Music Victoria has been spreading the gospel of live music to regional Australia since its establishment a couple of years ago. “We’ve been going to the regions to provide professional development workshops for a while,” says Music Victoria CEO, Paddy Donovan. “We’d have musicians talking about how to put on gigs, and providing advice about the music industry, and it seemed to be a waste to have these great artists driving around and not playing,” Donovan says.
Thus led to the establishment of Music Victoria’s Off The Beaten Track program, in which musicians such as Sal Kimber and Mick Thomas will offer words of advice on touring and performing, while playing venues in regional and suburban Victoria. “We’ve been gradually adding more value to the workshops,” Donovan says. “We’ve kept surveying regional communities to see what they want – we really want the workshops to be as practical as possible.”
For the actual gigs, Music Victoria acknowledged the desire of artists to play venues at which the artist’s music would be genuinely appreciated – rather than as a distant soundtrack to a shabby night on the town. “The artists we’ve got on the program wanted to play at different venues, where there is a more intimate atmosphere,” Donovan says. “Mick and Sal have both toured regionally for many years, and Mick’s from the country. Both of them want to give something back and to help the musicians and people wanting to put on gigs.”
In the suburban leg of the Off The Beaten Track tour, the workshops will be held at the Oakleigh RSL and the Substation in Williamstown. “The workshops will cover everything about putting on a gig,” Donovan says. “Each workshop goes for about one and a half hours, and the first half hour will be observing a soundcheck, so it’ll be a bit of a production lesson. It’ll be at the venue, with the artists running through everything involved in putting on a gig, from making contact with band bookers, to promotion and publicity, to merchandise, to getting the right sound.”
Donovan says he hopes the workshops will attract not only musicians, but also budding event managers looking to advance their understanding of the Byzantine world of gig organisation.
Since its inception, Music Victoria has steadily raised the profile – both politically and economically – of live music. A study undertaken by Deloittes on the value of the Victorian live music industry estimated that the industry contributed $500 million to the Victorian economy; the same study noted that the regional touring circuit was straining. It’s an issue Music Victoria is acutely aware of. “We’ve been pointing out the Victorian Government that the Deloittes report did indicate that regional touring wasn’t doing too well,” Donovan says. “But we’ve been talking to RSL Victoria about it. We’re trying to restore confidence out there. Since it became cheaper to fly, artists have been flying to Sydney, Adelaide or Brisbane for the weekend, rather than driving and playing gigs along the way. But there are also the strongholds like Ballarat and Bendigo, so it does seem to be changing.” The tyranny of distance makes regional touring a particularly difficult issue. “You have to drive, so with this tour we’ve got the support of Live Solutions, which is an anti-binge drinking initiative, so we can encourage people to go out and see live music without writing themselves off,” Donovan says.
Back in the metropolitan area, and Music Victoria is continuing to push for reform of planning and licensing laws to remove regulatory impediments to live music. “We’ve engaged with a number of councils recently – we got an arrangement with Yarra Council under which musicians can take advantage of loading zones, and that’s being trialled with other councils,” Donovan says. “And we’re talking with the State government to encourage councils to look at ‘cultural clusters’ when considering development applications.”
With local council elections scheduled for the end of October, Music Victoria is surveying council candidates about live music issues. Donovan is pleasantly surprised at the response he’s received so far. “We really want councils to do more to help with live music. We sent out surveys to all the candidates about how they’re going to support live music, and we’ve already had about 200 responses, and we’ll be publishing the responses on our website before the elections,” Donovans says.
Donovan’s own music career has recently been revived, with his sometime band Cowsmuff returning to the stage for the odd gig. “It’s been better than expected,” Donovan says. “We’ve got a shit hot guitarist, who’s better than all of us. We’ve just written a new song, which has got some great lyrics. We might do a gig in December, and then my wife might tell me to wrap it all up,” Donovan laughs.
BY PATRICK EMERY
