By Clay Lucas
Music industry figures opposed to an American corporate giant taking over operation of St Kilda live venue The Palais say the decision must not be made in secret by Port Phillip Council.
Industry veteran Michael Chugg says handing the lease to Live Nation will close off the venue to many acts, as promoters will be wary of booking artists at a venue run by a competitor.
Opponents of music giant Live Nation getting a lease for The Palais last week projected this image onto the venue.
The council will on Tuesday decide whether to give a lease of up to 25 years to either the US-based entertainment corporation Live Nation, or Sydney-based Playbill, which operates the Hordern Pavilion and several other venues.
The decision will be made behind closed doors.
Earlier this year, Port Phillip dumped current operator Neil Croker, whose company has run The Palais for nine years.
Mr Croker's firm resurrected the venue, taking it from around 25 shows a year to 110 last year, with ticket sales rising from 30,000 a year to around 250,000.
His firm will leave in December, after the other bidders were understood to have offered to pay the council more money.
Live Nation is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and this month posted first quarter financial results showing turnover of $US1.2 billion, and a loss of $34 million. Live Nation bought veteran Australian tour promoter Michael Coppel's company four years ago.
The person who answered the phone in Live Nation's Melbourne office on Monday morning said there was no-one available to comment on The Palais at this point.
Promoter Michael Chugg started Frontier Touring in 1979 with Michael Gudinski and now runs his own entertainment firm, which in recent years has toured Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello and a host of other major acts. He said Live Nation in the US had established "a monopoly and they are wiping out other operators".
"They bought over a whole chain of amphitheatres in America and they have run them into the ground," he said.
He and other promoters and industry figures who declined to be quoted said it was a serious problem having a competing tour promoter like Live Nation also operating a key venue like The Palais.
Mr Chugg said it was standard to try to secure a venue before signing a contract with an artist.
"When you book a venue for a concert they want to know who the act is. So you will be in a situation where you are telling a rival who the act is before that act is booked. And that rival will be running the venue."
Speaking from London where he said he was booking acts, Mr Chugg said Port Phillip Council should never have dumped the current operator, as they had done a widely respected job running the venue.
"It's beyond me what the council have done - why they have [got rid of] the bloke who took it on when it was a broken down shithole and built it back up into a prestigious venue," he said.
Other arts industry figures said there was a danger that Live Nation taking over the venue would mean less local input.
Mick Bell, a St Kilda local who works in the entertainment industry and who was part of the I Love My Palais campaign in 2014, said the The Palais was a crucial part of the local music scene.
"There is also a lot of concern The Palais will go to this multinational US company," he said. "They're not really going to be careful - they don't know the community, so how can they contribute?"
Mr Bell was among a group of locals who had threatened to conduct a "sit-in" at Tuesday night's council meeting, but he said he would now not be able to attend.
He said it was disgraceful the council decision was not being taken in public so that residents and local businesses knew why the lease had been awarded to the successful company.
Port Phillip mayor Bernadene Voss confirmed the decision on who got the lease for The Palais would be closed to the public.
"The report will be confidential as leasing is a commercial process. This is accepted industry practice," she said.
The council will make a recommendation on who councillors believe should get the lease to the environment minister, who has the final sign-off. The council's recommendation would remain confidential until then, Cr Voss said.