For Those About To Rock, Melbourne Suits You
The Sunday Age
Sunday June 11, 2000
It's easy to take Melbourne's thriving live music scene for granted when it's right under your nose.
But when you are punk band Mach Pelican and you have slogged it all the way from Japan, via Perth, Melbourne's inner-city venues are a rock 'n' roll heaven.
The band's eventual members moved from Japan to Perth 18 months ago to study English and, inspired by New York punk legends The Ramones, soon formed Mach Pelican.
Their English teacher became their manager and they drove for five days across the Nullarbor dreaming of the almost mythical rock 'n' roll nirvana they had heard of in Melbourne. Now they call Fitzroy home.
``We live in Queens Parade, we know all of the local pubs and can get gigs and we've met a lot of friends. We can make a living out of being in a band here," says singer Toshi Maeda.
Mach Pelican is just one of dozens of bands who have migrated to Melbourne's inner city to ply their trade.
Despite the influx of pokie machines, the popularity of electronic DJs, the deregulation of the CD market and the looming GST, Melbourne still offers them a living, albeit one bordering on the poverty line.
The owners of the venues where the bands play thought this was something worth celebrating. They approached the City of Yarra and StreetLIFE, which represents traders in Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, and Smith Street, Collingwood, and the result was the inaugural Winter 2C festival.
Named after the Melway map reference that encompasses the musical hub of Fitzroy and Collingwood, Winter 2C will feature more than 1000 musicians performing 200 shows in 18 venues over three weeks, starting today.
The festival's coordinator, Dave Chatfield, says it will help to promote the area's musical diversity, which ranges from Afro-Cuban big bands to DJs to classic three-chord rock, as well as legitimise it as economically viable art.
``There will be at least 1000 people performing in front of as many as 30,000 people, and that's a lot of money coming into the area.
``From the economic perspective of the council, this is pretty prosperous, and the council are recognising the importance of this and striking a balance with concerns like noise issues and parking fines."
Mr Chatfield is another musical migrant. Having run the independent label Half a Cow for seven years and, more recently, Spunk Touring from Sydney, he found himself spending more time in Melbourne.
``It just didn't make sense to be in Sydney anymore. With the lack of venues and public radio, the scene had really disintegrated. More and more bands that we signed were Melbourne-based and the biggest crowds were in Melbourne."
Luke Roberts, who books bands at one of the area's oldest music venues, The Tote Hotel, in Collingwood, says the culture survives on its strong support network.
``A lot of people are prepared to back up other people's music. Bands are always checking out each other's bands when they can. And when they're not playing, they can be working behind the bar, mixing another band's set or working in a record store," Mr Roberts says.
``There's competition," adds Mr Chatfield, ``but there's room for everyone."
Mr Roberts says the scene would be dead today if venue owners hadn't held their nerves during tough financial times.
``A lot has to be said for the venue owners and their ability to retain the venues against low margins when they could have made more money by opening restaurants or putting in pokies."
While the pub music scene is not thriving as much as it was, say, 15 years ago when bands had little competition from DJs, Mr Roberts believes rock is fighting back.
``Dance music became the underground in the mid-'90s because rock music got fat and bloated and too grungey for its own good. But now electronica has become a bit non-faced and over-exposed, and people are finding it harder to identify with it. Today's rock bands have so much more definition that they've created a new excitement."
© 2000 The Sunday Age
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