With constant news of another Australian live music venue closing as a result of increasingly draconian government legislation, it’s easy to think we’ve got it tougher than anywhere else in the world when it comes to our nightlife scene.

However, it seems Australia has it light compared to venues in Glasgow, Scotland, including one in particular, the historical Arches nightclub, which was subject to some of the most outrageous meddling by local police a music fan could imagine.

For those not familiar with The Arches, the venue, situated right in the heart of Scotland’s biggest city, was one of the top clubbing spots in the UK, with leading DJs from around the world making regular pilgrimages to play underneath its eponymous arches.

But as the Evening Times reports, its administrators are currently going about the task of making many of the Arches’ 124 staff members redundant, as details emerge of how Police Scotland wanted the venue to change its practices, eventually leading to its closure.

Arguably the most outrageous request by local police was to have the owners stop the music every hour during their famous club nights and bring up the house lights. They also asked the club to pay for extra police officers to attend the club, which would have cost the venue around £50,000 a year.

Both requests were obviously rejected by the management of the venue, which is now set to close after losing its late licence – the death knell to any clubbing operation, which in the case of The Arches, underwrote the venue’s many artistic ventures.

Police began imposing requests on The Arches following a review by the Glasgow Licensing Board, prompted by Police Scotland. In the Police Scotland proposed action plan, music was to be stopped for five minutes for a “cool down period” every hour.

Police also requested DJs have it stipulated in their contracts that there be cool down periods, as part of Police Scotland’s 21-point ‘Agreed Intervention Action Plan’, which came in the wake of the death of 17-year-old Regane MacColl, who died after attending the club and taking drugs in early 2014.

Other stipulations included installing an ‘over 25s’ only policy, which insiders say would have deeply damaged the venues finances. However, a spokeswoman for the national force insisted such stipulations are normal in cases of large-scale for-profit events.

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“The police recommendation that every hour the music should be stopped and the lights put up could be straight from Family Guy’s Buzz Killington [a cartoon character who brings parties to a halt],” said Orde Meikle, who with Stuart McMillan form leading DJ duo Slam.

“It shows a lack of understanding of the nature of our particular form of cultural expression. For these two artistic performances – audio and visual – to be subject to a rule such as that suggested would be unacceptable and ineffective.”

While the fact that police in Scotland seemingly sabotaged a venue certainly doesn’t excuse the actions of our government and police back home, we can take solace in the fact that it’s difficult to imagine such egregious intervention being imposed on an Aussie venue.

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