Venue moves in Melbourne, Brisbane, Newcastle; QLD’s Oh Hello! closing doors

Venues are on the move in Melbourne, Brisbane and Newcastle.

Melbourne’s latest live music venue Three Eight Six is gearing up for its Friday July 6 launch with a gala party.

The mid-sized 900-capacity venue, the rebranded Chasers nightclub on Chapel Street in South Yarra, confirmed that Northeast Party House will be performing on the firs night.

It will be hosting international and national live touring acts, stand-up comedy and cabaret, and has a 24-hour licence.

Plans are on track for a 2019 opening of a new 3500 capacity music venue in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley.

It is the project of Scott Hutchinson, CEO of the $3 billion-a-year Hutchinson Builders and long time live music fan who is a patron of QMusic.

Wanting a replacement for 4000-capacity Brisbane Festival Hall, which was demolished in 2003 to make way for residential towers, Hutchinson bought the half-acre property at 312 Brunswick St, the former Optus Centre, for $23.5 million.

This morning he told the Brisbane Courier Mail that the venue – working title: Fortitude Hall – would be ready to fill a badly needed gap in Brisbane’s concert scene.

“It’s not about the money. All up it’s going to cost us around $43 million and it’ll get valued at only about $25 million.”

The project is in partnership with John ‘JC’ Collins (Powderfinger, The Triffid) and Paul Piticco of Secret Sounds Group.

Brisbane is losing a popular music venue. Oh Hello! which set up shop seven years ago on the former Monastery site, posted on social media that it will shutter on August 18.

The Sydney Junction Hotel in Newcastle (also known as SJs) plans to appeal Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) order to wind back its trading hours.

From July 1, the venue must cease trading at 1.30 am instead of 3 am.

The ILGA made the order after police expressed concerns that in 2017 SJs topped the list of NSW’s most violent venues with 25 assaults.

The police pushed for a midnight close, blaming the long hours of operation which caused the anti-social behaviour.

Owner Campbell Rogers will next week front an ILGA hearing to ask for the hotel to revert to the 3 am opening until the appeal process is finished.

He said that many of the assault incidents cited by police had not resulted in court action or charges.