The Annandale Hotel is a rock’n’roll icon in Sydney’s live music scene. Some would say in Australia’s live music scene! Sadly, The Annandale Hotel is in need of upgrades, is crippled by debt and on the verge of closure.
The Rule brothers who own the Annandale have been working feverishly to keep their heads above the water after they made the grissly discovery of debts of over $2.5 million after buying into the local music icon over a decade ago.
Using a novel approach, the pub started up a buy-a-brick scheme launched a few months back in a last ditch attempt to save iconic Sydney venue, and the ‘For Sale’ sign put up some months ago has now been pulled down.
Now the industry is starting to get behind the scheme with record label EMI becoming the first of hopefully many labels to buy a brick and save one of Sydney’s live music institutions.
Over the years EMI have had a number of their artists play the venue including Paul Dempsey, Something For Kate, Papa Vs Pretty, Faker, End Of Fashion, Operator Please, Grey Ghost, King Cannons, 360, Birds Of Tokyo, Airbourne, Bob Evans, Jet, The Sleepy Jackson, Oh Mercy, The Cat Empire, You Am I, amongst many others.
All funds made from the Buy-A-Brick campaign will go towards much needed upgrades to the venue and to help pay off the massive debt.
Even federal minister and Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett has gotten behind the scheme saying “I really believe that this [The Annandale] is a venue that’s been one of the spiritual homes to Australian artists – in all genres and at all levels,”
“It’s a place where we [Midnight Oil] played, where [Jimmy] Barnes played, I mean just everybody basically has been on that stage. That sweaty carpet can tell a lot of great stories. Nowadays it’s much harder for bands because there’s only a few venues that they can get a start in, and there’s only a few places where they can try out their songs and their performance.”
For more information on membership packages visit www.annandalehotel.com
