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.
Last July, the Palace’s newest 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.
Following instant backlash from the Melbourne live music community against the property development, Jinshan conceded that their dreams were perhaps too big (specifically “too tall” and “in the wrong location”) to become a reality. But instead, they bided their time, altering and shaping their plans ahead of a public rally protesting the destruction of one of Melbourne’s most historic sites.
Rightly alarmed by the ticking time bomb now placed on the much loved Melbourne venue, the City of Melbourne made an unprecedented appeal challenging the lodged development plans, while ultimately Planning Minister Matthew Guy eventually rejected the hotel complex proposal.
While the rejection could have been viewed as a major win, in the words of the Save the Palace campaigners who’d been lobbying for the venue’s survival, “we also need to recognise that it isn’t a victory.” In fact, it was also a premature one, with the undeterred property developers simply scaling back their plans and resubmitting them to a new size and scale that bypassed the Victorian Planning Minister entirely and direct to City of Melbourne for approval.
As this morning’s terrible news now confirms, Jinshan Investments are now simply shutting down the venue, which will close its doors on 31st May, denying the renewal of a live music lease so that when – and not so much if – their property plans are given the green light, it will be on a now empty building, silent after having sung its las song.
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’ original proposals 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.
The issue has already been muddied by the flow of the almighty dollar. Back in March 2013, it was revealed that Victoria’s current Planning Minister Matthew Guy had helped approve several applications by property developers that had attended secret fundraising dinners with him at $10,000 a head.
The problem extends to local government too. With previous reports revealing that 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.
Leaving the state government to intervene in the planning decisions and councillors’ votes on the issue hasn’t so far proven enough to protect the venue. 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 direct to the desks of those that matter.
The roar of thousands across social media opposing the planning application, including the 32,000 members of the Save the Palace Facebook group, was already enough to halt the plans to demolish the Palace at the desk of Planning Minister Matthew Guy and though they’ve found a way to circumvent the logistics and legislation of the corridors of power, they can’t halt the passion and spirit of the thousands that care about music.
Though the situation seems more desperate now than ever – with just over a month before The Palace’s swansong – there must be no expiry date on our passion for the things that matter most to Melbourne’s vibrant culture.
While it might seem that the Palace is now officially on its last dash, the fight for live music is not a sprint but a marathon.
It might look like the Bourke Street venue can’t be saved, but we must continue to apply pressure and make noise for as long and loud as it takes for our live music venues to be valued and protected, because should The Palace close it most certainly won’t be the last.
It could take months, it most likely will take years, but the long and hard-earned battle to show the government and the powers that be how important our music economy and heritage is to us is more than worth the price of a concert ticket.
In essence, it’s a fight that’s still worth fighting and both you and our city will be richer for it.
(Image: Andrew Briscoe. Source: The Flaming Lips @ The Palace Theatre, 2011)
