Another one bites the dust: Music professionals remember Brisbane’s Roxy/Arena

As Brisbane residents clean up from the devastating weather system that’s now unleashing its misery down south, industry professionals remember The Arena, a once-essential venue that was flattened just before the storms hit.

With its mezzanine design, the space was, for decades, a go-to spot for up-and-coming and niche international acts, top-shelf local bands, raves, Battle of the Bands, and any music activity that had ambitions to fill an 800-capacity room.

Fortitude Valley is now flush with venues, many of which are showcased during Bigsound, the centerpiece of which is the Fortitude Music Hall, a 3,300 capacity business in the heart of Brunswick Street, the centre strip of the entertainment precinct. 

It wasn’t pretty, but The Roxy, as it was once known, served its purpose. 

“The loss of venues such as The Roxy is always heartbreaking – because we’re not only losing a live music venue, we’re losing a vital part of a city’s cultural history and in the case of The Roxy, particularly dance music history,” explains Jane Slingo, Sydney-based Director, Asia Pacific VibeLab Network and Director of Electronic Music Conference.

https://twitter.com/staffo_sez/status/1496453009899163654

Growing up in Brisbane, The Valley “was my old stomping ground from my teens to my mid-20s,” recounts Slingo.

“I lost count of the iconic parties, raves. sets and shows I experienced at The Roxy. While there’s been The Triffid and Fortitude Music Hall pop up in the last decade, The Roxy was a great multiroom space that was home to an array of important dance music movements and different genre scenes in Brisbane. I wish I had more optimism that we’ll see something fill the hole that The Roxy and The Site leave, but alas I think these kinds of dance music venues now only live in our memories.”

Once part of the business empire of former Brisbane nightclub owner Tony Bellino, the venue opened its doors as The Roxy in the ‘80s, at 210 Brunswick Street, and would etch its name in the city’s history for playing a central, controversial part in the Fitzgerald Inquiry.

The live music action came thick and fast through the ‘90s, as the venue hosted hundreds of events, dance parties and concerts, including Radiohead, Soundgarden, New Order and local lads Powderfinger and Custard.

In 1998, the venue was renamed The Arena, and the now-aging room would host concerts from The Darkness, Paramore, The Mars Volta and Hilltop Hoods.

By the 2010s, the venue was well past its heyday, and would lay dormant for long periods.

The Arena hasn’t operated as a working venue since 2014.

The Roxy in its prime: a “Blackout” dance party in 1994.

Brisbanites are mindful of the historic venues that have been rubbed out over time.

Arguably the most disastrous was the demotion of Cloudland Dance Hall, a heritage listed space in Bowen Hills that once hosted Buddy Holly in February 1958, on what was reportedly the late rock ‘n’ roller’s only Australian tour.

Considered a treasure of Art Deco architecture, the room was met with the wrecking ball at 4am on November 7, 1982, when the Deen Brothers answered the call of the Bjelke-Petersen government. By lunchtime, Cloudland was rubble.

The Cloudland name lives on in Fortitude Valley, with the eye-catching, multi-level restaurant and bar, which opened for business in 2009 on the corner of Brunswick and Ann Street.

Though it would never win a beauty contest, the old Festival Hall in Brisbane’s CBD played host to The Beatles on their 1964 tour, at the very height of their powers. A photograph of that concert now hangs in the lobby of Festival Towers skyscraper, which now dominates the site.

And in 2017, the building that was once the home of The Site, a rave-era hotspot directly opposite The Arena, was flattened.

Cam Brown (MCNO3, MC Shureshock) played countless parties at The Site and The Roxy. “We really need to preserve our musical heritage; maintain and restore our venues for the sake of cultural wealth.” However, he points out, the crater on Brunswick Street is suitably filled by the Fortitude Music Hall, several hundred metres up the mall.

It was an “unsurprising shock” to see the tearing down of The Arena, by way of pictures posted to Twitter, recounts Leanne de Souza, Brisbane-based Executive Director of Nightlife Music.

“Queensland is good at tearing down its cultural and social history in the dark,” she continues.

“These big rooms in the Valley were integral to the growth of the live music and dance/club scenes in Brisbane through the 1990s and early 2000s. Big enough to attract national promoters to bring international artists like The Prodigy — thanks Michael Watt — to Brisbane and BDO and festival sideshows to the very heart of the Valley in the years it was reclaimed for entertainment.”

No doubt property developers have a vision for the now-barren lot, though “it is still a loss worth noting,” says de Souza.

“These mid-size rooms are an important part of the live venue ecology for local artists stepping up, touring artists coming through between smaller club rooms and big spaces like The Riverstage or now the Fortitude and the Tivoli.”

As the 10—year countdown begins to Brisbane’s close-up moment, when it hosts the 2032 Olympic Games, the city’s evolution will only speed up.

Ahead of the Games, the “Gabba” will be rebuilt at an eyewatering cost, while a new 18,000-seat entertainment arena complex, Brisbane Live, will be completed in the CBD.

“I think most folks understand the Valley needs to grow and evolve,” says Kris Stewart, CEO of QMusic, whose offices are a stroll from the old Arena site.

“It’s essential that everything new builds on the legacy of live music, and doesn’t look to change the unique identity of the Valley. Music must always be a priority,” he concludes, “and I think it’s understandable why quite a few folks were sad to see the Arena go.”

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.