Perth Voice Interactive

PERTH’S music and entertainment venues have a widespread harassment problem.

Two thirds of respondents to a Safer Venues WA survey reported that they experiencd nonconsensual touching and a third that they were assaulted at a gig.

The survey of 550 artists, venue staff, promoters and punters found female and non-binary/trans respondents were far more likely to experience harassment. Other findings included:

• 90 per cent of women experienced unwanted sexual comments at least once;

• 83 per cent of women experiencing nonconsensual touching at least once, and many said it happened “often” or “every time”;

• 35 per cent of respondents had been assaulted (either sexually or physically) at a gig at least once;

• 40 per cent had left a gig early after being harassed or intimidated.

Safer Venues WA formed after a Northbridge venue used misogynist slogans on huge banners as part of a marketing campaign for a 2016 New Years Eve frat party.

Industry crisis

“This, coupled with increasing instances of harassment and assault at our gigs, had seemingly reached an industry crisis point,” SVWA’s Samantha Martin and Kate Daniel told the Voice via email. “

They got together with about 30 community members including feminist writer Xanthea O’Connor and musicians Stella Donnelly, Amber Fresh and Jennifer Aslett, and sent out the survey in August.

Ms Martin and Ms Daniel write: “We often share experiences of harassment and assault within the industry, but this survey is our first effective tool to communicate to our wider audiences that we are facing a crisis: with 550 respondents, 67 per cent have experienced harassment or assault at a music event or gig.

“Today, given the global impact of the #metoo campaign, our grassroots efforts are more relevant and more critical than we ever anticipated.”

They argue there are steps venues can take to increase safety including a house policy: typically signs that state that abuse or harassment will get you removed from the venue.

Ms Daniel is door manager at Scarborough venue El Grotto, and says it helps to inform patrons about those standards when they enter, and responsibly remove people threatening others’ safety.

During WAMFest, 19 venues rolled out trial SFWA suggestions for better practices, and the The Bird in Northbridge and Mojo’s in Fremantle have had positive feedback to their pro-safety, pro-respect signage.

The group says it’s in venue owners’ best interests to make their customers feel safer.

Forty per cent of respondents had left a gig early after experiencing harassment, and 20 per cent said concerns over personal safety was a major barrier to them attending music events.

The venue’s reputation was considered a major barrier by 26 per cent.

Alcohol was perceived as the biggest catalyst for harassment or intimidation (followed by gender or sexuality-based harassment), so the group is hoping to encourage better training for staff around the responsible service of alcohol.

“It’s still early days for engaging with venues, but it’s something we’re very optimistic about,” Ms Daniel and Ms Martin wrote to us.

Collaborative

“One of the real strengths of being a grassroots organisation is that we’re still active in local industries. As individuals, we have a lot of existing relationships with venues (including The Bird, Mojo’s Fremantle and El Grotto), musos, promoters etc who have really strong and collaborative intentions to make progressive change.”

The group’s online at http://www.facebook.com/safervenuesWA, which includes links to the full stats.

by DAVID BELL

SEVENTIES Perth punk pioneers The Victims have reformed to record a lost song about Charles Manson—40 years after it was written.

When Manson died on November 19, something weird happened: on every news story about his death, a few strange people would react with crying emojis.

It was a digital extension of an eerie admiration that had followed him for decades, with a veritable flood of fanmail reaching him behind bars.

The sorority killer Ted Bundy had women flirting with him at court, and even the Nighstalker Richard Ramirez, a rapist and serial killer who was described as having a constant “foul smell” about him, got married to an admirer while on death row.

In 1977 when The Victims went to see the movie Helter Skelter, depicting the murder trial of Manson, the cult of personality around him was growing.

The band’s guitarist and vocalist Dave Faulkner said they couldn’t understand why people admired the guy.

“We found it very creepy,” Faulkner says.

‘It’s a very colourful story, and people are interested in that in a macabre way.

“But ultimately you have to be disgusted by the man and what he was doing, you have to think ‘what a bunch of losers’.”

