P.W.Farrell's Blog.

OPEN LETTER TO PORT PHILLIP COUNCIL in regards proposed restrictions on the live music venue ‘The Vineyard’.

I sent the original letter off in a bit of haste……what follows has some spelling corrections and minor word changes:

Dear Council and Councillors of the City of Port Phillip,

My name is Patrick W Farrell and I am a musician who recently moved from Brisbane to Melbourne, after having worked internationally, to expand my career in Melbourne’s vibrant community. After performing for the patrons of The Vineyard in St Kilda I was sent an email outlining the Council’s proposed restrictions on the venue (restrictions many believe to be a blue print for the whole precinct). When I consider these changes in conjunction with Melbourne University’s massacring of VCA’s reputation as one of Australia’s elite performing art’s schools (where I am currently completing a graduate course) I lead to believe that the Council is either unaware or indifferent to the fact that this city was once considered a bastion of the arts.

I am a professional musician whose lively hood is directly effected by the government’s current tactics in controlling nightlife. I understand there is a need to keep the streets safe, but dictating to adults when and where they are allowed to relax and enjoy good music can only be considered oppressive. I have seen foolish people who can’t handle their alcohol. Believe me working in my industry exposes me to all that humanity has to offer. However I have also worked throughout Asia and come face to face with a life controlled by government restrictions on liberty. These experiences planted a seed in my being which upon returning to this beautiful country blossomed into so cliched a thing as patriotism. I am fervently proud of this nation which is why I am also it’s harshest critic. These restrictions (listed below) which you propose are only the latest in a canon of modern Australian governmental decrees which seem to espouse the notion that everyone needs to be happy all the time. That all grown adults must coexist to harmonious union to a lifestyle deemed appropriate by an autonomous entity huddled somewhere in the Orwellian nightmare we call Canberra.

Let’s look at the proposed restrictions for The Vineyard:

1. Restrict opening hours from 3am to 1am.

For myself, as a musician this means one thing, another venue that won’t be able to afford live music as there will be less profit over the bar. It means another venue that lines the walls with televisions and hires an accountant to pose as disc jockey on the weekends and ‘dumbs down’ yet another crowd to expect nothing more in the way of music making/appreciation. I should have never left Brisbane…..

1. Pare back the business operations.

This is the same tactic used in Brisbane. Through the use of noise limits and a curfew that council quietly and efficiently removed any possibility of nurturing a music scene. This is because all the venues eventually closed down or stopped hiring musicians due to limited budget. Worse yet many venues began hiring musicians for half the wage of a decade before.

1. Limit movement and stop me moving between the inside and outside areas due to separated permissible numbers for these areas.

I do not see this as a hugely unreasonable restriction. However I cannot see how you intend to police this and how the venue’s security force would benefit from having to count patrons instead of scanning the room for possible trouble makers.

1. Require me to sit down when I may want to stand up.

I am a grown man. My mother stopped wiping my bot bot some time ago.

1. Close for refurbishments that could occur whilst the place remained open.

Is this about sending the owners bankrupt? When I performed in Papua New Guinea the government was using similar tactics to prevent them losing the monopoly in the telecommunications industry.

1. Avoid an open consultation with me and any other people or constituents these decisions may affect.

There is nothing new there. The listening phase of most politician’s careers ends once they are elected.

I am confident that I am not alone and saying that this modern Australian trend to resolve nighttime violence by locking people indoors is as forward thinking as prohibition and will yield similar results.

Sincerely,

Patrick W Farrell