Gold Coast music: Small venues struggle with unrealistic noise restrictions and lack of support
Unrealistic noise restrictions, lack of support from council and getting punters to smaller gigs is pushing boutique venues to their limit.
Gold Coast
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THE battle to bring international acts to the Coast is only part of the war to improve the city’s music scene, venue owners say.
Unrealistic noise restrictions, lack of support from council and getting punters to smaller gigs is pushing boutique venues to their limit.
Mo’s Desert Clubhouse, a Burleigh live music garage, opened up as a music and arts venue in 2017, but six months later they received a noise complaint that forced them to fork out $100,000 to repurpose their venue.
Co-director Christian Tryhorn said he had been in a two-year fight with Gold Coast City Council to be registered as a live music venue.
“It’s hard because we started this with the community spirit in mind and with collaboration with musos and artists,” Tryhorn said.
“We had one complaint in January, almost two years ago, and that’s what’s led us to go through this $100,000 process. We were about to fold.
“It sucks because all these places are closing down. It’s hard to put on a show and lose money, but (still) support the scene.”
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He said even before the venue was forced to stop putting on gigs, they were struggling to sell tickets because “it’s hard to get people out and about”.
“The reality of putting on a local music night with a local bands is not that many people come. I have to set this thing up in my mind, but if I can’t bring 100 people to a show, I kinda have to ditch it. It sucks. And maybe that’s where the council or someone could step in with the promotion of music plans.”
Mo’s Desert Clubhouse is about to rejoin the music scene with a festival on September 21. It is called Beyond Thunderdome.
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Entertainment guru Billy Cross said the music scene was changing to DJs playing sets.
“Back in the day the live music scene consisted of bands, where now a DJ performing in a venue can be considered live music,” he said.
Gone were the days of having venues that had character and history, he said.
“Back in the day at Bombay Rock they had all the bands there and there was the Play Room, but now you go to the clubs and watch a DJ.”
A music organiser, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Bulletin they “struggled” to sell tickets to local shows as the council was “always throwing free gigs and people don’t want to buy tickets”.
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But councillor Glenn Tozer said he was not convinced council offering free gigs was to blame for smaller venues struggling to sell tickets. Rather, it was the quality of the acts.
“Once you realise you can have fun checking out live music then I think there is an appetite for buying a ticket,” Cr Tozer said.
“To be frank, because music is something lots of people love, there are lots of people who do music but aren’t good at it.
“They believe they are good at it but then they feel disgruntled that there are venues who won’t play their music.
“Sometimes they are really good bands but they are not acceptable for the venue.”
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