However for veteran musician Ben McGarity, the lure of playing in pubs is rapidly diminishing following his equipment being tampered with during a recent gig.

“They removed my iPad and tossed it on the ground and ripped the mics out,” he said. 

“There is a real lack of respect for musicians, and it seems to be getting worse.” 

Many musicians the Central Western Daily spoke refuse to play at certain hotels, citing a lack of security for performers as being the main problem. 

From not preventing patrons from getting up on stage during performances, gear being picked up and played, through to insults being hurled at the performers when they don’t play a requested song, musicians are saying no to certain venues.

Drummer Albie Bevan said some publicans need to realise musicians are effectively employees of the hotel and should be treated as such.

“Clearly the people that do these things are the drunk ones,” he said. “This is an infringement of the RSA [responsible service of alcohol] rules about intoxicated people in a venue.”

Mr Bevan said musicians’ instruments are their tools of trade, just like an electrician’s drill.

“They’re just not aware of how much everything actually costs,” he said. “You wouldn’t get a tradie over to work on your house and start playing with all their tools.”

Dallas Webb is a regular solo artist and, although he’s had a few incidents where he’s had equipment damaged, and even been in a fight with a patron, it won’t stop him from getting up on stage.

“None of that turns me off playing, there are some really great venues out there that really promote music and even cover the costs of gear if it gets damaged,” he said.

Mr Webb said it sometimes depends on the venue and how a gig is promoted as to how the punters respond.

“If they’re promoting it as an event where the music is the feature, well then the people there are responsive and appreciative, but if all you’re doing is filling a hole in a corner of the room, well that’s when you seem to have problems,” he said.