Clare Bowditch standing up for music’s future

At the National Press Club, Clare Bowditch will address the dire effects that live music crowd restrictions are having on thousands of small business owners across the country.

Singer, songwriter and author Clare Bowditch warns venue restrictions are killing the industry. Picture: Aaron Francis

When musicians are discussed in popular culture, two archetypes tend to take centre stage: the rich hit-maker building their property portfolio; and the starving artist struggling to make ends meet.

According to singer, songwriter and author Clare Bowditch, though, the vast majority of those who work in music fall between the extremes: plucky small business operators like her, who together form a constellation we call the creative industries.

In March last year, Bowditch lost 80 per cent of her income for the year in one phone call.

“My agent called and said, ‘It’s all off’,” she says. “The reality is that when someone like me loses money and jobs, the flow-on effect, just for me — someone who’s never had a hit but is a working musician who has supported my family for 20 years in this industry — there are about a hundred people who I can’t pay.”

Her story is shared by many who work in the performing arts, which was among the worst-hit industries last year due to the pandemic and the resultant banning of mass gatherings.

On Wednesday, Bowditch will give a National Press Club address titled Music, Meaning and Money, and one of her chief ­messages is to highlight the dire effects that live music crowd restrictions are still having on thousands of small business owners across the country.

Clare Bowditch in Melbourne. Picture: Aaron Francis

“The health crisis meant we needed to restrict how many people gathered together in a room,” said Bowditch. “Now, most people think that’s over, but it’s not.”

“If you are at a seated venue, you can be at 100 per cent capacity. If you stand — as we do in rock ’n’ roll — restrictions mean that venues are running at only 30 to 50 per cent capacity.

“Try and tell me that people aren’t standing up next to each other in the members’ area, crushing around the bar, or at a football game?” she says.

“We need to point out that as necessary as that rule might have been, we need to revisit it — because it is crushing an industry.”

Bowditch is the second prominent Australian music figure to speak at the National Press Club in the past 12 months. In August last year, APRA AMCOS chairwoman Jenny Morris used her address to set an ambitious target for Australian musicians to bring $7 billion to the economy, while becoming a net exporter of music in line with powerhouses such as the US, Britain and Sweden.