Minister weighs in on Perth live music crisis

The Western Australian Government will work with Perth's music industry to tackle a crisis in the city's once-thriving music scene in light of recent live entertainment venue closures.

The Western Australian Culture and the Arts Minister John Day recently told The West Australian newspaper that he would ask his department to look at options for an alternative to The Bakery, the 600 people-capacity Northbridge live-music venue due to close in May.

About 400 people met at The Bakery in late February to discuss ways of dealing with a growing lack of live-music and arts venues in Perth.

Minister Day said though he had received no formal proposals for action, he recognised the importance of a viable live-music scene.

He explained "having an active contemporary music scene in Perth and WA, I think, is important and I'm certainly very supportive of doing whatever we can to ensure that can continue."

The Western Australian Government distributed almost $468,000 in grants to 50 creative arts projects in 2013-14 and a similar amount is expected to be allocated this financial year.

West Australian Music, the State's peak body for contemporary music, also gets $340,000 in recurrent funding a year.

Minister Day said the Government would consider proposals to use that money differently but warned economic conditions were tight.

The Bakery, a mainstay of Perth's music and arts scene since 2002, was run by Government-backed arts producer Artrage, which was forced to announce the venue's closure in January.

Its lease was ended by venue owner and utility Western Power after it sold the land to a Chinese businessman who is thought to want to build apartments on the site.

5th March 2015 - PERTH SUFFERING ONGOING LOSSES OF LIVE MUSIC VENUES

26th March 2014 - LIVE MUSIC VENUES THREATENED BY NEW LAWS AND NOISE COMPLAINTS