Ta-ta To Tar

Sydney Morning Herald

Thursday May 30, 1996

Quick quiz. How do you know you have been at a gig? Your ears ring, there's a beer stain down the back of your shirt and your clothes smell as if you have been used as an ashtray by the massed forces of the Red Army and the Shooters Party.

The average 30-year-old who has been seeing bands for 10 to 15 years could probably wring out a lung or two of lovely black tar. And imagine what the performers ingest. Hmmm, love it.

While smokers in offices are forced to go outside, and restaurants shunt the air befoulers to one side, live venues have run a million miles from the notion of smoke-free. Too expensive, too likely to scare away "the punters", owners claim.

The Basement is dipping one tentative toe into these troubled waters by staging a smoke-free concert on Sunday, June 9. The Mark Isaacs Trio, Kerrie Biddell, George Golla and Monica Trapaga perform - proving that jazz can work without smoke fog. A percentage of the Basement's door charge will go to the NSW Cancer Council.

Smoke-free jazz takes place at the Basement on Sunday, June 9, from 9 pm, $15.