QHA-Review_April

INSIGHTS
QHA REVIEW | 26
It was also a time where our suburbs and cities
were not so tightly packed with estates, high rise
apartments and duplexes.
Pubs were pubs and pub noise was a given for a
couple of nights a week at the very least.
Anyone buying a house within earshot of a pub with
live music knew what they’d signed up for and were
less inclined to complain to Councils. And, if they did
complain, Councils were also less inclined to listen.
Time, economics, technology, and most recently,
COVID-19, have conspired to put enormous pressure
on the local live music scene.
Thankfully, music fans, developers and publicans have
continued to innovate and find ways of bringing live
music to their customers. While some venues, such as
The Arena in Brisbane, are no more, others, such as
The Fortitude Music Hall have sprung up to fill the void.
Slowly but surely the touring scene is starting to pick
up, with the industry hoping, with fingers crossed,
that the COVID-19 capacity restrictions are dropped
sooner rather than later to make it more economically
viable to host bigger shows.
If capacity restrictions remain, the only really viable
alternative will be markedly higher ticket prices to
cover the myriad costs involved in putting on a show.
The good news for music lovers is to be found in the
strong support for entertainment in venues by some of
Queensland’s biggest operators including AusVenueCo
and the Comiskey Group.
Across AusVenueCo’s 180 or so venues throughout
Australia in 2021 they hosted 11,201 local gigs
including live music, comedy, trivia and drag bingo.
Of those gigs, 6505 were local music and DJ gigs,
which put nearly $3.5m into the pockets of musicians
and DJs.
In addition to the 11,201 local gigs, the venues hosted
597 ticketed and touring shows across the country
that generated $1.95m in ticket revenue for touring
artists.
AusVenueCo’s National Entertainment Manager Ian
Smith said while the last two years had been tough, it
had also forced everyone to innovate to find ways of
remaining viable.
“We have a lot of venues in Queensland (88) in
particular, and during COVID we had to turn them into
seated venues to make them work,” Ian said. “The
economics of that make it really difficult.
ACROSS AUSVENUECO’S 180 OR SO VENUES
THROUGHOUT AUSTRALIA IN 2021 THEY HOSTED
11,201 LOCAL GIGS INCLUDING LIVE MUSIC,
COMEDY, TRIVIA AND DRAG BINGO.
OF THOSE GIGS, 6505 WERE LOCAL MUSIC AND
DJ GIGS, WHICH PUT NEARLY $3.5M INTO THE
POCKETS OF MUSICIANS AND DJS.
“You go through the funnel and the production team
need to be paid, staff need to be paid. The costs
are set and profitability is really affected. We had to
reach out to the artists and their management and the
production companies to find ways to make it work.”
One solution that had worked for country music artist
Brad Cox was to do two shows, back-to-back on the
one night.
“We’d sell out the first show, and then open the
second. We were able to be compliant with the
government regulations. Everyone knew that it wasn’t
ideal.”
It was the ability for all parties to come together to find
a solution that Ian thinks will continue in a post-COVID
environment.
“A lot of the cowboys in the industry have left. You’ve
got to have trusting relationships to make this work,”
Ian said.
“I think there’s going to be a lot more sharing of ideas
and working together. It’s the sum of the parts that
makes a successful music industry”.
Coming into 2022 Ian said the Omicron variant, and
the public’s response to it, had taken the industry by
surprise.
While the government regulations had lifted to a certain
extent, people were still reluctant to come out, and the
musicians themselves were contracting the virus and
having to isolate at the last minute.
Ian said ticket sales had been on the rise in the second
last week of February, with things looking up, and then
the floods hit South-East Queensland and momentum
slowed.
“Two weeks ago, just in Queensland alone, we had
20 ticketed shows – including Thirsty Merc, The Black
Sorrows, The Whitlams and Ross Wilson and they
were all really successful.”