Live music performance spaces have been pretty up and down in January, we’ve already seen Sydney and Perth losing some staple live music venues and sadly it is now Adelaide’s live music scene that is taking an epic blow with a closure of one its most important venues.
HQ, a super popular nightclub and live music space of the South Australian capital will be listed for sale as of February and will close its doors for the final time at the end of this year, according to Adelaide Now.
The general manager David Rose commented on the unfortunate sale of the building, noting that it wouldn’t be the most appropriate with the upcoming developments within the area, “HQ wouldn’t be an ideal tenant next to a hospital, I think a high-rise building will be (more) compatible with the hospital tenancy, that would be my guess” he said.
This hits pretty damn hard for Adelaide’s live music scene, with HQ said to be as successful as ever, the venue prepping for the likes of hiphop icon Nas at the end of January, not to mention having seen the likes of The Dandy Warhols, Story of the Year and Hanson all taking to the stage.
Rose has not made any comment on whether HQ will be relocating to another venue within Adelaide after 2016.
As Adelaide Now report, the 3000 square metre historic site of the Newmarket Hotel where HQ calls home is collectively owned by a large group of investors who have not revealed a price sticker as of yet, however it is looking to fetch into the multimillions.
Although this news is not great for Adelaide, Australia’s live music scene at large has had some victories in 2015. This week sees Melbourne score a live music venue that specialises in dumplings, not to mention Little & Olver, Shadow Electric band room that powering into full-time, a Cuban themed pop-up bar named El Coco as well as the reopening of Brunswick’s Railway Hotel, in Sydney The Basement has been revamped as well as the opening of Bandroom(which replaced the FBi Social), while Brisbane has witnessed an explosion of great venues with The Brooklyn Standard, The Brightside, Woolly Mammoth and ex-Powderfinger member’s stunning refurbished WW2 hanger, The Triffid, not to mention the beautiful venue in the Blue Mountains.
