Songsmith: Letter to the editor
Dear ed. I'm sad to inform you and your readership that the Coogee Bay Hotel is forgoing its Monday night open mics as of 26 May. Apparently the cover duos on Tuesday and Wednesday nights are going too. The Coogee Bay Hotel for me has been an excellent stomping and training ground in developing my solo skills - it's not everyone's cup of tea...a lot of people don't like playing to drunk backpackers and the aggro eastie crowd but I enjoy putting myself up against brickheads, sometimes its been hard but it's a challenge I rise up to and the results have been well worth it. More importantly than that it's about giving good solo acts/artists a place to gig to an audience (albiet rowdy) for 30 minutes. I'm concerned that more pubs are letting this form of entertainment fall by the wayside - it seems to be the pattern with the 'Launch Squad' too. Jason Mannell (and more recently Simon) have grown and maintained this gig successfully for 4 ...