The round table has been called by the Member for Newcastle Tim Crakanthorp to bring all three levels of government together with music industry stakeholders to identify priority areas in order to save Newcastle’s threatened live entertainment scene. 

Young music promoter Andrew Brassington, of Boys Don’t Cry Collective, said he welcomed the chance to have his say on the matter at the round table. 

Newcastle’s all-ages scene was struck a near fatal blow when in November 2017 Newcastle City Council shut down Beaumont Street’s The Commons for operating without consent. 

Since then it has become much tougher to find venues willing to host the city’s thriving under-18s music scene.

Mr Brassington, one of the organisers of gigs at The Commons, said the lack of venues was a problem which went back to the closure of The Loft in 2013.

“I know a lot of guys playing original music at The Cambridge and The Lass and they got their start five or six years ago when The Loft was going,” Mr Brassington said. 

“They went to The Loft all the time and that inspired them to the point where they went ‘hey, we want to start a band’ and now it’s really taking off for them.”

After the closure of The Commons the council pledged to work with young music lovers to find a solution. 

“They owe it to us to at least participate,” Mr Brassington said. 

“If they are going to say time and time again ‘hey, we want to shut this venue down’ then they should at least be saying ‘what can we do to support that in a way that works for us and is safe?’”

A petition calling for the council to support the all-ages scene in Newcastle racked up about 4000 signatures in just one week, when it was launched in November 2017. 

“Nothing actually really came out of that,” Mr Brassington said. “It’s all just hard slog to try to get something happening.

“We are still working towards getting something sustainable and longterm.” 

Mr Brassington the round table was a step in the right direction.

“It’s important our scene has a chance to have a say,” he said. 

Newcastle musician Su Morley got her start performing at the Masonic Bowling Club, once perched on the hills of King Edward Park.

The club is now long-gone, along with many, many other bowling clubs which once gave aspiring musicians a chance to play live. 

“Anyone in their 30s and older can tell you what bowling clubs and community clubs they played in,” Morley said.

“It was a low bar. You could turn up and do your own gigs. You just had to organise it with the community club management.

“Now it’s restricted stages and you are dealing with a booking agent or a pub. It’s much more professionalised and privatised.”

She claims what young musicians today are experiencing is “inter-generational theft of public land.” 

“If you think of all of the clubs and facilities the previous generation had available to them – RSLs, social clubs, bowling clubs,” Morley said.

“All of those facilities on Crown land built in various ways.

“They were public entities, co-operatives, public trusts all for public entertainment or public recreation. 

“And now it seems completely beyond the range of possibilities that we could  have a newly built public club run by the community as a co-operative on public land for young people to have a live music venue.

“Why is that such an anathema? Why is this inconceivable now?

“It seems it is the natural way of things that everything has to be privatised and turned into an apartment block. It’s a shocker.

“Where do the kids play? Where does original music happen? We can count the venues in the city now on one hand.”

Mr Crakanthorp said he hoped the  roundtable would bring venue operators, musicians and their elected representative together to explore the options and find solutions. 

“As a fan of live music I was dismayed and upset when I heard of the possible coming closure of The Cambridge and The Lass in particular,” Mr Crakanthorp said. 

“These iconic music venues making way for the rise of residential living in the city is starting to take hold.

“So, what does become of our music venues?

“This round table was initiated some months ago, after discussions with John Graham, a member of the Legislative Council who ran the round table in the Blue Mountains.

“As the city does change, which it is rapidly, we really need to work out how the industry fits in so it can continue to absolutely thrive and continue our fantastic reputation for live music coming from Newcastle so it doesn’t get left behind.

“We will be looking for ways for the local music industry and Labor, in particular, can work together to strengthen the future of the industry in Newcastle.”

Mr Crakanthorp said the issue was not unique to Newcastle and was something that had come to the attention of Labor across the state.

“It’s not just the issue of venues but … bowling clubs and other community spaces have had trouble adjusting to the times,” he said. 

“The live music task force is something that has merit, so we will be discussing that at the round table.

“We want to work with the industry to tackle these problems in our policies.

“We see the live music scene is under threat and we want to support it before we lose it forever.

“One aspect of that is the planning issues.”

The Labor hosted music round table will also be attended by Federal Member for Newcastle Sharon Claydon, MLC John Graham and Newcastle Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes. It will be held in Newcastle on February 2.