Read Dave Faulkner's Gripping 'Keep Sydney Open' Speech in Full

The Trade Union Club was the big league for a band like us, and eventually we became popular enough to headline there, but more than that, it was a cultural hub. Upstairs, in the third floor band room you might see The Birthday Party or The Saints, The Scientists or The Laughing Clowns, and then afterwards everyone would head down to the first floor for a nightcap and to catch up with friends. If you happened to be a working musician yourself, you might not make it there until after the bands had finished. That was when your own Friday or Saturday night would begin. The first floor became a place to meet other musicians, artists, photographers and writers, to talk shop, share ideas and have a few laughs. It was the centre of a thriving arts community and it was our home. I saw quite a few sunrises walking home from there.  

The Hoodoo Gurus would also play at the Manzil Room in the Cross, later on known as Springfields. It was a hard gig because our first set wasn’t until 1AM, and the second one was around 2.30 in the morning. Apart from regular punters, The Manzil also attracted many other musicians and road crew, who would head there after completing their gigs elsewhere in the city. You’d also meet talent scouts from record companies and radio station DJs. Some bands, like Moving Pictures, were discovered there, others, like us, cemented their reputation there. All of us used it to made inroads into the competitive world of music.      

It goes without saying that neither the Trade Union Club nor the Manzil Room could operate under the current lockout laws. They were an important stepping stone for young bands like us, but more than that, they were a cornerstone of the music community. Today, that important nurturing role is played by venues like Good God Bar in the city and the Oxford Arts Factory in Darlinghurst, but these businesses, like so many others, are under threat from these wrongheaded laws.

Live music in Sydney has been facing an uphill battle since the ’80s, with venues constantly teetering on the edge of financial ruin. Rapid gentrification has been a huge problem for places of entertainment. The Hopetoun Hotel in Surry Hills is a classic example of this. They were hounded out of existence by a hostile council and the complaints of recently-arrived residents. Music venues were caught in a pincer movement, between militant neighbours on one side and over-regulation by government on the other, such as the infamous Places Of Public Entertainment, or POPE laws. 

Gambling and poker machines were increasingly deregulated by successive state governments and soon forests of pokies started proliferating in what used to be band rooms. The gambling lobby clearly has friends in high places because, as we well know, the casino at Star City and the one being built at Barangaroo both happen to lie just outside the boundary of these recent lockout laws. Perhaps the live music industry ought to start a slush fund to contribute to political parties so that we can have a voice in government?

It’s not like live music doesn’t contribute to our state’s economy. In 2011, Accounting firm Ernst & Young reported that live music in bars, pubs and clubs in NSW contributed nearly $400m dollars to the state’s economy, with a net flow on of $200m into the wider community. Their figures show that for every single dollar spent on ticket entry, another $4 is spent on food and beverages. That money went to hotel staff, security workers, merchandising manufacturers, cab drivers, hot dog vendors, and through a myriad of other hands, leading to the creation of the equivalent of 4,800 full-time jobs.

A 2014 study by the University of Tasmania has estimated that these figures are in fact ten times higher. Whatever way you look at it, live music is one of our most important industries and it is one that deserves to be treated seriously and with respect. 

That is why the figures released this week by APRA/AMCOS are so alarming. They reported a 40% drop in income from ticket sales in the lockout-affected areas and a 20% drop in nightclub attendance. Besides placing an unreasonable burden on music venues, this is a huge loss to the State’s economy. The lockout laws have directly led to the closure of several live music venues, as well as a host of other bars and businesses, and undoubtedly many more will follow suit.

If a factory closes and 70 workers lose their job it is front page news, and well it should be, and there is concern in the community for the effect it will have on the families of the people directly affected as well as on the wider economy. When Hugo’s Lounge closed in July last year, putting 70 people out of work there was barely a murmur from the public. People have been cowed into thinking it’s shameful to want to go out after 1.30am or to stay up past 3am, or at least, it’s wrong in certain, specified areas that are near the city and aren’t casinos. These “certain areas” mind you, have always been the heart of Sydney’s entertainment industry. For all of this century and most of the last, they put Sydney on the map and they are a big reason visitors have enjoyed their time in our city. What sort of a city won’t trust its residents to buy a bottle of wine from a bottle shop after 10pm at night?

Tourists weren’t just coming to Kings Cross to take a picture of the Coke sign. I was in the Cross last weekend and it was a ghost town compared to a few years ago. Can you imagine NYC without Times Square, or London without Soho? It’s simply ridiculous. Sydney’s legendary entertainment areas may well become like so much bleached coral on the Barrier Reef, dead forever. 

Sydney likes to see itself as one of the great international cities with a vibrant culture but if we don’t do something about these unjust lockout laws soon, the international cities we will most resemble will be Beijing and Pyongyang.

Save live music and save Sydney’s soul."