 1 a.m. now face higher fees, in addition to meeting strict standards for security, closed-circuit television and sound levels, which have been enforced since July 2009.

WEIGHING THE FINANCIAL RISK

The measures are "definitely a threat" to Australia's music industry, says Tim Northeast, owner of the 850-capacity Corner Hotel and 300-capacity Northcote Social Club, both located in Melbourne. He suggests many of the city's 50-odd venues are already "considering whether hosting live music is worth the financial risk."

Official records show the Tote's alcohol license fee surged 39 percent from $4,289.50 Australian ($3,865) in 2009 to $5,962.50 Australian ($5,371) this year. Milne says he experimented with closing before 1 a.m., but claims that doing so caused business to drop 13 percent on Friday and Saturday.

Milne says the Tote couldn't run profitably under the new rules, noting that he had to spend $30,000 Australian ($27,000) "just on CCTV to keep them happy -- money I'd rather spend on keeping the beer cold and getting the bands in."

The annual license fee for the 1,640-capacity Esplanade Hotel in Melbourne more than tripled from about $5,000 Australian ($4,500) to $16,000 Australian ($14,370), according to manager David Barrett. The venue has a 1:45 a.m. curfew for bands that play on Friday and Saturday nights. At the moment, the additional costs "are something we can deal with, but for sure it hurts," Barrett says. "The smaller venues will definitely feel the sting."

Indeed, at Melbourne's 180-capacity Railway Hotel, manager/booker Peter Negrelli says new security overhead forced him to pull live music in September.

Victoria's state government insists the new rules are fair. "For the first time," a representative for the director of liquor licensing says, "licensees -- rather than taxpayers -- are paying the full costs of regulating the liquor industry."

Venue operators in the states of New South Wales and Queensland also have recently been confronted with strict new regulations aimed at curbing alcohol abuse. "It's an overregulated industry at the moment, and it's only getting worse," says Bevan Bickle, director of the Katarzyna Group, which operates six Brisbane, Queensland, venues.

But Sydney-based Frontier Touring tour coordinator Michael Harrison suggests small venues' survival might require abandoning their jealously protected independence and seeking corporate branding support.

"Venues need to look at other ways to finance their business," he says. "I'd rather be playing at the Jagermeister Hotel than no hotel."