To the manager,

I am writing to officially complain about the behaviour of a band that played at your establishment last Saturday on the 21st October.  I believe it was called the "Finn MacCool".  

I was attending the Mercantile hotel for a friend's birthday, and I arrived there at about 5.30pm and stayed for around an hour and a half.  Before I arrived I had rung my friend to say that I was on my way, however she didn't pick up the phone, it was a man whose voice I didn't recognise, but I later found out was a member of the band.  When I arrived my friends warned me that the band had been expecting me to arrive and that they were going to get me up on stage and embarrass me.  I immediately felt uncomfortable and didn't want to stay any longer - I would have left if it weren't for my friend's birthday. One of the female bar staff saw me arrive and approached me saying to some of my friends "Is this her?", and I was questioned by her as to what my name was. Nothing happened for about 40mins until the band told me to get up on stage, along with the encouragement of several people in the pub.  I reluctantly got up on the stage, trying to be a good sport and thinking that it was going to be a relatively harmless experience. 

Well I surely was mistaken about that. As soon as I got up onto the stage I felt harassed, intimidated and sexually advanced towards by all the members of the band.  For starters the stage was crowded with the band and their instruments, so once I was pushed into the middle it was quite difficult to get off.  Firstly one of the members said "She smells nice," then the main band member (I assume the one who I had talked to on the phone earlier) said "*****, why don't you take off your jacket" and then tried to undo it for me.  I pushed him away, a fairly obvious gesture I thought, and clearly told him not to touch me.  Then I was asked to play the Tamborine, and the same man who had tried to undo my jacket tried to come from behind me, so that his arms would be around my waist, to show me how to play the instrument, another incident where I had to forcefully push him away from me.  Then the song started (a song that went on extremely long) and so a friend of mine brought me up a beer, which this same band member took off me and skulled. Then after a few minutes of the song the band picked up the pace of the tune, and decided to jump up and down to the song.  They then tried to get me to jump up and down, and another band member even grabbed my arm and tried to make me jump up and down with him.  I guess you can see what they were trying to achieve by this.  Then once the song finished the main band member said to me "Get off" and pushed me quite violently off the stage. He then started saying to the crowd how I was disappointing and how my arrival was a let down. Not only did the band humiliate me and other young women, but the bar staff were encouraging this by making sure they knew when I arrived so that I could go up on stage to be harassed by the band. 

Their behaviour was inappropriate and unacceptable, especially for a hotel in the centre of one of Sydney's most popular tourist areas.  I am sure you know well that unwanted sexual advances classify as SEXUAL HARASSMENT.  I spoke with some of my other female friends there on the night and they also reported feeling uncomfortable and intimidated by the band's behaviour.

Sure, it's all fun and games...until the old pervert tries to feel you up. I thought I should let you know of how disappointing I found this behaviour and that it is totally unacceptable and should not be allowed to happen again. I hope (but doubt) that some action may be taken in response to this incident.

Best regards

***** ******