Live music venues in crisis as Retro Bar folds, Junk Bar for sale

The Retro Bar, one of only three live music venues in Brisbane’s western suburbs, has been forced to close its doors and the Junk Bar at Ashgrove will be sold as COVID-19 decimates venues. They fear more are set to follow unless urgent action is taken.

Dr Damage play The Retro Bar at Kenmore. it is the first of what could be a wave of live music venue closures.

THE owner of westside live music institution The Retro Bar says more venues will close as COVID-19 and long delays in Government rent laws strike a devastating note in the industry.

And owners of Ashgrove’s funky The Junk Bar have announced they will sell up after 10 years in the game.

The Retro Bar has been locked in a long battle to secure rent reductions, but after the landlord told them they would have to pay more rent from this month, in full, they had to put the business into liquidation.

Local state MP Christian Rowan, whose office is less than a kilometre away, blamed the State Government’s “inertia’’ for triggering a crisis among many small businesses.

“The Palaszczuk Labor Government’s inertia on commercial leasing arrangements has further exacerbated a jobs and small business crisis in the western suburbs of Brisbane,’’ Dr Rowan said.

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Dr Rowan had been working with the Government and The Retro Bar owner, who bought the business less than a year ago, to try to secure rent relief.

But delays in gazetting laws to guarantee emergency rent relief — which happened only on May 28 — meant the owner was left in limbo for months.

The Junk Bar, which has hosted a long roll call of indie national acts confirmed on their Facebook page that they are selling up.

“We want to allow someone else to follow their dreams, just as we did ours - within these forested walls,’’ owners Mia Goodwin and Jamie Trevaskis said.

“For Jamie - with the also iconic Troubadour, along with Junk Bar - it’s been 18 years in this industry; for me, 10 years giving my everything at Junk.

“We’ve decided to quieten our life, and spend more time living on our mountain and in the recording studio ... and to participate in the music scene in a different way.

“The Junk Bar has always been, and will always be, a busy little community bar. Although everyone is experiencing an interesting time, we just know that once the door is allowed to slide open it will be Junk Time again.

“The only difference is that someone else will be at the helm - the soul of Junk will always remain.’’

The Retro Bar owner said he was also told the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal did not have the authority to order mediation with tenants and landlords, and an Ombudsman who could hear such matters was appointed only last week.

“I think we will be the first of a number of live venues (which will close) — we have the least flexibility of any of them because we’re not a restaurant, cafe or pub and we couldn’t reopen under stage 1 or 2 restrictions because of the layout of the bar and the fact we don’t offer sit-down meals,’’ owner Mr Nicholls said.

“Between the impacts of the Government-ordered closure in late March and the inability for tenants to get proper support from landlords with rent and leases, I had nowhere to go.

“But the support from the musos who played here has been great after we made the announcement today.’’

The Retro Bar at Kenmore. Picture: Richard Walker

Mr Nicholls, who did not want his first name mentioned, said although National Cabinet “made a great amount of noise over the Mandatory Code for Commercial Tenancies’', it was left to the states and territories to implement the code.

“In Queensland this took weeks to happen, leaving us in a no-man’s land,’’ Mr Nicholls said.

“It also meant that landlords were free to try and circumvent the intent of the code.’’

He said his landlord initially asked for rent for April and May to be paid in full until Mr Nicholls pointed out that was not allowed under the code.

His rent was reduced by 50 per cent, but last week he was told he would have to pay higher rent, in full, from this month.

“The Retro Bar has been an institution in Kenmore since 2010 and was the only live music venue covering the western suburbs of Brisbane (for years),’’ he said.

“With many well-known local, interstate, and international performers having graced our stage, the loss of this venue will impact the music industry as well.

“We feel for the musicians and their fans at this time and express our sorrow to them and the public that did support us.’’

Westside live music venue The Junk Bar, at Ashgrove, was contacted for comment.

Lefty’s Old Time Music Hall at Petrie Terrace has previously said it still intends to reopen.