Drummer James Baker wrote the lyrics to the song Charlie, lambasting Manson, who’d instructed his cult members to murder after he got pissy that no one would give him a record deal.

Hoodoo Gurus

Faulkner put it to music, and they started playing it at their usual haunts like Hernando’s Hideaway above a restaurant in East Perth, and the old Governor Broome Hotel.

The band was influential in the local scene, but short-lived, breaking up after about eight months, following the usual intra-band disagreements and some friction with their bassist.

They went on to other projects. Baker and Faulkner founded Hoodoo Gurus, and Baker would play in a slew of acts including The Scientists and Beasts of Bourbon.

Like many of their songs, Charlie was not recorded before they went their separate ways

“We never recorded much, we only did a single and an EP,” Faulkner says.

“We never made an album which is the biggest regret. If we only had a bit more money to make a record back then.”

In 2014 and 15, Faulkner and Baker got back together and teamed up with Ray Ahn from hardcore punk act the Hard-Ons to perform the 70s era Victims songs under the name “Television Addicts”.

They were warmly received, so they revived the old name The Victims and sold out shows at the Rosemount and Mojos.

And now they’ve recorded some of their old tracks that never made it to tape.

Faulkner says he was able to remember most of the lyrics—the songs were short and punchy—with only one lost to memory.

The day before they were due to start recording in Perth’s RADA Studios, they got news that Manson was dead.

They’ve released the song early to mark the occasion, a bit of metaphorical dancing on his grave, ahead of the rest of the songs.

Faulkner says the band would love to get back into live gigging.

To listen to Charlie on YouTube, search “The Victims-Charlie”, or click on the link on the Perth Voice Facebook page.

by DAVID BELL

A NEW group of city residents, traders and property owners have banded together to breathe life into Perth’s inner city.

Activate Perth was borne out of the City Summit, held by Perth Labor MP John Carey in August.

Two of the summit’s top recommendations were to form an organisation to help get pop ups and events in some of the many vacant buildings in the city, and to make it more family friendly.

Inaugural chair Anne-Maree Ferguson, who has a background in events management, says that during the summit there was a feeling that “the city had lost the spring in its step,” and they formed the group modelled on the successful Renew Adelaide.

Vacancies

With a vacancy rate hovering around 21 per cent for CBD buildings, Ms Ferguson says it makes sense to use these places to host pop up businesses, arty events or shared offices.

She says it benefits the landlords, because empty spaces can cost more to maintain and are more likely to attract vandalism, and the temporary pop ups can lead to paid leases.

“In Adelaide they’ve been predominantly IT companies, cafes, and smaller retail stores that’ve come in free of charge, and they’ve actually found with 30 per cent of cases those arrangements turn into paid leases,” she says.

Activate Perth will act as an intermediary, matching up people with empty places, and it’s hoped the plan will especially help female entrepreneurs.

“Our isolation means we have a relatively large number of girl bosses,” Ms Ferguson says.

“There are literally thousands of women working at home, some with kids, some without, and we’d love to bring them into the city.

“It can be lonely working alone, and bringing them into the city puts them in contact with customers and other entrepreneurs.” The CBD has lots of nighttime entertainment and shopping, but AP want to attract more students.

“There are around 8,000 students a day that visit the city, and most of them come in, go to their relevant institution, and leave again,” Ms Ferguson says.

There are a fair few city events aimed at younger people, but they’re not always publicised widely, so Ms Ferguson says AP will be “connecting the dots, just ensuring students are aware of the opportunities.”

The group’s currently recruiting volunteers for an “activation army,” calling on ideas to help make Perth more memorable, social and loveable. You can get in touch via their page at http://www.facebook.com/ActivatePerth

by DAVID BELL

FUNDAMENTALIST Bible comics printed by a controversial US publisher have been delivered to West Perth mailboxes.

The micro-comics, known as “tracts”, were written by the anti-Catholic, anti-Islam, anti-homosexual American fundamentalist Jack Chick, who died last year.

