The Palace Theatre to close

[blackshadow]

It's an extremely bad news for the Melbourne music scene and for Melbourne culture to hear that The Palace Theatre is closing at the end of May. I've seen so many great shows there and love the place.

Email I received yesterday afternoon.

“Palace Theatre to Close its Doors”


It is with deep regret that we, the Palace Theatre Owners, must inform the Australian & international music industry, and the general public, that effective from the 31st May 2014, our business will cease to operate.

Numerous requests to the landlord to extend our lease have been rejected. The landlord has made this decision while still awaiting approval of planning and building permits which to date, have been rejected by both the State Government and Melbourne City Council.

Palace Theatre management had requested assistance from both state and local government to seek alternative locations to ensure the ongoing success of the Victoria’s thriving live music industry and to continue to provide live music. Regretfully, to date, this avenue of relocating the operations of the Palace Theatre has been unsuccessful.

The Palace Theatre team is extremely proud to have created a world class & much sought after venue over the past seven years and to have been a part of its 150-year history. This venue has hosted many hundreds bands which have entertained over two million patrons over the last seven years.

Effective from the 31st May 2014 this building and its previous incarnations, Metro Nightclub, Metro Theatre, St James Theatre, Apollo Theatre and Brennan’s Amphitheatre which started trading in 1860 will cease trading to make way for a proposed apartment and hotel development.

We would like to thank our loyal staff, promoters, music lovers and the music industry at large for all your support over a long period for enabling this magnificent venue to have lived.

Investors own the building and want to build apartments and a hotel there - to date planning permission has been refused.

If you give a flying fundamental I suggest you write to the Premier, Ministers for Arts and Planning and the Lord Mayor voicing your dismay and ask for their assistance in stopping the development and keeping the Theatre there. (It probably won't make a difference but then again it just might).

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[The Passenger]

That would be a terrible loss for the music community in Melbourne.

A really top notch venue.

Will definitely be doing my bit to try and keep it going.

Seems pointless from the owners to such a thing when planning permissions have been refused.

 

[Silent Alarm]

Sadly never saw a gig there, but I'm hoping to go along for a club night there to at least check it out.

But that gap between middling bands who are well reviewed but no more than Triple J spun, and the kind of band about to hit a broad audience, that's what's going to suck. Bands can't have Festival Hall two-thirds empty and they can't play three shows all over the place. Could the Forum ever really upgrade to like 2,600ish?

 

[HARKER]

Very sad as I've just come from there tonight seeing Darkside..

Love the Forum but The Palace held a special place for me... Very sad.

 

[Mofra]

Had the most expensive PA in Australia I'm told - seen some cracking gigs there

 

[grouse mate]

Used to go to Goo a bit back in the day when it was still the Metro. The middle level used to be glassed off from the rest and bands would play in there without the noise effecting the main stage, one night went in to see 28days have a gig for an EP launch in there before they got well known. Went there last year and saw The Presets and hardly recognised the place, for some reason I always remembered it being bigger than what it is now, although I rarely went there sober.

From what I've read the new owners have no intention of it remaining a music venue, they already extended the lease 18 months and have made it clear they won't be doing so again. I always thought the Palace used to be somewhere else before they moved in here so I don't really understand why they can't move again. It's sad to lose the venue and the history but I'm not sure of the angle the venue management are trying to make out of this. When the venue is privately owned and they don't wish to renew the lease, not much can be done about it.

 

[The Passenger]

Can't believe this thread only had five posts.

saw karnivool tonight. about my tenth time seeing them and about my 20th time at the palace. so much symmtery in tonight cause my first ever palace gig was karnivool in mid 2009.

undecided whether to go to the final gig on the 18th or just call it a day.

but yeah it was a great gig. the band did a bit of a speech about how much the palace means to them....

i don't really have words. i'm actually quite sad that it's closing down.

 

[brokey]

Very sad....saw The Cramps there many years ago...and many other bands both local and international...

cheers

col

 

[gaskin]

Only been to one show there and that was when I flew over in 2012 for Alter Bridge's Soundwave Sideshow. It seemed like a brilliant music venue. An absolute shame it will soon cease to be.

 

[ibd77]

Great venue, what a shame. Travelling from Adelaide, I've seen Porcupine Tree and Opeth there.

 

[Twoslabs]

Very sad....saw The Cramps there many years ago...and many other bands both local and international...

cheers

col

Different "Palace" Cramps played the St Kilda one in 90 & 95.

The Bourke St one aka "The Metro", for me Jesus & Mary Chain, The Church, Sugarcubes, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Social Distortion, Andrew Strong will be sorely missed

 

[skilts]

The musical, 'Hair' played there in the late 60s/early 70s. I don't recall too much about it. I fell asleep.

 

[Halloween Jack]

One of the great venues. Used to go to Goo back in the uni days, can remember falling down the stairs.

Saw many gigs but prob the best was the Dandy Warhols when they played for 3 hours straight, only stopping briefly to smoke some weed. Happy days

 

[Gus Poyet]

I blame auto-tune.

 

[Gus Poyet]

I saw Madness play there. Couldn't have picked a more perfect venue for their gig.

 

[DIG]

I think I only ever saw Powderfinger there in the 90s. Brilliant venue.

 

[Demonic Ascent]

Only been to a couple of gigs there but it was such a great venue - saw Cypress Hill there as well as Kyuss a couple of years back - I'm pretty sure there were others but my brain is failing me. Also went to Goo a few times back in the very early 00's. It sucks that all these music venues are closing down, one of the things that made this city a great place to grow up, hopefully others take their place and don't just sell out so we have a city of high-rises and pokie palaces.