Want to own a piece of Melbourne’s iconic Palace Theatre before the Bourke Street venue closes its door forever at the end of the month?
Well now you can, with over 10,000 items ranging from dry ice machines and mic stands right down to the frontal ‘Palace Theatre’ sign being put up for grabs as part of a $5 million fire sale.
Ahead of handing back the Palace keys to the site’s property developers owners on 31st May after unsuccessfully bidding for an extended lease, Palace Theatre operator Greg Young tells The Age of plans to sell “everything not nailed down.” That includes the historic theatre’s art deco-era chandeliers, the disco ball, $750,000 speaker stacks, furniture, cash registers – you name it. “If it moves it goes,” says Young.
In clearing out the venue, Young also discovered a “treasure trove” of random artefacts – like paintings, newspapers, and artwork of the venue – in a secret attic reached only through a hole in the top-most ceiling. “It was eerie up there. It’s like a time capsule,” he said.
UPDATE 23/05: The details for the Palace Theatre’s sale have been confirmed. You can buy a piece of the historic venue between the hours of 12pm midday and 3pm this Saturday and Sunday (24th & 25th May). Calling ahead to make a booking (on (03) 9650 0180) is encouraged to save time, and be sure to bring cash or eftpos card for payment, as The Music points out.Oh, and bad news, the mirror ball has already been sold.
The imminent sale follows the last-ever live gigs hosted at the venue, including Karnivool’s recent Groovin The Moo sideshow and a three-night residency run from RÜFÜS last week. That includes the historic theatre’s art deco-era chandeliers, the disco ball, $750,000 speaker stacks, furniture, cash registers – you name it.
“It’s a big loss for Melbourne’s live scene,” Jon George, one third of the Sydney indie electro trio, told Tone Deaf last April. “To lose a venue as beautiful as The Palace with 100 years of history, that’s a blow to any scene. There is so much history in the walls of a place like that… It’s the musical equivalent of knocking down one of the most well loved sporting grounds in the country.”
Another music figure lamenting the Palace’s closure is Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum, who hosted the last ever Anyway club night this past Saturday, nearly 30 years after he first helped launch the site as the Metro nightclub in 1987 as part of a star-studded ceremony (as this gloriously vintage YouTube footage shows).
The Aussie music veteran tells Fairfax The Palace was “one of the best live music venues in the world… I feel very strongly about [it], it’s very hard to get a place like that,” he says. “People wanted to go there, it is just a perfect location.”
The Metro nightclub was just one of many iterations for the CBD building in its nearly 100 year history, but the site’s live music legacy of hosting hundreds of local and international acts is being brought to an end as owners Jinshan Investments look set to raze the building in favour of erecting a luxury $180 million hotel and apartment complex based on a proposal that’s awaiting approval from City Of Melbourne officials. “To lose a venue as beautiful as The Palace with 100 years of history, that’s a blow to any scene.”
Following the State Government making it clear they were unable to front the costs to buy-out the Palace as a last-ditch protective measure, Jinshan’s representatives noted that bulldozing the venue for “The W Hotel proposal is simply the natural evolution of this key CBD site.”
According to Sinclair Brook development manager Tim Price, “the end of this lease should not come as a surprise to the Palace Theatre’s operators and Jinshan is extremely disappointed at how they have attempted to influence the lease terms.”
It’s the final chapter in what’s been a drawn-out battle lobbying for the Palace’s survival, spearheaded by the Save The Palace and Melbourne Heritage Action groups and Melbourne musician Ezekiel Ox, as well as bands and figures of the Australian music industry.
“[The Palace is] the only venue of its kind between 1,400 and 2,500 [capacity] in Melbourne,” as Soundwave Touring’s Chris O’Brien pointed out to Tone Deaf in April, adding that its removal from Melbourne “will have a massive effect on the touring scene in Australia … come the end of May the shit will truly hit the fan.”
(Photo: Len Panecki. Source: RÜFÜS @ Palace Theatre Tone Deaf Gallery.)
