Currently in the country as part of her sold out, arena-spanning ‘Born This Way Ball’ Australian tour, Lady Gaga ‘pulled a Prince’ last night and took over a venue to celebrate finishing off five sold out shows at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena.
In a move that’s perhaps slightly less extravagant than we’re used to from the world-recognised pop star, Gaga chose to made a last minute request to bring a 150-strong entourage to Melbourne’s Northcote Social Club to celebrate American Independence Day and to let her hair down after two solid months of touring.
The announced 4th of July celebratory takeover began at the Northcote live music venue in the afternoon, with an American style BBQ and that most patriotic of exercises, a sumo wrestling competition…
It wasn’t until early evening that Gaga and her possé arrived, including her backing band dancers, in a fleet of black SUVs.
Ben Thompson, the Music Coordinator for Northcote Social Club explains the bizarre events: “Lady Gaga was in the band room and dancing pretty much immediately after arriving. Everyone was loving it, it was the first time in a couple of months that the whole touring party could get together so they had fun,” Thompson says.
Pictures of the event have already begun appearing on the music venue’s facebook page, while fan pics have been cropping up all over social media. Much like Prince’s Hi Fi Club afterparty in Melbourne, it seems that Gaga didn’t perform any of her music, but instead used the venue as her own private club.
It’s not the first time the Northcote Social Club has been used as an afterparty localé, having previously hosted a secret Pixies gig, a special chow for Marshall Chan aka Cat Power, and more recently The Dresden Doll’s Amanda Palmer.
Still, the five-time Grammy Award winning Fame Monster is obviously the biggest and most unexpected star to turn up at the Northcote Social Club’s door. If the fuzzy pictures of the event are anything to go by, it’ll be certainly become one of those events were people will claim ‘I was there’ for years to come.
