‘Cultural heart’ stops when the music dies

Several iconic Sydney music venues face collapse once JobKeeper wage subsidy payments end, and industry insiders fear it could take a decade to recover.

Owner Trad Nathan and wife Tyla with daughters Winter and baby Billie at Leichhardt punk and metal venue Crowbar in Sydney’s inner west. Picture: John Feder

Several iconic Sydney music venues face collapse once JobKeeper wage subsidy payments end, and industry insiders fear it could take a decade to recover if the city loses its “cultural heart”.

After the pandemic closed music venues in early March last year, Sydney operators have struggled through on the back of JobKeeper payments but fallen deeper into debt. With no sign of crowds on the horizon, the conclusion of JobKeeper in March could spell the end for dozens of institutions.

It’s the daunting prospect facing Leichhardt punk and metal venue Crowbar. Usually hosting about 750 bands a year, the venue has lost about $1m over the pandemic and remains down 70 per cent on trade.

Crowbar owner Trad Nathan said calls for help had fallen on “deaf ears”, with grants from the NSW government requiring dozens of pages of documentation with no guarantee of success, and negligible consultation with industry stakeholders.

He said closure was a “very real” risk unless progress to help the sector could be made. “I feel like our industry has been the last industry that’s been thought about progressing,” he said.

“You’ve got 30,000-plus ­people at the cricket, you’ve got all these major events, and no one’s looking at the amount of money that music brings into the country or generates in the country.”

In an open letter, 70 music ven­ues in NSW have petitioned the Berejiklian government to step in to help save the industry, saying live music in the state was on the “verge of the collapse” with 85 per cent of venues at risk of closing within the 12 months.

The signatories included dozens of Sydney institutions, including the newly renovated Enmore Theatre, esteemed Oxford Street haunt Oxford Arts Factory and The Metro Theatre.

Analysis of the federal government’s $250m arts rescue package reveals only $69m has been distributed to recipients.

A spokesman for the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications said none of the $50m given to Screen Australia to administer had been distributed, and while there had been several appli­cations under the $90m Show Starter Loan Scheme, he could not confirm whether any money had been distributed.

“As at January 2021, the Fund has assisted 35 projects to go into physical production,” a Screen Australia spokeswoman said.

After a decade of struggling with “red tape and bureaucracy”, Dave Abram decided to pull the pin on his live music venue Freda’s, repositioning the business as an eatery and bar called Freda’s Cafe, saying the move was designed to provide a sense of fin­ancial stability.

With live music venues struggling under a weight of debt, Music NSW managing director Emily Collins said Sydney was poised to lose its “cultural heart”.

NSW Labor music spokesman John Graham said it would take Sydney a decade to ­recover.