Here's an interesting Muretich article that isn't about a band, but more about the forces that shaped the music scene in the 1970's and 1980's. Man, that guy could write...
Music scene and ALCB don't mix
Music scene and ALCB don't mix
By James Muretich
(Herald staff writer)
Calgary Herald, June 24, 1984
It is seen as a secret service.
The Alberta Liquor Control Board (ALCB) is feared to the point
where many of those interviewed for this article refused to have their names used
and one person, following an interview, called back to ask that his name not be
used for fear of “retribution.”
The kind of atmosphere that exists between the ALCB, which
enforces the province’s Liquor Control Act, and those people involved in Calgary’s
live entertainment scene is not as it should be.
The relationship is one marked by anger, fear and
frustration.
There are those who will defend the ALCB, such as Calgary
lawyer Ron Ghitter, who authored a government report on reforming the province’s
liquor laws in the early ’70s.
“I don’t have a lot
of sympathy for the complaints of the industry,” says Ghitter. “There are a let
of operators who simply don’t respect the law. Besides, there will always be
people who don’t like the policeman.”
Yet when the dislike and disrespect reach the level
described earlier among those involved in the industry, especially among those
concerned with bringing in top-notch rock and country acts, there is obviously
something wrong. Something that goes beyond mere annoyance at authority.
“It’s like dealing with a 19th-century mentality when you’re
trying to move into the 21st century,” says Lou Blair, manager of- the rock
band Loverboy and former manager of The Refinery (Calgary’s leading live rock
’n’ roll nightspot between 1974 and 1980).
“The province’s laws and the liquor board’s application of
them have created a sinister atmosphere between operators and the board. It’s
like the old school system, where no matter how many times they cane you you’re
determined they’re not going to break your spirit. Just thinking ’ of what it was
like gets my skin crawling.”
Blair, during the ’7OS, was one of the few people who spoke
out openly against the province’s liquor laws. Many feel The Refinery went
under because of its longstanding “war” with the ALCB. Little has altered since
Blair’s departure, despite changes to the Liquor Control Act on Dec. 31, 1980.
Outside of the Jubilee Auditorium and Calgary’s hockey
arenas, the city’s nightlife remains a virtual wasteland of bar bands and
small-time acts. The world between bar bands and acts performing at major
concert venues is a virtual no man’s land.
Those in the industry have identified the major problems
areas;
Despite the legal establishment, in 1980, of nightclubs
where food doesn’t have to be served to patrons, it’s 'felt that the
requirement for a 100-seat dining lounge adjacent to a nightclub negates any
benefits, especially considering nightclub seating restrictions.
The nightclub seating limit of 275 dramatically reduces the
kinds of acts that can be brought in, putting out of reach bands whose price
tag is too steep for such a small seating capacity or, conversely, setting the
need for unreasonably high admission charges.
In non-hotel quality entertainment nightspots, which are not
legal nightclubs, the demand that food be consumed by patrons places a burden upon
operators, especially in the case where people going out for live music (such
as rock ’n’ roll) aren’t likely to be looking for a full meal.
The ALCB is involved in far too many aspects of a
nightspot’s operation, exceeding the mere controlling of liquor.
ALCB inspectors are too heavy-handed in their surveillance
of nightspots.
The attitude towards liquor consumption in Alberta
officially remains a negative one where liquor is seen as something to be
restricted.
Liquor laws create an unhealthy backstabbing atmosphere where
operators “snitch” on one another if they feel an establishment is possibly getting
away with something they aren’t.
“If you could open up the rooms in terms of seating, not
have to serve food and concentrate on music, there would be a flood of people
building rooms in this city. As it is, live entertainment is more of a
liability than a possibility,” says one nightspot operator, preferring to
remain unnamed.
Joe Forgione, general manager of the ALCB, says present
seating limits were brought in, in consultation with other provincial
governments, in 1980 because “we realized that there was a need out there for
more seats if they (operators) were going to bring in a good level of
entertainment because costs were rising all the time.”
