It is the birthplace of rock bands such as Grinspoon and Skunkhour, the city where rapper Iggy Azalea performed for the first time, and the home of the highest concentration of songwriters in Australia outside of inner Melbourne and Sydney.

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Yet Lismore, in northern New South Wales, is often overlooked by touring musicians who, in recent years, have been more likely to add nearby tourist town Byron Bay to their schedules.

The apparent demise of Lismore's reputation prompted US-based trumpet player Nick Hewett to ask Curious North Coast: "What caused the decline in live music in Lismore, and what can be done to see a return to a flourishing scene?"

Mr Hewett grew up in Lismore and believes the live music scene peaked as early as the 1930s, when jazz and swing ensembles performed in venues including the Apollo Hall, the Riviera and the Vogue Theatre.

Swinging through the thirties

A book called From the Stage written by Colin Stratford supports his view, with stories of jazz and swing acts including The Butcher/Berry Band, the McKinnon's Orchestra and the Kewpie Harris Band regularly attracting crowds of hundreds in Lismore and surrounding communities.

An advertisement for an old time dance in Lismore. ( Supplied: From the Stage, Colin Stratford )

Jazz historian Jack Mitchell said Saturday night swing dances were the places to be across Australia until the mid-1950s.

"The war didn't slow jazz down at all because there was an atmosphere of 'enjoy your life while you can', and American bands were out here and all of the girls wanted to jitterbug with them," he said.

"But in the mid-1950s rock and roll came along and became the popular music of young people."

Mr Mitchell said rock and rollers favoured smaller venues over the grand ballrooms and theatres that hosted jazz and big bands.

That preference for intimate spaces, combined with the opening of Lismore's City Hall in the 1960s, contributed to the eventual closure of venues such as the Riviera.

The Kewpie Harris Band, pictured in 1939, were popular across the New South Wales north coast. ( Supplied: From the Stage, Colin Stratford )

The Country Gentlemen

Rural halls in villages surrounding Lismore also hosted bands in the 1960s, including The Country Gentlemen.

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Lismore National Party state MP Thomas George played the piano in The Country Gentlemen and remembers average crowds of 400 people.

"Every hall in those days had a monthly dance because there wasn't much other entertainment in the 60s," he said.

"During the breaks everyone would head out to the car boot for a lemonade or two."

Mr George said the changing demographic had led to the decline of country hall dances in the 1970s and beyond.

"The land was heavily populated back then with dairy farmers and cattle producers who looked forward to these events on Friday and Saturday nights," he said.

"People moved into town, and pubs and clubs started opening and that made it very hard for country halls."

Bourbon Street still performs today, but was particularly popular in Northern Rivers pubs in the 1980s. ( Supplied: Bourbon Street )

Pubs, clubs and pokies

Jazz and blues musician and former Southern Cross University music lecturer Greg Lyon recalls the 1970s and 1980s as Lismore's golden music years.

"People would drive over from Byron Bay because the music was so good, with eight venues all going at once," he said.

"A lot of it depended on the good graces of the licensees who have to understand that they are an important part of the proceedings, and I think that changed in Lismore."

A report called Vanishing Acts by the Australia Council found factors such as noise complaints, the rising cost of insurance, and poor band management were killing the pub music scene across the country.

Lismore band and booking manager Darren Bridge believes the early 1990s were Lismore's live music peak, when pubs continued to be the primary venues for emerging rock bands.

"The scene was centred around original music and venues and punters supported original music, so it felt really rich and relevant," he said.

"Pokies have something to answer for, but also people aren't going to pubs as much.

"Pubs that seem to be successful these days are the more gentrified ones that don't do live music."

ABC North Coast audience members commented on Facebook that Lismore's Italo Club had once hosted famous touring acts including AC/DC, Midnight Oil and The Lemonheads, but the rise in popularity of Byron Bay as a tourist hub meant that since the 2000s, musicians had been more inclined to play on the coast.

The Simpletons, who met at Southern Cross University in Lismore. ( Supplied: darrenhanlon.com )

Southern Cross University stars

Southern Cross University's Lismore campus is also renowned for producing big-name musicians.

A Skunkhour poster from 1995. ( Supplied: Facebook )

They include rock band Grinspoon, members of Skunkhour, folk stars The Simpletons and The Mabels, Academy Award-nominated songwriter Phil Barton and Grammy Award-winning sound engineer Josh Blair.

Contemporary music course co-ordinator Matt Hill said a change in the format of the university's band competition may have contributed to a lacklustre live music scene in the past two years.

"We don't have the uni bar band competition in the format that it used to run," he said.

"Instead it's an online application and you submit your tracks online, so there's not that motivation for young bands to get a set ready."

But Dr Hill believes Lismore is still one of regional Australia's live music capitals.

"APRA [Australasian Performing Right Association] does a survey of postcodes looking at where songwriters live who earn royalty money, and Lismore has the highest number outside Sydney and Melbourne," he said.

"When you look at the number of festivals in this region — Splendour in the Grass, Falls Festival, Bluesfest — I don't know that many other regional areas could boast the fact they've had James Brown, Bob Dylan, The Pixies and Kanye West on their backdoor."

The Lismore Lantern Parade, one of the highlights of the northern NSW cultural calendar, is held in new public space The Quad, which is also helping to boost the local music scene. ( Supplied: Photography by Natsky )

Evolving not dying

Dr Hill said new venues such as public greenspace The Quad and cafe The Dusty Attic showed the live music scene was evolving rather than dying.

"It's really important we don't get too nostalgic about the old days. There were a lot of things about the life of a musician that could have been improved," he said.

"I think it's great that most venues are now non-smoking, and I think the link between live music and alcohol is tricky.

"There are so many more options and the culture has changed so much. Things move on and every generation finds its own way of having a live music culture."

Lismore Jazz Club spokesman Michael Bird said even jazz and swing was making a huge comeback in Lismore.

"It's very healthy. We've been staging events every Sunday for 14 years," he said.

"Jazz has always been there, but we've got a hell of a lot of big city, ex-Sydney and ex-Melbourne musos who have moved here.

"They got out of the traffic jams of the big cities and we've got more than our fair share of musicians here in Lismore."

Musician Jimmy Willing performs at Lismore's new public greenspace The Quad. ( Supplied: Photography by Natsky )

Where to from here?

Dr Hill said the best way to encourage a vibrant live music scene was to support musicians and promoters.

"We still, as a culture, don't value musicians enough. They don't get paid enough," he said.

"Most musicians are earning less than $5,000 a year from their creative practice, so to make music viable we need to think beyond what's good for tourism or what's good for bars and business.

"We need to think about what's going to make something sustainable for musicians.

"I also think we really need to look at the work of promoters and we need to look at ways of supporting what they do, whether that's through grants or making applications for small festivals flow smoothly through council, because those people are really important in the equation of live music."

Promoter Darren Bridge said while cover bands had a place, original music needed to be encouraged.

"If you want a scene where people feel invested in it, it has to be a scene that grows organically through original music that's written relevant to the area," he said.

"People come along when they are emotionally and socially connected to the band and music."

Musician Greg Lyon said it was up to audience members to step away from their televisions and head to a concert.

"You can't go back in time," he said.

"Live music is the product of many things, and back in the old days there was no Netflix, there were no RBTs. But a few new venues have opened and hope springs eternal."