“I think accidentally, CherryRock is a successful survival model for the modern day music festival,” Young says. “This is our tenth year, and we’re using the Richie Ramone album title Too Tough to Die. We do believe we’re kind of bullet proof despite all the hurdles. When I talk about survival models, I’m talking about a festival with a modest capacity – in our case 800 people – where you’ve got really good lineup, an interesting location. I’m also in the lucky position of being the booker, and I’m only going to book bands that I highly rate. I’m just hoping that there are 800 people in Melbourne who share my taste, or have had a good time here in the past and are willing to roll the dice on bands who they may not know. There certainly are a couple of bands here who have been chosen based on being high quality that I’m expecting people to say, ‘Never heard of them, but they were fantastic.’ I’m hoping to come out of the festival with a broken right collarbone from all the pats on the back.”
He laughs, but such confidence is not misplaced. CherryRock has proven to be a tremendous success not only for Young, but for rock music in Melbourne in general. Some exceptional acts have taken to the AC/DC Lane stage, and it’s a testament to the support of local audiences that it has become such a celebrated fixture on the live music calendar. It is also, perhaps, rather intrinsically Melbourne – when Young attempted to take the show on the road and bring Cherry to Sydney in 2014, the Harbour City proved reluctant to take the plunge.
“When I took CherryRock up to Sydney, we had the Meat Puppets and Brant Bjork. In retrospect it wasn’t unsuccessful – we had 350 ticket buyers, which is a lot more than we had for our first CherryRock in Melbourne. But I learnt so much from that experience. Sydney is an awesome town, but it’s also divided into four quadrants, and people won’t travel across those borderlines. I went up there saying, ‘Guys, I’m doing you a massive favour. I’m bringing the best Melbourne bands. Trust me, just turn up and you’ll be blown away.’ But it was tough.
“When the lockout laws came out in Melbourne, in the space of three weeks we’d organised a march with 8000 on the steps of Parliament House, and we got the government to change their mind. I think in Sydney they’re not quite as passionate or motivated. Maybe they need stronger community radio, like Triple R and PBS is here in Melbourne. They need to find a way for the government to listen, to say, ‘OK, you’ve scared us, we’ve changed our minds.’ But the thing is, the damage is done in Sydney with the lockouts. Even if pride was swallowed by Premier Baird and they reversed it, well, 40 venues have closed down. The arrogance and the offensiveness of telling a venue with a late night license that they have to have a lockout after 1am, while not applying any of those rules or regulations to the casino? It means you’re a world-class city whose late night culture is entirely defined by a casino, which is culturally offensive to me and I’m sure a whole lot of people in Sydney.”
The state of Sydney’s late night culture is gradually becoming the stuff of international scorn, yet Melbourne’s thriving scene isn’t simply the result of that stalwart 8000 who took to the streets in protest. Melbourne’s passion for music and dedication to seeing it thrive not only sustains events like CherryRock – it helps promote an engaged and supportive community that isn’t afraid to reach into their pockets when that freedom is threatened.
“I think we’re well represented, and we’re really the rock’n’roll capital of Australia,” says Young. “We were the last state to get a peak body, but we now have Music Victoria and that’s a very active voice in the music scene and has done some very positive things.
“We also have a community that is very connected down here. For instance, Cherry just missed out on the Agent of Change legislation, so that means we had to pay for our soundproofing, which is very expensive – about $100,000 just to make sure we can stay open like we always had. I tried to find a white knight, whether the government or the council, or even a corporate sponsor and couldn’t. Eventually, as always, you turn to the people, to people who have the least money and say, ‘Hey guys, can you help stump up a third of the cash?’ And we broke an Australian record where within 23 hours we’d raised the best part of $60,000. It got nailed in less than a day because the people of Melbourne cared.
“I think the response in Melbourne in particular isn’t evidenced in the other capital cities, and that’s why we are the rock’n’roll capital. And that’s not a tag to be taken lightly – you have to defend it every day. It imposes a leadership role upon Melbourne and Victoria, and we must lead by example by defending our live music venues.”
This year’s festival features several names of international renown, such as Kadavar and Richie Ramone, and some solid Aussie acts like Dallas Frasca and Gay Paris. But Young is banking on the quality of several lesser known acts to keep the crowd guessing and on its feet.
“Two obvious ones this year would be Polish Club, who are from Sydney and not many Melbourne folk know them yet, but they blew me away at BIGSOUND last year. I’ve given them preferential treatment with one of the most coveted spots on the lineup. They’re on the main stage in AC/DC Lane, directly before the three major internationals, Supersuckers, Richie Ramone and Kadavar. I know people will walk away having not known them but being blown away by them, and that’s CherryRock, really. The other example is the Indonesian band The SIGIT, and they’re crazy but very impressive. They’re highly regarded in Asia – Rolling Stone over there described them as the act of 2013, and their videos have half a million views. They play huge festivals and are turning up on TV everywhere. And of course in Australia, despite their proximity not many people here know them, and I’m looking forward to those monster rock fans getting to see them. We don’t get many Asian bands on our doorstep very often, oddly enough.”
While rock’n’roll still ain’t a stable life path for emerging musos, there is no small comfort in the fact that the scene in Melbourne is as strong as ever. The chance to break out can happen any night of the week – you just need to roll the dice, get out there, and see what you can find.
“Cherry Bar is open seven nights a week, and that means over 1100 different local acts play every year here, and that includes plenty that we knock back. The scene is very busy, which is why I get so frustrated when people say that rock is dead. The best bands will rise to the top. Bands like Power, Tyrannamen, Peep Tempel, Child, these are all great local bands. The real question is the definition of ‘top’. Are they going to be played all over triple j? Are they going to be invited to play Splendour? Are they able to tour internationally? And the answer, right now, is probably no. But will they get recognised by music lovers in Melbourne as being a truly great band? Yes they will.”
BY ADAM NORRIS
IMAGE BY ZO GAY
