VROOM: a new direction for live music touring. Except in Canberra

Hey ginganinja, just thought i’d give you some background into the vroom project from behind the scenes.
You are quite right when you say that it has been around for a few years in a ‘shabby state’, sorry but it is the work of one person on a part time basis trying to come up with a free national touring resource for all musicians, on a tiny budget!

It has now been rolled out nationally, with details of over 1300 venues australia wide (including the ACT)

The national launch of the first stage of the project, VROOM Beta, happened this week (May 09). VROOM as a project has so much potential and has grown organically to this point, but still has a long way to go…

Funding for the panels has come from state and territory music associations.

Unfortunately, there is no such body in the ACT. Details of over 25 venues in the ACT can be accessed via VROOM NSW / ACT. As much as we would love to have a dedicated ACT site, without the support of government or funding in kind, this is the best we can do. If and when a body is formed in the ACT we would be more than happy to get them on board.

We, as musicians ourselves, have conceived and created this resource to help musicians and to develop touring circuits to spread live, original music.

So please, complain to your local member. Lobby the ACT government for funding for the arts. Start up an association supporting music in the ACT.

the size of canberra is not the problem. its the density or lack of that is.

History has shown that artsACT don’t seem to value music as an art in comparison to dance or theatre….

….or big random spinny bits of metal…

Great post, Ginga. Thanks for bringing it to our attention. In the late 90s, I remember barely a month would go by when there wasn’t a national or international touring band playing at the ANU bar or similar, and these were often all ages shows. They would use the whole refectory and it would be packed out. Of course, these were the days of the gypsy bar, finigans (?) and when the UC refectory was also still regularly used for gigs.

I went to the Vroom site to send them a message, but they only allow for 300 characters, and I couldn’t find any email address. They do however have a myspace if anybody feels the need to contact them: http://www.myspace.com/vroomaus

I think it’s got a lot more to do with population size, although I don’t agree that 340,000 is not a lot of people. It is a lot, it’s just not in the millions. Australia only has three other cities with a similar population, and the others are all within cooee of a metropolis, so our promoters don’t understand cities of this size. They understand small cities like Goulburn, and they understand large metropolises (metropoli?) like Sydney, but cities like Canberra are not overlooked because they’re too small, but because they don’t fit the mould of other Australian cities.

It’s not unique to music, Australia is one of very few countries with hardly any medium-sized cities, so those ivory-towered promoters (who mostly live in overgrown metropoli) have a cultural cringe towards cities like Canberra because they are used to either marketing to a metropolitan audience or to a regional one. We’re not either, and they don’t market to medium-sized cities regularly, so if a marketing person is looking at metropoli, we are often excluded because we’re too small, and if they’re looking at regions, we’re often excluded because we’re too big.

So, not only do we need more suitable venues, we should also be making those who live in the overgrown metropoli more aware of the normalcy of medium-sized cities.

340,000 people, is not a lot.

Small market.

Go figure the rest out for yourself.

RandomGit: I’ve been saying that for years (along with many others). Tried to convince the proprietor of Toast to move down there to escape the noise issues with the Waldorf, no luck.

What we need is less talk and for someone with the balls (and the capital) to get in there and do it.

good rant ginga, but mebbe better aimed at the site that this one? and mebbe get some back up from musos and entertainers from here who have ‘made it’ – mebbe cc them in? (mike nock, DAAS, for starters…)

Set up a venue in the old Electric Shadows theatre. Two sound proofed stages with a raked floor underground and a concessions stand for booze.

Venues people…. the distinct lack thereof.

We’re not missing out on tours because of the lack of an industry body… I’ve been involved in these bodies before and there’s not much going on there except people talking a lot and doing squat. Every new one which has come along has pretty much been the same.

There’s squat all APRA can do about a place with no place to play. Ditto for ARTS ACT.

People aren’t coming here because they don’t think it’s worth it financially and there’s bugger all places to play of appropriate quality. Where could the BA have played except the uni bar, which may have already been booked on required date or too expensive for them to hire.

The scary thing about the BA not coming here is that with cd sales plummeting, bands are touring everywhere they can to make money… the fact that they’re not coming here even under these circumstances bears thinking about. This is bad.

In terms of the music and bands of canberra… yes vibrant, exciting and so on…

Venues?

I mean no disrespect at all to people operating the smaller pub/venues etc… but we really do lack a dedicated licensed music venue with a professional set up like the Greennroom. For their great work, these places aren’t dedicated venues, they’re pubs etc that sometimes hold music. All of the cities mentioned above have at least one or more dedicated venues… we have zip.

That’s what is hurting us more than anything.

Bands of the size of the BA (or any real major touring band) will look at what’s available here in terms of capacity, set up, money and so on… if they can’t find what they require, they just wont come here.

But as I said… Kudos to the people who are holding bands at their venuues, even if they are small pubs etc… you are the slender thread keeping Canberra music alive.

Thank you.