Tasmanian Hospitality Review: February/March 2025

play in places like the old Soho Hotel, Irish Murphy’s, Customs House, you name it, we played it,” says Tom. “It was a wonderful learning ground for us. We always set ourselves little goals, once upon a time there was a goal that if we got a gig at Irish Murphy’s, we’d made it. Then when we got that gig, we thought ‘what was the next goal’. We have been very lucky with the opportunities we have been given. “Live music is an integral part of the Tasmanian hospitality scene, we saw during Covid unfortunately live music in general was a bit underappreciated and, maybe, a little bit misunderstood. For me, not only is it my job, but it also brings people together, it brings so much joy and happiness to people. It is an incredible part of Australian culture, Tasmanian culture and I think we need to get behind it more, support it more and bring people together. “Longley International is such a supporter of live local music, you can have some of the biggest acts in Australia here and the next night have a fantastic local act and discover some brand-new music. Local music is incredibly important, it is incredibly important to our society, and big artists always start as local artists, they have to start somewhere. We need venues supporting these guys.”

For Angus Leighton, Tasmania’s live music scene is yet to bounce back to where it was pre-pandemic. Leighton, a saxophonist who fronts jump-jive/swing band Uncle Gus and The Rimshots and was also a central part of the Hobart Hurricanes game-day entertainment this Big Bash season, understands the dilemmas venues face in putting on shows, especially with bands with bigger ensembles. “We were in this really good state pre-Covid where it was blooming, there were all these amazing bands popping up that were incorporating large amounts of people in their groups and creating some really great art,” Leighton says. Then Covid hit and we couldn’t do anything for so long. So a band like ours, which is seven people usually, from a business point of view it is really hard to justify hiring us on any given night because we have more mouths to feed. Tassie has got some incredible muso’s, you go to the mainland, and you talk about them but a lot of people haven’t heard of the acts because, and I hate to use the word exposure, but there really isn’t it. Funds to be able to show off what we have got, I think that is really important.”

To watch the THA’s full live music video series visit: https://tha.asn.au/news-media/video-library

25 Tasmanian Hospitality Review Oct/Nov Edition

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