Music venues across Australia are always in a constant state of flux. Much like the bands that play within their dark bellies, the venues themselves have their moment in the sun before sadly fading into the history books.
But some venues do much more than showcase great local and international bands, they become an important part of the cultural fabric of a city.
This takes time of course, and most of Melbourne’s most beloved music venues have earned their stripes over decades, and in some cases centuries.
Take the Forum Theatre for instance. One of the most recognised landmarks in Melbourne, the iconic venue’s history stretches back as far as 1929 when construction was completed and the fabulous auditorium designed as a Florentine garden under an evening sky was first opened to the public.
Similarly, the Palais Theatre in St Kilda can date its history back to 1914, and today it is the largest seated theatre in Australia and one of the finest examples of Art Deco architecture anywhere in the country.
These theatres are part of our heritage, rich and wonderful pleasure palaces that have entertained Melburnians both present and past.
The Palace Theatre on Bourke St shares a similar pedigree to the Palais and the Forum. First erected in 1912, much like its theatrical cousins, it was once a cinema.
But the ups and downs of the cinema business, and multiple owners has turned the venue into a patchwork of styles across decades of uses.
The interior was redesigned in 1916 and again in 1934, and in the 1950s MGM who owned the theatre at the time cemented over the original Edwardian facade.
Finally the biggest change came in the 1980s when the venue was converted into the Metro Nightclub. In the amphitheatre most of the architectural elements from the end of the balconies to the stage were removed and replaced, however the remainder of the venue remained mostly untouched.
Since then, the operators of the venue has changed hands to the former operators of the Palace in St Kilda, which was destroyed by fire in 2007. The new operators have spent considerable time renovating and restoring the venue to its former glory at the beginning of the 20th century.
The new incarnation has seen the likes of some of music’s biggest names play its stage including My Bloody Valentine, The Arctic Monkeys, PiL, Primal Scream, and a slew of other iconic musical acts.
But the current operators who have allowed for these and countless other musical moments to take place, only lease the building, they don’t own it.
“Gentrification, although shiny and glitzy, leaves a city hollow and without substance.”Former owner Jerry Pilarinos tried to sell the property in 2011, with an asking price of $20 million, with plans to demolish the venue and building a residential development, although Pilarinos did not have a planning permit at the time.
Unfortunately for Pilarinos, his company Kefi Nominees was forced into administration by Bankwest, who appointed receivers and put the theatre up for sale via an international public tender in 2012.
Finally the venue sold, but only after the agents changed tactics by seeking out Singaporean, Malaysian, and mainland Chinese developers with an eye to redeveloping the theatre into a residential high-rise.
Now new owners Jinshan Investments has set in motion plans to follow in the footsteps of Pilarinos, asking the state government for a planning permit to demolish the entire theatre and redevelop it into a new $180 million development featuring a 205-room hotel and 145 apartments.
These things of course take time. It could be a decade before Jinshan Investments dream becomes a reality. But there is now a ticking time bomb on this much loved Melbourne venue, and the local music community should rightly be alarmed.
This is our heritage at stake. Our city now has to make a decision. Gentrification although shiny and glitzy leaves a city hollow and without substance.
We are very much at risk of our city’s culture becoming manicured, and its very soul being cut out. Indeed property development has been one of the biggest risks to our musical heritage for decades.
Whether it’s gentrification of suburbs which has caused amenity issues such as sound complaints crippling music venues such as The Rainbow Hotel. Or our precious music venues being torn down such as The East Brunswick Hotel, destroyed in the name of progress to feed a growing city’s need for more apartments.
The Palace Theatre isn’t just any venue. It has a history worth preserving. Cultural vandalism aside however, a compelling case can also be made for the economic importance of such a theatre.
If Jinshan Investments is allowed the destroy the Palace Theatre, it would leave a huge gap for 2000 capacity standing room venues in Melbourne.
Which presents a problem for Melbourne’s booming local and international music touring scene. Do you downsize to the Forum, with its 1500 capacity, or upsize to The Palais which has no standing area, or even to Festival Hall?
The loss of The Palace as a live music venue would leave a large gap and remove an important stepping stone for acts as their careers grow. It’s a big jump to go from selling 1500 tickets to selling 2800.
“We do have something property developers don’t. Music has the power and the passion of the people.”Jinshan Investments say that their planned development would inject $394 million to the Melbourne economy in its first 15 years of operation, in addition to creating 620 jobs once built.
But they’ve ignored the significance and importance of the venue to the health of the Victorian music industry, which contributes more than a billion dollars a year to the local economy.
Of course what most of these property developers haven’t ignored is that while music rocks, money talks.
Unlike other states, including NSW and Queensland, Victoria does not have its own laws on political donations, leaving it wide open for property developers to line politicians pockets across Victoria where in NSW they would otherwise be prohibited.
Back in March it was revealed that Victoria’s current Planning Minister Matthew Guy had helped approve several applications by property developers have they had attended secret fundraising dinners with him at $10,000 a head.
The problem extends to local government too. Just last week five councillors on the Melbourne City Council, including Lord Mayor Robert Doyle, could not vote on an amendment regarding a property development because they had received political donations from the developer.
The state government may now have to intervene in the planning decision as there aren’t enough councillors who can vote on the issue.
Unfortunately for music, there aren’t too many venue operators, bands, promoters, or labels who have pockets deep enough to afford $10,000 dinners.
This leaves the music community at a disadvantage financially but we do have something property developers don’t. Music has the power and the passion of the people.
The Melbourne music community showed its strength when in 2010 more than 20,000 marched through the city to protest unfair liquor licensing laws, which were strangling music venues and led to the closure of Melbourne institution The Tote.
Those laws were changed, and The Tote reopened.
The music community, and the wider Melbourne community now needs to make its voice heard once again, loud enough so that it will echo up Spring St and through State Parliament to the planning minister’s desk.
Already, thousands have taken to social media to oppose the planning application. More than 20,000 have joined the “Save The Palace” Facebook page, and thousands more have signed a petition urging the minister to reject this application.
But this will not be a sprint, it will be a marathon.
We will need to continue to apply pressure and make noise as long as it takes for this application to be rejected. It could be months, but most likely it will be years.
In the meantime, show the government how important our music economy and heritage is by signing the petition and getting out of the house to enjoy live music.
Both you and our city will be richer for it.