The Southern Poverty Law Centre, a US not-for-profit legal advocacy group which keeps track of extremist organisations, has designated Chick Publications a “hate group”.

The tract distributed in West Perth this week was a relatively tame story about Jesus.

Some of the more controversial comics published by Chick include one where a Christian man tells a group of Muslims they’re praying to “a moon god” (they get angry and threaten to kill him, before eventually converting to Christianity), and a hilarious tale of teenagers who turn to Satanism after playing Dungeons & Dragons and start trying to cast real spells.

In 2012, ACT police investigated the anonymous distribution of Chick Tracts depicting Muslim men as wife-beaters.

More than 800 million of the little comics have been printed in 100 languages, and spread across the world to save people from heathenism, from the Hmong people in Cambodia to obscure Cameroon tribes.

The comic’s popularity peaked in the 70s and 80s, but as usual, Perth is just getting it now.

There’s a blank space at the back of the tract that usually has distributor details, but the ones in West Perth weren’t filled out.

by DAVID BELL

VOICELAND venues cleaned up at the Australian Hotels Association awards, snagging 15 gongs.

AHA judges were impressed by a couple of newcomers:

• Mt Lawley’s new dessert and cocktail bar Measure picked up the award for best new venue

• Best cocktail bartender went to Bjorn Karason, at the newly opened Tiki as FK in Northbridge

• Petition Beer Corner got best draught beer quality (and no wonder, they have some brave, bold and out-there brews on tap)

Some longer-running favourites took out the top gong in their categories:

• Rosemount Hotel in North Perth won the best live entertainment venue award

• The Voice’s favourite casual first date open-air spot, Mechanics Institute, picked up best small bar and won best bar team

• Paddington Alehouse snagged best sporting entertainment venue

• The Queens in Highgate won best bar presentation and service venue

• Leederville’s Ria Malay Kitchen took out joint best restaurant award with Petition Kitchen

• Central Perth’s Laneway Lounge got best late night venue

• Best venue manager had four joint winners: Steve Halliday from C Restaurant, Katie Chan from Long Chim, Fiona Sham from Varnish on King and Five Bar’s Elodie Boneyd.

LOCAL musicians will gather at the Royal Perth Hospital overpass to put on free shows for another season of Music on the Bridge.

Launched in November 2015, the lunchtime shows give patients, hospital staff, and lucky pedestrians walking by, a musical treat.

The shows were the brainchild of junior doctors Stephanie Sim, James Chen, Thomas Kozak, and Vipin Balachandran, who teamed up with WAAPA jazz guitarist Minky Gardner.

“We have lots of people coming up and enjoying it,” Dr Sim says.

“The bridge is quite a busy thoroughfare: we have lots of people just being wheeled past that get to have a bit of music on the way to their x-ray to brighten up their day.

“A lot of staff know about it now and they’ll come and sit during their lunchtime and listen to it.”

Last year they received a donation of a Ritmuller upright piano, which is now on the bridge permanently.

They’ve had random wanderers come up to play it, and recently staff were treated to a 5am performance of Chopin’s Fantaisie Impromptu by a doctor, until their pager went off and they had to rush back to work.

Dr Lim says the security guards never know whether someone wandering up to the piano is going to give them a David Helfgott performance, or just nick the pseudo-velvet piano cover (again).

“It can be a nuisance sometimes! But there’s more benefits than detriments.”

Music on the Bridge summer season starts December 2, every Thursday at 12.30pm to 1.30pm, and runs for 10 weeks.

by DAVID BELL

THE sixth Light Up Leederville Carnival takes over Oxford and Newcastle Streets this Sunday December 3, with a bumper crowd of up to 60,000 expected.

Along with the usual food, live music stages, markets and street bars, at 7.45pm the Leederville Christmas lights are switched on, and everyone’s invited to bring some form of light to help the suburb glow.

It runs noon to 9pm and the full program’s at http://www.leedervillecarnival.com.au