SLAM Day
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SLAM Day

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These days Wagner heads The Smith Street Band, currently riding the crest of popular and critical acclaim for its latest album, Sunshine And Technology. The Smith Street Band was spawned from Wagner’s solo performances. “It was basically an extension of my solo stuff,” Wagner says. “I’d been playing solo for a couple of years, then I wanted to get a backing band, and then after that it became pretty cohesive, so we became a band, rather than just my backing thing.” 

The band’s name – originally Will Wagner and the Smith Street Band, before the collaborate nature of the band compelled Wagner to drop his name own name from the title – derived from the location of Wagner’s residence around that time; it was also a subtle homage to one of Wagner’s musical heroes, New Jersey’s own Bruce Springsteen. “I was living on Smith Street at the time, so it made sense to call it the Smith Street Band,” Wagner says. “But I don’t live there anymore because it’s become too expensive. So the band name doesn’t really make any sense any more. I’m living in North Melbourne, so maybe we should be called the Queensberry Street Band,” he laughs.

While residing in Smith Street, Collingwood, Wagner lived upstairs from the Birmingham Hotel on the corner of Smith and Johnston Streets. “It was while living there that I really fell in love with the local music scene, especially because everything was so close – you had The Old Bar, The Birmy, The Tote, Bar Open. That was a formative time in my life,” Wagner says. 

The fate of The Birmingham – beset by noise complaints from a recently arrived neighbour who objected to the music emanating from the pub – became symbolic of the problems confronting live music venues in Melbourne, and the local music scene generally. “An older couple moved in next door to The Birmingham, and every night would complain about the noise,” Wagner says. “I lived above the pub for 18 months, and the most annoying thing was the tram stop outside – you could sleep through bands!”

It was the combination of draconian security requirements – typified by the financial dramas that befell The Tote and threatened other similar venues, compounded by dysfunctional planning laws, that provoked tens of thousands of live music fans to head to the streets in February 2010 for the Save Live Australia’s Music (SLAM) protest march. Saturday February 23 marks the third anniversary of the SLAM march; once again, it will be commemorated by a National SLAM Day. The event will also draw attention to the ongoing threats to live music in Australia, and the need for persistent and constructive political attention.

Gentrification of the inner-north suburbs has pushed musicians further north into the outer realms of Darebin and Moreland, as well as out into the more affordable suburbs of Yarraville, Flemington, Seddon and Footscray in Melbourne’s west. One benefit of this demographic shift to the west has been the appearance of live music in this once-remote part of Melbourne’s live music community. “I went down to The Reverence yesterday before band practice, and you can tell that Footscray has been lacking that pub where you can go and get food, and go and see bands, and it’s not a weird dive bar,” Wagner says. “Matt and Mel who run the place are always getting compliments for what they’re doing. And people always assume Footscray is a long way away, but it’s not – it’s only a few stations out of the city on the train.”

The Smith Street Band are one of National SLAM Day’s ambassadors, and will be celebrating the event by playing a gig in one of Melbourne’s newer venues, The Reverence, located in Footscray. “It’s run by the people who ran The Arthouse which was a pretty integral pub for a lot of people. It’s easily my favourite venue I’ve ever played at – they’re so good to everyone, the space is incredible. It’s fantastic. And I like Footscray – it’s cool!”

BY PATRICK EMERY