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REMEMBERING EUREKA STOCKADE OF 1854; AUSTRALIA'S FIRST BATTLE FOR PEOPLE POWER
REMEMBERING EUREKA STOCKADE OF 1854; AUSTRALIA'S FIRST BATTLE FOR PEOPLE POWER
Nurturing the Spirit of Australia
The young need music to inspire dreams. Youth needs music to harmonise relationships, and to sing, and to dance. This is the music that, as we grow older, provides wings for our dearest memories, our happiest moments. Music has the power to uplift, like nothing else in life.
The self-appointed Elite of Australia, who cherish only dead people’s music, do not comprehend that the throbbing music of youth; especially those classics that endure, become the music of the people. Music is the window to a nation’s soul, and it is the manifestation of a nation’s spirit.
In times of crisis and oppression, music gives voice to the people’s pain. Music becomes then the sound of unity; it is the banner under which the people march, and it drums to the heart-beat of their courage. And most of all, music sustains eternal hope even in our darkest hour.
Yet the people who create this precious gift are the poorest Australians. They are exploited by publicans, harassed by bureaucrats. They are cheated by radio stations and recording corporations. And they are betrayed by those who purport to speak for them. And very often when they play for us, they are silenced for the crime of noise pollution. But most of all, they are secretly feared by politicians and the Elite for the powerful gift of communication that they carry.
Government is repressing People’s Music. Why?
How can the spirit of man, the voice of hope, a song of love, be noise pollution? What kind of politicians would do this?
Daily, grim-faced enforcers invade happy music venues… restaurants, festivals, beach events, clubs and pubs… thrusting decibel meters at singers and musicians; closing down events. South Queensland suffers by far the worst in Australia.
For three thousand years, since the time of Babylon, wining and dining and dancing have gone together. As Shakespeare observed “Music hath charms to sooth the savage breast.” And throughout the ages, the local community has always decided what level of happiness is acceptable. No arbitrary authority has the right to sever this important social, emotional and democratic relationship.
Why is this happening? How did it begin?
A little over two decades ago, poker machine corporations shouldered their way confidently into Australia but were stunned to find their mechanical bandits were unwanted. This was the great age of Aussie Rock and every venue offered its local equivalent of AC/DC, 10CC, INXS, Men at Work, Cold Chisel, Skyhooks, Australian Crawl, Billy Thorpe, La De Das, and a thousand brilliant disciples. Of the then world’s top twenty, Oz held seven places, and Australia ruled the global airtime. And nobody in Australia wanted poker machines invading their precious dancing space.
As corporations do, the pokie people gave the politicians lots of money, on the condition that music be declared noise pollution. As politicians do, they took the money and, as music venues were closed down, the publicans were forced to replace absent music with pokies, to restore incomes. The politicians grabbed ever-larger slices of poker machine revenue to prime evermore-expensive election campaigns. Thus, poker machines ended the Great Australian Era of Music, and now their insidious capacity for addiction is damaging millions of Australian’s lives; initially pensioners, but increasingly it lures the despairing and futureless young.
The ending of pub dance bands forced youth into seedy CBD night clubs and into the predatory arms of drug pushers and violence addicts. To escape being bashed at cab ranks, kids are compelled to drive private cars, which is the genesis of horrific weekend road slaughter. By contrast, if they were able to dance at their local pub, they would be able to walk home in the relative safety of suburban streets.
Australians have finally decided to fight back. Led by the nation’s musicians, we will soon notice bumper stickers… Pokies Out; Music In; and the battle cry Bring Back Oz Rok. What started as a handful of Maroochydore musicians resisting bureaucratic oppression has spread throughout the SunshineCoast. Supporters now range from Gympie to Byron Bay.
However, poker machines and politicians are not the only forces attempting to drive live music into oblivion. Corporate interests are requiring bands to pay for public liability insurance, around $2000 before they have earned a cent, even though musicians are essentially paid by the hour, and the venues are covered for PL anyway.
CD sales have long been targeted. In terms of market potential, four out of five adult-audience music CDs are never sold, because radio listeners cannot identify artists, and by the time they do, they have cooled off the song. This happens because product advertisers know that people chilling on their home CD collection are not listening to radio advertisements, so radio DJs are directed to identify the artist before a song is played, or following a succession of songs, and in a rapid monotone, to identify several artists and titles together.
For busy working adults, it can take weeks or even months to identify their favourite band or singer. It has been calculated that musicians are losing 80% of their potential income from recordings. This also cuts deeply into the turnover of music retailers, up to 30%, a loss previously blamed solely on private downloading. The ramifications for copyright and intellectual property are being studied and litigation may finance one or more station takeovers.
The campaign to reinstall live music in its rightful and nurturing environment of urban and suburban pubs, will include a series of Eureka Concerts, bumper stickers, posters, flyers, radio and TV interviews, articles in sympathetic media; and vis a vis Internet radio.
It is envisaged that each region in Australia will be free to campaign autonomously, and we will encourage liaison and cooperation. Tim Freedman of The Whitlams has already been campaigning against pokies for a couple of years and an Australia-wide movement seems likely to develop.
State Premiers will be urged to initiate the following:
To join oziz4ozrok just e-mail ozrok editor tonyryan43@gmail.com
© Copyright Tony Ryan oziz4ozrok 2009
The self-appointed Elite of Australia, who cherish only dead people’s music, do not comprehend that the throbbing music of youth; especially those classics that endure, become the music of the people. Music is the window to a nation’s soul, and it is the manifestation of a nation’s spirit.
