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

When Yelo editor Penny Brand did a quick survey on the city’s Facebook music groups asking users where they wanted to see the most change, she was overwhelmed with responses.

But the consensus was 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 said musos were grossly underpaid and that the city was full of cover bands and tribute groups.

Steve Savage said sound restriction issues for venues in commercial and retail zones had dampened the music scene, calling Gold Coast Council zoning policies “utterly ridiculous”.

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

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

He said 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 said.

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

Tricia Tommasi said she was surprised the Gold Coast music scene was not more actively supported by Council, 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 said.

“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 said there were not enough venues for original artists to showcase their material to a “captive audience”, where the audience is encouraged to watch with little to no sound. And Max Murphy hoped that venues could host “residences” again.

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

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

Greg Josephson said if venues could get behind local acts we would see more “Aussie giants” emerge such as INXS, Cold Chisel, ACDC, Mondo Rock, Hoodoo Gurus and Men At Work.

“(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 said most bands were underpaid and that being a Gold Coast musician meant having two jobs.

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

“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 said, while Matthew Armstrong wished HOTA (pictured) would open up their basement to artists for acoustic and jazz nights “similar to the Doo Bop bar in Brissy, rather than sitting there empty”.

Andy Cartwright called the Gold Coast “the capital of cover and tribute bands” and Petar Zabic agreed, 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 needed to “actually go out and actively watch original bands perform live”, he said, without being reliant on Instagram accounts where numbers were not reliable and followers often not genuine.

Venues should be held accountable for underpaying artists “and not honouring agreements”, Carolyn Higgs argued, while Steff Ross and Dougie Milton both said 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 said.

Helen Matheson used “a lot of personal money” trying to get a micro festival to Gold Coast Parklands, but couldn’t guarantee the “5000” punters that Council wanted, she said.

Matheson wants funding available for “minor events” and more encouragement from Council “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.”

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

The music lovers said Gold Coast Council needed to come to the party by pushing on with projects such as their 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 said.

“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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Photo: Casey Barnes, Gold Coast native and country music star, got his major break on national TV show Australian Idol in 2009. He performs at Groundwater Country Music Festival at Broadbeach in October.