Gold Coast musicians have taken to social media to plead to Gold Coast Council for more back up when it comes to supporting home-grown music.

When Yelo editor Penny Brand did a quick survey on the city’s Facebook groups, she was overwhelmed with responses.

But the consensus is clear: Gold Coast musicians want more live music venues which can support louder music, and establishments which can host original local acts with a “captive audience”.

They also say musos are grossly underpaid and that the city was full of cover bands and tribute groups.

Musos have their say about ‘utterly ridiculous’ policies

Steve Savage says sound restriction issues for venues in commercial and retail zones have dampened the music scene. He says Council zoning policies are “utterly ridiculous”.

“They’ve become completely illogical, and (are) not on a level playing field,” Savage says.

“The permitted levels for some venues are laughable, where cars make more noise, literally, than the musicians.”

He says Mermaid Beach live music venue The Yard (pictured), which also hosts regular open mic nights, was only allowed a maximum noise level of 78 decibels, “roughly the sound of a washing machine”.

Savage blamed “grumpy” neighbours and their noise complaints for the reason why the Gold Coast music scene had become lifeless.

“Yet from 6.30am the construction noise immediately at their doorstep would drown that utterly,” he says.

“When I lived in Mermaid, the road works and traffic was loud all bloody night.”

Tricia Tommasi is surprised Gold Coast musicians aren’t given more support. She says this is especially true given the transient international crowd it attracted.

“As a Londoner, we had such a huge range of bars and (musical) diversity, open every night of the week,” she says.

“We have a huge international market (here) who expect diverse entertainment, seven nights a week, past 9pm.

“Brisbane is now starting to get more diverse hip places, but the Gold Coast is still a long way off. (However) I think the audience is there.”

One punter says there are not enough venues for original artists to showcase their material to a “captive audience”. And Max Murphy hopes venues can host “residences” again.

“We (used to play) the same venue, six nights per week for years (with a) full house most nights,” Murphy says.

“People kept coming back, the band had a great following of fans, and the publican was happy.”

Venues should get behind their local acts

Greg Josephson says if venues could get behind local acts we would see more “Aussie giants” like INXS, Cold Chisel and AC/DC emerge.

“(We need to) create live music places that can actually allow for Aussie bands to be created again. Like in the 70s and 80s). When tonnes of original bands made a living until they became world famous.

“No venues equals no new bands which equals no more Aussie giants.”

Several residents say most bands are underpaid and being a Gold Coast musician means having two jobs.

Bands are getting paid “next to nothing” for their work, local punter Steve Wisby says.

“There are so many great bands out there that can’t get work because the payment is too low. At the end of the day book a plumber for seven hours work and see what the results are.”

The Gold Coast Convention Centre should be hosting music acts of “up to 6000 people” to ensure “smaller” bands could “act as support and have a chance to play to their home crowd”, local Craig Yeates says. While Matthew Armstrong wants HOTA (pictured) to open up their basement to artists for acoustic and jazz nights “similar to the Doo Bop bar in Brisbane. As opposed to it “sitting there empty”.

Gold Coast musicians say City is ‘capital of tribute bands’

Andy Cartwright calls the Gold Coast “the capital of cover and tribute bands”. And Petar Zabic agrees, saying Council should also set aside a percentage of their budget to support original music.

“Who wants to hear ‘Better’ by The Screaming Jets for the ten thousandth time or bloody ‘Wonderwall’ by Oasis .

“The Gold Coast needs some originality, because there is none out there. This needs to change, (our) culture is lost.”

Festival organisers, promoters, labels, media publications and venues need to “actually go out and actively watch original bands perform live”, he says. And without being reliant on Instagram accounts where numbers were not reliable and followers often not genuine, he adds.

Venues should be held accountable for underpaying artists “and not honouring agreements”, Carolyn Higgs argues, while Steff Ross and Dougie Milton both says Gold Coast festivals should be giving more opportunities to native original outfits.

There wasn’t enough “opportunities for unknown and unsigned bands to get a crack supporting big bands, and playing (at) festivals”, Milton says.

Helen Matheson has used “a lot of personal money” trying to get a micro festival to Gold Coast Parklands, she says. But can’t guarantee the “5000” punters that Council wants.

Matheson wants funding available for “minor events” so “we can use their facilities we all pay for anyway”.

“I had 100 musicians lined up… the committee, the bank account, booked Parklands (and a) website… but Council didn’t want to know.”

More inclusive genres and less solo acts, other ask

Others ask for less solo acts and more bands “with a five-piece minimum”. While others want a greater appreciation for different genres such as; Indigenous, hard rock metal, punk, funk, hip hop, reggae, and brass.

The music lovers say Council needs to push on with projects such as the Southport Plan and Music Action Plans.

“We need the (plans) to come together: a night-time precinct with multiple small venues that are actually allowed to play live music,” Scott Martin says.

“There still aren’t enough places on the Goldie, especially on the northern end, and Southport is on the tram line.”

Gold Coast Council was contacted by Yelo but did not respond in time for publication.

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Main photo: Gold Coast native Casey Barnes is a rising country music star. He got his break on national TV show Australian Idol in 2009. Casey performs at Groundwater Country Music Festival at Broadbeach in October.