Former Midnight Oil frontman and Federal Labor MP Peter Garrett joined the fight to save live music in Sydney at the ‘Save Play Bar’ event in Surry Hills last Friday.
The owners of Play Bar, Daniel Rutherford and Sarah Vuong, have been threatened with imminent closure of their venue due to an ongoing dispute with neighbour and Greens Senator, Lee Rhiannon.
City of Sydney Councillor Linda Scott arranged for Mr Garrett to address the audience, and he rammed home the importance of creative output in the community.
“To gather together in a place where we can enjoy one another’s company and listen to the fruits of people’s creative expression, that is what this place is all about and that is why we need a live music scene in Sydney,” he said.
“[The Labor Loves Live Music campaign] is a fantastic campaign, one that I strongly support and endorse … and I do not understand why anyone will stand in the way of this couple [the owners] we have tonight who provide this opportunity.”
Since early last year, Play Bar has been in dispute with Ms Rhiannon due to the fact her office sits above the venue. The Greens Senator has claimed there is a lack of insulation between the office and venue, and has repeatedly lodged noise complaints against Play Bar.
But during Friday night’s event, the Greens office next door was hosting a farewell party for one of their long-time staffers, musician Chris DuBrow. While Ms Scott and Mr Garrett were addressing the crowd, continuous and repetitious thuds could be heard coming from the Senator’s office.
However, Ms Rhiannon denied any form of protest occurred, insisting “we have just had a party, and there was a jam not a protest with people coming and going, and dancing”.
Ms Rhiannon said she had no knowledge of the event being hosted downstairs and maintained that the Greens had always been supporters of live music.
“We are long supporters of live music and there is scope to work together and that is what we should be doing,” she said.
‘Save Play Bar’ is part of the ongoing Labor Loves Live Music campaign launched last August by Mr Garrett, aiming to connect with younger voters. The campaign calls on local councils to enact planning controls promoting live music and protect existing venues.
President of the Australian Labor Party, Jenny McAllister, attended the event on Friday night, along Leichhardt Mayor Darcy Byrne, Mr Garrett and Ms Scott.
Ms Scott, a drummer herself, hopes the event raised more awareness on the need to reinvigorate live music in the city.
“I’ve campaigned really hard on this, it is great the City has now got the Sydney Live Music Taskforce and I’m excited to see what the recommendations are of that taskforce and how we can make the city a better place for musicians to prosper,” she said.
“I don’t want a generic city, I want a city with culture, character, love, life and fun and I want to have places for people to play, that’s why I want Play Bar to stay open.”
Following the news that the Annandale Hotel will continue to host live music into the foreseeable future under new ownership, Mr Byrne was hopeful that Play Bar would be saved.
“We’ve had the inspiring news today [Friday] that the Annandale Hotel has been saved … but Play Bar is still under threat and what we need is a grassroots campaign across Sydney that will stand up and fight for the future of live music in Sydney,” he said.
“Tonight’s event is another indication of a growing movement of young people, musicians, and even some politicians who are standing up and fighting for the future of live music in Sydney.”
Mr Garrett said it was imperative that hurdles restricting the success of live music were removed.
“It is about the economics of running venues, it is about the regulatory framework, it is a little bit about our culture, but at the end of the day … [We] need to listen to live music and what people have to offer,” he said.
“The role of the government is to get out of the way of people here … They can pull down some of those barriers [preventing] people from being able to gather and enjoy themselves, and for the culture to be able to have some spark and grunt.”
