A story that I was working on for Metal As Fuck has completely exploded into the mainstream media much to my chagrin. The organizers of the Black Mass Festival in Sydney were forced to find a new venue after the Newtown Returned and Services League (RSL) Club canceled on them after a barrage of Christian lobbyists protested the gig. The organizers and fans were undoubtedly up in arms. But then a few of them got a little stupid, sending death threats to the national president of the RSL, Derek Robson.
Though regrettable, the argument that the RSL curtailed the freedom of these musicians falls very deaf in comparison to the RSL's counter-argument: They all fought and some of their comrades died to protect our freedom. The point being, you have to act very shrewdly when taking on a prominent, national organization with a prestige that is almost unequaled in this country.
The ABC published a story online and also featured it amongst the "top stories" on ABC NewsRadio, replete with an interview with Mr. Robson. One phone call from one of their members can do that - or their PR division. The heavy metal community hasn't even got a one-hundredth of the clout or resources the RSL has or will ever have. That's just the reality of the situation.
Of course, the morons who sent the death threats to Mr. Robson probably didn't have the foresight or knowledge of any of this - they most likely thought the RSL was just a network of pubs that serve cheap drinks. Now they will most likely be visted by nefarious tabloid journalists with steel-capped boots wedged firmly in their front doors, especially when the ABC prints tracts like these, oblivious to the nuances of our particular argot:
"The festival was billed as a "diabolical union of Australia's black metal elite" and was to have featured a "once in a lifetime live ritual and special black mass performance."
The smart option would have been to find co-belligerents - the Secular Party of Australia and other like-minded groups and had them lead the counter-protest on their behalf (since the Black Mass festival is a "fringe" group in terms of the popular consciousness.) The NSW State Government will always favor the RSL, be it Labor or Liberal. If there was a contract signed between the RSL and the Black Mass organizers, the Black Mass, with their added publicity could have found a progressive, secular lawyer to take their case pro bono. The financial burden on the musicians and promoters is now amplified since they will take a massive loss returning money collected for tickets in addition to what has already been spent on flyers, posters, internet advertising, etc.
So some heavy metal fans have protested the wrong way - and that's perfectly normal. We aren't a politically motivated group of people anyway. We just like to rock out, listen to metal and have fun. In the rare cases in which metal and the moral majority collide, metalheads need to draw on the resources they already have - the metal media - to advise them which route to travel to get the best outcome with minimal backlash.
We may be volunteers but we aren't amateurs.