However, seating remains “the rub,” as one operator put it.
In a day and age when a top-notch act can command a hefty price tag (one act recently
through Calgary received $18,000 for three nights), a nightspot owner is hard
pressed to make money. With nightclubs limited to 275 seats and lounges with
live entertainment limited to 250 seats, it’s hard to afford such acts.
As a result most nightspots in Calgary settle for lesser-known
and less-expensive acts, or ask patrons to pay “through the nose.”
“You have to be looking at a $20 cover charge when your
seating capacity is only 275 and the act you’re booking is asking $5,000,” says
Tim Cottini, a local booking agent.
“The whole thing keeps the music scene in check, no doubt
about it. There are a lot of acts I have to turn down for Calgary because I
just don’t know if there are enough diehard fans out there willing to pay $20 a
pop,” says Cottini.
Says one local operator: “You go to Vancouver and you can
see the top acts at minimum price. The Commodore Ballroom seats as many as
1,200 people in there, which obviously means you don’t have to charge as much.
“Imagine if you could have such a nightclub here? You know
what kind of groups you can bring in then even if you’re only charging $12 at the
door?”
Blair, who now lives in Vancouver, agrees.
“It’s great and the Commodore hasn’t killed any clubs here
either.”
Even the current rules which say nightclub patrons do not
have to eat aren’t seen in a favorable light. Food must still be available, not to mention
the requirement of a 100-seat adjacent dining lounge.
“Hotels aren’t required to serve food, so what’s the big
break?” asks one operator.
Aside from seating and food beefs, people involved in the
Calgary live music scene express an almost uniform opinion that the ALCB has far
too much say over a nightspot’s complete operation.
“You can’t open up a licensed establishment without going to
the liquor board and showing them everything about your establishment, from the
plans to the finishing on your tables and seats,” says one person involved in a
local nightspot.
“If they don’t like the color of your chairs, if an inspector
walks in after you’ve finished everything and says he doesn’t like your tabletops,
then he won’t give you your licence,” says Blair.
Or as one person put it: “If they get it in for you, then
suddenly your broadloom’s no good.”
Forgione says the ALCB does check out plans for any licensed
establishment in order to assist operators in the design of their nightspots.
Ghitter says the ALCB just “wants to make sure the food isn’t going through the
washroom.”
However, Al Robertson, the Calgary zone president of .the
Alberta Restaurant Association (the umbrella organization to which all live
entertainment spots belong), sees it differently.
“I’ve had a case where a liquor board inspector told me ‘you
can’t do that, it’s against fire regulations.’ The fire board rep then came by
and said: ‘Oh, the liquor board doesn’t know what it’s talking about.’ But
they’re (the ALCB) the law. They’ll hit you hard in a minute if you don’t do what
they say.”
Other operators have stories of ALCB inspectors telling
certain establishments to take certain drinks off their menu because of their
names, including TestoTube Babies (a shooter) and even Bloody Caesar.
In fact, a major reason for the anxious atmosphere that exists
between the ALCB and nightspot operators seems to come down to the attitude
exhibited by far too many of the board’s inspectors, who number 50 for the
province.
Forgione can’t understand why this problem exists.
“I’m always cautioning our inspectors against being God
Almighty. I tell them to be careful what they say in dealing with“ licensees
because they’re the front-line PR (public relations) for this board.”
Somewhere, somehow, something seems to have gone terribly
wrong.
As one Operator says: “My problem is not with the liquor act
per se, but with the ALCB’s method of applying it. Their inspectors are overly
zealous. People resent their attitude and Gestapo techniques.”
“They don’t come to you and say you’re doing this wrong,
don’t let it happen again,” says another operator. “They come on like
gangbusters, flash their ID and walk in like they own the joint. People think
they’re rude to the point of being obnoxious.
