Loading The majority of those events took place outside the entertainment precinct. In the inner west there were more than 260 live music events held in the same period, while venues in the CBD but outside the lockout zone hosted just over 100. The gigs held in Sydney during May were as diverse as independent musicians playing EP launches at Oxford Art Factory to The Cure's Sydney Opera House show to Amy Shark's sold out Hordern Pavilion show. The former beating heart of Sydney's entertainment and nightlife, Kings Cross, which comes under its own precinct, played host to around 50 live music events, with around 30 of them being electronic music events at clubs. Reuben Styles, one half of electronic duo Peking Duk, said changes in the Cross are perhaps the most tragic.

Peking Duk's Adam Hyde and Reuben Styles. "It's quite an emotional thing for me," he said. "When I first moved to Sydney it was those clubs in Kings Cross that kept us afloat while we wrote music and could eventually make an album. For two years we lived off those nightclubs, that is what supported and encouraged us to become musicians and become Peking Duk." Having grown up in Canberra where the opportunities for artists to grow is even more limited, Styles said if he were making the decision now, he would move to Melbourne. "When all these venues closed, it was a bit emotional for us, a lot of other people are missing out on the opportunities we had to live and work as an artist in this city. If we were moving out of Canberra today to pursue a career in music there is no way we would come here."

Jake Smyth, who owns iconic Chippendale music venue The Lansdowne and has just opened Mary's Underground inside the lockout zone, has seen both sides of the liquor licensing challenge and witnessed the flood of artists not just leaving the CBD, but also leaving the state. "When we were programming Mary's Underground the tour booker was going out talking to artists we wanted to play there – young, vibrant acts – and people were saying they couldn't do it because half their band had moved to Melbourne or they were about to move there," Smyth said. Mary's Underground and The Lansdowne owner Jake Smyth. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer "It's not the jokey Sydney-Melbourne rivalry anymore, they are just better at nurturing their artistic community." Smyth said while the impact on the city's nighttime economy is easy to see, the impact on Sydney's broader culture is more complicated.

"Musicians will always make music, artists will always make art, they won't be stopped, they won't be quietened," he said. Loading "When you interrupt the culture of a city it has a wide-ranging effect on society, that's the reason why people are so passionate about it. "We live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, but the people who are running the city and the state can't get to grips with how to support artists, support nightlife, support culture and support young people." On Wednesday, Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced a review into the city's lockout laws saying it was time to "take stock" and rethink the restrictions.

It's a move likely to earn overwhelming support from the live entertainment industry. "All (the laws) have done is kill creativity, kill music and kill people's livelihoods," Styles said. – with Broede Carmody