In times of crisis and oppression, music gives voice to the people’s pain. Music becomes then the sound of unity; it is the banner under which the people march, and it drums to the heart-beat of their courage. And most of all, music sustains eternal hope even in our darkest hour.
Yet the people who create this precious gift are the poorest Australians. They are exploited by publicans, harassed by bureaucrats. They are cheated by radio stations and recording corporations. And they are betrayed by those who purport to speak for them. And very often when they play for us, they are silenced for the crime of noise pollution. But most of all, they are secretly feared by politicians and the Elite for the powerful gift of communication that they carry.
Government is repressing People’s Music. Why?
How can the spirit of man, the voice of hope, a song of love, be noise pollution? What kind of politicians would do this?
Daily, grim-faced enforcers invade happy music venues… restaurants, festivals, beach events, clubs and pubs… thrusting decibel meters at singers and musicians; closing down events. South Queensland suffers by far the worst in Australia.
For three thousand years, since the time of Babylon, wining and dining and dancing have gone together. As Shakespeare observed “Music hath charms to sooth the savage breast.” And throughout the ages, the local community has always decided what level of happiness is acceptable. No arbitrary authority has the right to sever this important social, emotional and democratic relationship.
Why is this happening? How did it begin?
A little over two decades ago, poker machine corporations shouldered their way confidently into Australia but were stunned to find their mechanical bandits were unwanted. This was the great age of Aussie Rock and every venue offered its local equivalent of AC/DC, 10CC, INXS, Men at Work, Cold Chisel, Skyhooks, Australian Crawl, Billy Thorpe, La De Das, and a thousand brilliant disciples. Of the then world’s top twenty, Oz held seven places, and Australia ruled the global airtime. And nobody in Australia wanted poker machines invading their precious dancing space.
As corporations do, the pokie people gave the politicians lots of money, on the condition that music be declared noise pollution. As politicians do, they took the money and, as music venues were closed down, the publicans were forced to replace absent music with pokies, to restore incomes. The politicians grabbed ever-larger slices of poker machine revenue to prime evermore-expensive election campaigns. Thus, poker machines ended the Great Australian Era of Music, and now their insidious capacity for addiction is damaging millions of Australian’s lives; initially pensioners, but increasingly it lures the despairing and futureless young.
The ending of pub dance bands forced youth into seedy CBD night clubs and into the predatory arms of drug pushers and violence addicts. To escape being bashed at cab ranks, kids are compelled to drive private cars, which is the genesis of horrific weekend road slaughter. By contrast, if they were able to dance at their local pub, they would be able to walk home in the relative safety of suburban streets.
Australians have finally decided to fight back. Led by the nation’s musicians, we will soon notice bumper stickers… Pokies Out; Music In; and the battle cry Bring Back Oz Rok. What started as a handful of Maroochydore musicians resisting bureaucratic oppression has spread throughout the SunshineCoast. Supporters now range from Gympie to Byron Bay.
However, poker machines and politicians are not the only forces attempting to drive live music into oblivion. Corporate interests are requiring bands to pay for public liability insurance, around $2000 before they have earned a cent, even though musicians are essentially paid by the hour, and the venues are covered for PL anyway.
CD sales have long been targeted. In terms of market potential, four out of five adult-audience music CDs are never sold, because radio listeners cannot identify artists, and by the time they do, they have cooled off the song. This happens because product advertisers know that people chilling on their home CD collection are not listening to radio advertisements, so radio DJs are directed to identify the artist before a song is played, or following a succession of songs, and in a rapid monotone, to identify several artists and titles together.
For busy working adults, it can take weeks or even months to identify their favourite band or singer. It has been calculated that musicians are losing 80% of their potential income from recordings. This also cuts deeply into the turnover of music retailers, up to 30%, a loss previously blamed solely on private downloading. The ramifications for copyright and intellectual property are being studied and litigation may finance one or more station takeovers.
The campaign to reinstall live music in its rightful and nurturing environment of urban and suburban pubs, will include a series of Eureka Concerts, bumper stickers, posters, flyers, radio and TV interviews, articles in sympathetic media; and vis a vis Internet radio.
It is envisaged that each region in Australia will be free to campaign autonomously, and we will encourage liaison and cooperation. Tim Freedman of The Whitlams has already been campaigning against pokies for a couple of years and an Australia-wide movement seems likely to develop.
State Premiers will be urged to initiate the following:
- Delete all bureaucratically regulated restrictions on music, transferring this prerogative to each venue’s local surveyed community majority. This complies with genuine democracy.
- Remove the imposition of public liability insurance on musicians.
- Draft and pass specific legislation requiring audio media entities to identify artists immediately and coherently after playing their music; and amend copyright and intellectual property laws, with all infringements incurring compensation for the artists.
- Eliminate regulations requiring mandatory security personnel on music and liquor venues, this being the prerogative of the venue manager or musicians, in response to public and consumer demand. Where appropriate, this will improve venue cash flows.
- Expunge undemocratic laws and regulations requiring adults to present IDs in licensed or any other public places. The current practice is unacceptable in a free country.
- Commit State and Federal Governments to the construction of indoor/outdoor concert venues in regions lacking such essential facilities for youth.
- Provide arts funding, commensurate per capita with grants for opera, classical and other conservative music genres, to musicians cooperatives that develop popular music; to enable recording and publishing and ongoing development of these arts.
To join oziz4ozrok just e-mail ozrok editor tonyryan43@gmail.com
© Copyright Tony Ryan oziz4ozrok 2009
