Tamworth Regional Council To Scrap 50% Security Deposit Fee For Metal Acts

Tamworth Regional Council is planning to scrap the 50% security deposit fee levelled at heavy metal acts who perform in the city’s Town Hall, ABC reports.

Tamworth isn’t just a country music town – it has a burgeoning heavy metal scene, with the founders of Emo Night hosting METAL! – Tamworth’s Heavy Music Night.

Like Emo Night, METAL spins the hits by prominent artists in the genre, including Parkway Drive, Slipknot, Architects, Metallica, Halestorm, Meshuggah, Trivium, Rammstein, Babymetal, and more.

METAL also features live music from local acts, including DJ sets from Tamworth heavy metal outfit Traces, with bands Broken Earth, Serrated and Ghost Complex taking the stage.

Last month, the ABC revealed and Kill Your Stereo reported that for years, the Tamworth Town Hall was required to front a refundable 50% security deposit if it hosted heavy music acts – 25% more than the usual payment for other genres of music on display.

A show that already cost, say $1,102 to host, then required a $550 security deposit.

In a new ABC report, Tamworth Regional Council will scrap the fee in a new draft of charges for 2023-2024. The council will listen to feedback from locals from Wednesday, 7 June, with the official decision coming on Thursday, 29 June.

"It's very progressive for [the] council to remove the fee. I can't wait to see the town hall do something different, other than country,” Luke Fielding, the owner of Tamworth’s The Press, the then-sole venue that hosts anything past alternative music in Tamworth, providing a home for heavy metal and punk acts, told the ABC.

Last month, Peter Ross, the Regional Council manager of entertainment venues in Tamworth acknowledged that the fee is “from another time, back in the 80s,” when Satanic panic was aimed at heavy metal music in particular, and in full force.

Jack Pallett, the vocalist in Traces, added in a quote to the ABC, "A lack of alternative culture in Tamworth really amplified that feeling of isolation.” You can read last month’s full article here.