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It was sad to see the great venue close its doors last weekend.
From THE AGE NEWSPAPER.
The Tote: a case of liquor licensing downing one too many
JO ROBERTS
January 19, 2010
It's hard to believe it's come to this. Yesterday, licensees Bruce and James Milne closed the doors at Collingwood's long-standing bastion of live music, the Tote, for the last time, after announcing four days earlier they could no longer afford to keep operating.
Perhaps it will only be their last time, as it turns out. In yesterday's Financial Review, the owner of the Tote freehold, Chris Morris, expressed sadness that the Milne brothers had been forced out, but said he would be happy for a new licensee to take over the Tote ''and keep it the way it is''. OK, great news for music fans. Maybe someone new, with the money and the energy, will be willing to take over the iconic venue. But the point is, the Milne brothers should never have been forced out in the first place.
Bruce Milne is the very jaded face of Melbourne live music in the fight against the Liquor Licensing Commission's blanket approach to tackling alcohol-related violence. Milne ran out of money to keep doing what he and his brother had done, incident-free, for the past nine years, thanks to fee increases, the enforcement of long-standing ''special conditions'' and subsequent appeals at VCAT.
The ''special conditions'' imposed by liquor licensing - requiring CCTV cameras and a minimum of two bouncers where any ''live or amplified recorded music'' is being played - have been in place since the late 1990s. But it has only been in the past 18 months or so that the regulations have been enforced, as society has rightfully demanded action against the rise in senseless, drunken violence.
Consumer Affairs Minister Tony Robinson informed me that director of Liquor Licensing, Sue Maclellan, recognised ''that there may be instances or times where crowd controllers may not be required''.
Logic might suggest that such an instance might be a venue that has no reported incidence of violence. But despite a blemish-free police record, the Tote was deemed ''high risk''.
Bruce Milne brought the Tote's Friday-Saturday hours back from 3am to 1am to take it out of the ''high risk'' category (venues operating until 3am), but it proved commercial suicide - these were his busiest hours; bands could no longer share a post-show drink with their friends and fans in the front bar.
Presumptions about the Tote's clientele being high risk are unfounded. The local police have made it clear they have never had a problem with the venue. On Sunday afternoon they happily blocked off the intersection of Johnson and Wellington streets to give the 2000 or so protesters outside the hotel ample room to vent their anger and hear speeches from people including Milne and comedian Rod Quantock.
''The police are our friends,'' said Milne, to cheers from the crowd, the same ''high risk'' crowd - including myself and my three-year-old son - who duly dispersed as asked, once the speeches were over, saying hello and thanks to the police officers as we passed.
I've been going to gigs at the Tote since I moved from Geelong to Melbourne in 1989. As a new girl in town looking for like-minded souls, it was the Tote I gravitated to.
Since then, the only violence I've ever seen at the Tote has been against guitars, a microphone or a snare drum, from impassioned musicians making the most of being on the Tote stage.
So, on what grounds are such band venues deemed high-risk venues? Does the head of liquor licensing believe parents would take our children to afternoon shows in a ''high risk'' venue, especially after reading of other parents who have had to switch off their own child's life support, or nurse a permanently disabled child following violence at other inner-city venues?
There are high-risk venues in Melbourne, but they're not the ones with a young band playing to 50 people, dreaming of the day they'll play to more - if only they had more gigs and more exposure.
The main objective of a live music fan's night out isn't to pick up, or pick a fight; it's to see a favourite band, or some new young act that's captured their attention.
Under the Maclellan doctrine, venues won't be able to afford to give new young bands a go. How many publicans can afford to pay two security staff and bar staff when there are 20 people in the room and the band is only getting $200 if they're lucky? Other venues are already being affected, but Bruce Milne has become this deeply flawed policy's first martyr. Hopefully now he can become one of its loudest opponents.
The way things are going, in a couple of years Melbourne will become like Sydney, now a live-music wasteland compared to its glorious past.