“On top of that they have undercover people who blend in
with the crowd and sit there with their little counters keeping track of how
many people are in the room, just waiting for you to do something wrong.”
“It’s like you’re guilty until proven innocent, when it
comes to an infraction,” says Robertson.
“It gets to the point where you’re so exasperated with these
people that you either reluctantly go along with them or else you say to hell
with them.”
Part of the problem seems to stem from the fact that liquor
is still viewed as a negative commodity which has to be tolerated, but never encouraged.
The attitude that saw Alberta forbid men and women to drink together until
1958, and not introduce open taverns where men and women could go without
escorts until 1967, still persists to a certain degree.
“I feel that a lot of Albertans still drink to excess
because there’s an element of naughtiness to it,” says Blair. “I think there’s
definitely still the attitude in Alberta that liquor is an evil thing.”
Forgione disagrees saying that the province has greatly
liberalized liquor consumption in recent decades.
“In 1958, you couldn’t buy spirits publicly. All you could
get was beer and that was in a beverage room. We’ve come a long way since
then,” says Forgione.
Most operators feel that while 70 per cent of liquor sales
are made in Calgary and Edmonton alone, the provincial government is still
highly sensitive to rural, religious-based concerns when it comes to the Liquor
Control Act.
“Premier Lougheed refuses to deal with the liquor issue
because it splits his caucus along rural-urban lines,” says Blair.
“It’s ironical because here you are in what’s supposed to
the bastion of free enterprise and you’ve got a bureaucracy strangling such an
important industry.
“The problem of the rural-urban conflict has to be
addressed. Cities like Edmonton and Calgary are unique within the province. I
think rural areas that want-to stay dry should be able to. But the province
should be more flexible,” adds Blair.
Yet. the only way changes will occur is through lobbying,
and so far, those involved in the entertainment industry have been unable and
unwilling to form a common front.
“It’s up to the owners, but they’re afraid of speaking out,”
says Cottini.
“We bitch and bellyache,” says one owner, “but club and
restaurant owners seem to change every year. No one’s going to listen until we
get a strong lobby . . . but it’s not just going to happen.”
In fact, if anything, nightspot operators in the entertainment
industry are more prone to back-stabbing than organizing. Even the ALCB admits that
most of its leads regarding infractions come from operators and not its own
inspectors.
“We’re the biggest offenders,” says one person involved in a
local nightspot.
“If one guy sees somebody trying to do something different
or maybe bend the rules a bit, he’s on the phone to the ALCB right away.”
“I agree that accommodation for high-quality entertainment isn’t
there right now,” says Forgione. “But you have to be careful with change. Especially
in these times, if we were to change the laws, to open up rooms to 500 seats,
it might create havoc out there for people who are just barely surviving.”
“It is a Catch-22,” says one nightspot owner. “What can you
do? You’ve got all these people who have invested all this money according to
the laws as they now stand. If you suddenly change things, it would be unfair
to those who already have existing establishments.”
Says Forgione: “If I gave someone 500 seats for expensive,
quality entertainment and they just used the seats for selling more liquor and
ignored the entertainment aspect after getting the licence, what am I going to
say to the community?
“For the guy who wants to bring in high-priced legitimate
acts it sounds fine. But how do you guard against the guy who’s going to abuse
it?”
The ALCB is trying to loosen the laws gradually. For
example, the ALCB recently instituted a one-year trial period which allows
hotels and convention centres to use its banquet rooms for licensed public
functions rather than just private functions.
It allows such rooms to be open once a week to “musical
presentations, theatrical productions, nightclub acts,” among other things,
which would allow for liquor consumption and dancing, provided food were
served.
“It’s an opening for an operator willing to give it a shot,”
says Forgione.
An opening, yes, but hardly anything that will vitalize a sagging
Calgary entertainment scene. Limited to one night a week, at most, and to hotels
and convention centres (not known for their abiding interesting in high-priced,
quality entertainment), it is unlikely to bring in the kinds of popular music
acts that this city lacks.
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