Concerned members of Brisbane’s music community turned out in force yesterday (March 11) to protest a proposed 2am shutdown on all live music venues and nightclubs. ANDREW MCMILLEN reports. Photos by ELLENI TOUMPAS . Melbourne had its march for the ages last month, though it was too late to save The Tote. Yesterday, it was Brisbane’s turn to take to the streets in response to proposed legislation that threatens to undermine its vibrant nightlife and culture. While the Victorian SLAM rally was triggered by a “senseless and arbitrary” liquor licensing regime that tarred all live music venues with the same high-risk brush, the situation up north is a little different. The Anna Bligh-led Labor Government and Police Department Union last year launched an inquiry to curb alcohol-fuelled violence across the state. A proposed response is to close licensed venues at 2am, and enforce a “lockout” at 12am, thereby overruling the existing 3am lockout. Ahead of the inquiry’s findings – to be released on March 18 – concerned punters gathered outside Queensland Parliament House, a kilometre south of the CBD and located on the edge of the Botanic Gardens. Pitched as a peaceful, strictly drug- and alcohol-free protest named “Reclaim The Nightlife”, the organisers’ expectations for 2000 attendees seemed ambitious as the clock struck 4pm. At its peak an hour later, numbers swelled to around 600. Local venue owners, DJs, musicians and members of the media delivered impassioned speeches that hinted at the diverse range of community stakeholders whose livelihoods would be affected by the proposed licensing changes. While politicians occasionally poked their heads out of the building before being jeered back inside, only a handful were brave enough to face the crowd from the upper balcony. One besuited staffer took photographs, while a trumpeter led the chorus of Rihanna’s ‘Please Don’t Stop The Music’ and the crowd cycled through chants: “We don’t need no legislation”, “Get your act together or we’ll vote for someone better”, “Stop crime, not fun” and “Fight for our right to party.” Jeremy Iliev, a DJ and self-proclaimed “bedroom producer”, admitted his lack of knowledge of Brisbane’s live music scene, however, he stated that music lovers across all genres will “lose out in the biggest way” if the legislation goes ahead. “If Anna Bligh stops the music, she stops Brisbane jobs, clubs, bars, nightlife, culture and its people,” he said. Steve Bell, editor of weekly street press Time Off pointed to the closure of The Tote in Melbourne and The Hopetoun Hotel in Sydney as a measure of how grave the situation may get. “If we keep going at this rate, it’s only a matter of time before our music scene and infrastructure begins to crumble like it did down south. We’ve got an amazing scene here; pound for pound, it’s easily the best scene in Australia.” Acknowledging that today’s protest is just a start, he urged the crowd to keep up the momentum. “Write to your local member, make phone calls, send emails, keep hassling to make sure that [the proposed lockdown] does not happen. We cannot stand and watch our music scene be taken from us.” Joanna Nilson of rock act the Butcher Birds was up next. She was easily one of the most direct and powerful speakers on the day. Beginning with a declaration that she is a “fully-functioning, responsible, employed, law-abiding Brisbane citizen who chooses to play in a rock band”, she cited Billboard ’s naming of Brisbane as an international music hotspot in 2007. “I’ve been playing music in this city for seven years. What Brisbane artists produce is beautiful, passionate and absolutely unique to the rest of the world.” As someone who performs in the Fortitude Valley entertainment precinct nearly every week, she said that an early lockout had the potential to “kill live music in this city” and conversely would make the area even more unsafe. “Without supportive, economically sound live music venues, musicians will find it very difficult to hone their craft and develop – let alone build a following or a fanbase,” she said. She concluded with a challenge, “Do not take this lying down!”, which was met with a loud cheer. Nick Braban, owner of local venue Barsoma, was the afternoon’s final guest speaker, and its most politically provocative. “The simple act of wanting to stay out and dance all night is being made illegal by the jokers sitting in that building right there!” However, I couldn’t tell whether his suggestion that the government would be better off banning the sale of Bundaberg Rum to curb alcohol-related violence was a joke, or not. Perhaps he was serious. Braban said that he and fellow Valley venue owners promote “entertainment, not consumption” and echoed Bell’s call to act beyond the gathering’s goodwill.
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Feature: Hundreds Protest To ‘Reclaim’ Brisbane’s Nightlife
