Post by pheona
The Continental, The Espy … now The Punters Club. It’s official, The Punters Club has been sold. Here’s the press release.
Wednesday 10 October 2001
ATTENTION ALL BANDS, PROMOTERS, BOOKERS, VENUES, AGENTS
** The Future of the Punters Club Hotel **
For some time now there has been a myriad of rumours flying around about the Punters Club Hotel. We can now finally put to rest speculation surrounding the future of the pub.
“After months of negotiations Mat Everett and the landlord have been unable to reach any kind of amicable agreement in regards to terms and conditions of a new lease, and hence, the Punters Club will be sold.”
This has not been an easy time for those involved. This decision has been an agonising one, and one surely to be met with much reflection and sadness.
The good news is that we have at least 4 months of trade, perhaps longer, and that this final stage of the Punters as we know it, should be regarded as a celebration of the last 13 years of live music that has been housed and nurtured in the venue.
Whilst this is a difficult time, we hope that it will not be viewed as “another nail in the coffin for live music.” Melbourne and indeed the Fitzroy/Collingwood area still boasts the largest concentration of live music venues in Australia, some say beyond our shores. We believe this is another phase in our healthy and ever evolving live music scene. Every day another 10 demos come in, and whilst people play music, scenes stay alive.
To all of those who started here, get pissed here, book shows here, and generally make the Punters Club the institution that it is, we ask you to come down and enjoy the last round.
Band bookings will continue as normal for the next four months. We are currently taking calls for December and January.
FOR MEDIA AND BOOKING ENQUIRIES: Janelle Johnstone 9415 1560 punters@mira.net
So what’s up with the rumours it was going to be pulled down and turned into a Country Road outlet?
(Can we get the National Trust on the case? They’re trying to force Festival Records to preserve a studio …)
Age article + Bizarro-Conti returns:
Day the music died at Punters – The Age, Thu 11 Oct 2001
“The landowners will advertise for a new leaseholder. It is believed Mr [Mat] Everett has been looking for a new venue, further out in the northern suburbs, to run as a live venue for independent bands.
“The Continental Cafe, which closed earlier this year, will reopen this weekend with a new name, Boutique. Owner Darren Thornburgh says it will primarily be a bar, but he has retained the stage and sound facilities to host live gigs. Tina Arena plays the first show there tonight.
“The new owners of the Esplanade Hotel, who take over from Becton this weekend, intend to continue running the pub as a venue for independent bands.”
dunno who started the country road thing, but i’ll claim some responsibility for spreading it. too ironic to let it lie. i tried to start another one last night along the lines that the building was going to be used for a food hall. don’t think it’s going to take too well, but it was worth a go.
Surely the area NEEDS another cafe. But the cafe needs an exciting new angle. What else do we associate Fitzroy with other than live music? A brothel/cafe! The world’s first brothel that serves breakfast all day, every day! Brilliant.
Something for people like my neighbours, who are the sort of people who move from Oakleigh to Fitzroy then try to turn it into Oakleigh. (They’re actually trying to get the Builder’s Arms shut down – presumably because it’s a pub and people have a good time at it and walk down their precious street. Never mind the pub was there a hundred years before they were.) So for them, maybe we could make it a mini-K-Mart or something.
Hmmm…I think the brothel might be a little too gritty and hands-on for Nu-Fitzroy. How about an internet/carwash cafe motel with exhibitions by local artists and a different DJ every night, playing very quietly…
Actually there’s already a brothel just down Rose street, less than a block from the Punters… but oddly they get less complaints (reported in the meedja, anyhow) than a live music venue.
That brothel would be Sascha’s International, the one that didn’t get too many complaints even when previous owners faced charges of people smuggling and false imprisonment. Yeah, according to The Age at the time (mid 1999) they had a great deal at Sascha’s. You’re shipped here from South East Asia for the cool price of $50K and you pay the money back by doing 18 hour shifts at the brothel. Oh that’s right, workers at Saschas were also privy to some real cheap deals on smack. (Keep them lean, keep them keen) If you were lucky they would let you out for a (supervised) shopping trip once a month to buy a new pair of high heels. No reported complaints from locals? That could be that the place has a real nice looking old red door fitting in with the local new warehouse developments and always attracts nice looking sports cars to the area.