The Crystal Ballroom (also known as the Seaview Ballroom and the Wintergarden Room) was a music venue that opened in 1978 in St Kilda, an inner suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Located within the George Hotel at 125 Fitzroy Street, it has often been referred to as the epicentre of Melbourne's post-punk scene, launching the careers of The Birthday Party, Dead Can Dance and many other local groups, as well as showcasing international acts, including The Cure, New Order and The Fall.
Named after the venue's ornate Victorian age ballroom and chandeliers, the Crystal Ballroom was owned by Australian rules football identity Graeme Richmond and run by a succession of music promoters, starting with Dolores San Miguel (who also ran other prominent Melbourne venues, including St Kilda's Esplanade Hotel), and later by Laurie Richards, founder of the Tiger Lounge in Richmond and the Jump Club in Fitzroy. In 1980, San Miguel and Richards co-ran the Ballroom and opened on the ground floor a second performance arts space, the Paradise Lounge, which became a hub for Melbourne's Little Band scene. Nigel Rennard, owner of Missing Link Records, was the Ballroom's final booker. It closed in 1987.
The Crystal Ballroom occupied several rooms within the George Hotel, St Kilda, which was established in 1857 as the Terminus Hotel and located near the end of the original St Kilda railway line. In 1885, the hotel was rebuilt to a design by architect Harry Browse Gibbs, featuring a large dining room that would go on to serve as a ballroom. In the 1960s, the ballroom became a venue for cabaret acts such as Helen Reddy and Barry Crocker.
In 1978, Dolores San Miguel approached the hotel's proprietor, Richmond Football Club administrator Graeme Richmond, with a proposal to book acts from Melbourne's burgeoning punk rock and new wave scenes. Richmond agreed, and in August San Miguel converted a side room on an upper floor of the hotel into the Wintergarden Room. The first band to play there was JAB, who had relocated to Melbourne from Adelaide. San Miguel soon took control of the upstairs ballroom, which she also christened the Wintergarden Room.[1] The first ballroom gig was held on 2 September and headlined by The Birthday Party, featuring Nick Cave, Mick Harvey and Rowland S. Howard. The band soon had a Saturday night residency at the venue; one of their January 1979 shows marked the debut live performance of Whirlywirld, a supporting act fronted by Ollie Olsen. Other Melbourne bands that took to the ballroom stage around this time include Crime and the City Solution, Primitive Calculators, Equal Local, Essendon Airport, Tsk Tsk Tsk and Models.
In February 1979 the venue was taken over by Laurie Richards, who renamed it the Crystal Ballroom. That year, Crystal Ballroom Records was established to release special-pressed seven-inch singles recorded by Ballroom bands, which were given away for free at the venue at the end of a number of gigs. While Richards continued to regularly book local groups, he also attracted many touring bands from other states and overseas.
San Miguel returned in April 1980 to run weeknight gigs in what she christened the Paradise Lounge on the ground floor. Melbourne's Little Band scene flourished here, giving rise to acts such as Dead Can Dance, which featured Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry and went on to regularly headline at the Ballroom. After Laurie left in January 1981, San Miguel co-ran the Crystal Ballroom, which she renamed the Seaview Ballroom, with Nigel Rennard until a falling out in September 1981, whereby San Miguel vacated her position. Rennard ran it until the end of 1983. San Miguel returned as the venue's owner the following year. She ran it until 1986 before the hotel was closed for business in 1987.
Following the breakup of little band and Paradise Lounge regulars the Jetsonnes, its members regrouped to form Hunters & Collectors in early 1981, and rehearsed for over a month at the Ballroom before staging their first live performance there in May of that year. Dead Can Dance played an Australian farewell show at the Ballroom on the cusp of relocating to London, England in May 1982.[2] The Birthday Party's last ever show took place at the venue on 9 June 1983. Later that year, the band disbanded and frontman Cave organised a New Year's Show at the Ballroom, playing with a backing band under the moniker Nick Cave: Man or Myth?, a group now recognised as the first incarnation of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.[3] The Birthday Party and the Bad Seeds inspired a new generation of dark, noisy punk blues bands at the Ballroom, including The Wreckery, Blue Ruin, Sacred Cowboys and Fungus Brains.
The Ballroom scene attracted many artists working in a variety of mediums. Painter Howard Arkley, one of the venue's regulars, created Ballroom gig posters, while Jenny Watson captured its subculture in a series of paintings;[4] Nick Cave used one of Watson's paintings as an onstage prop during a 1979 show at the Ballroom.[5] Filmmakers John Hillcoat, Richard Lowenstein, Paul Goldman and Chris Kennedy filmed Ballroom shows and created music videos for bands such as The Birthday Party and Hunters & Collectors. Others associated with the Ballroom scene include fashion designers Jenny Bannister and Alannah Hill, photographers Rennie Ellis and Polly Borland, writers Michel Faber, Andy Griffiths, Tobsha Learner and Sonya Voumard, and magazine editor Deborah Thomas.[6]
The Crystal Ballroom was a staging ground for major Melbourne bands such as The Birthday Party, Dead Can Dance, Hunters & Collectors, Crime and the City Solution, Models, The Moodists,[7] The Wreckery, TISM, Paul Kelly and the Dots, Cosmic Psychos[8] and Venom P. Stinger. It also showcased groups visiting from interstate, including INXS,[9] Laughing Clowns,[7] Radio Birdman, Sunnyboys,[8] The Celibate Rifles,[8] Beasts of Bourbon,[7] X,[8] Hoodoo Gurus, Died Pretty,[10] SPK, The Reels, Rose Tattoo, Icehouse, Hard-Ons, Midnight Oil[9] and The Church from Sydney, The Go-Betweens[7] and The Saints from Brisbane, The Scientists,[8] The Stems and The Triffids[8] from Perth, and The Angels and Cold Chisel from Adelaide. Originally from New Zealand, Mi-Sex[11] and Split Enz[11] also often appeared at the Ballroom. Other international bands who played there include Simple Minds,[7] The Cure,[9] Magazine,[7] Echo & the Bunnymen, The Psychedelic Furs, The Stranglers, XTC,[7] The Teardrop Explodes, The Residents,[7] Snakefinger, Squeeze, Public Image Ltd, New Order, The Gun Club, John Cooper Clarke, Dr. Feelgood, The Human League, John Cale, Violent Femmes, Iggy Pop,[9] The Fall,[7] Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers and Dead Kennedys.[7] At their 27 November 1982 Ballroom show, New Order played "Blue Monday" live for the first time, a few months ahead of its release as a single.
By 1987, the venue's ties to drug dealing and other criminal activities led to a forced closure and de-licensing. The hotel reopened in 1991, and in 1995–96 it was redeveloped as apartments, with the ballroom converted into a function room, and shops, cafes and bars occupying the ground level. Today the George is also home to two music venues: the George Lounge and George Lane.[12]
The Ballroom, and its association with a host of local and international music acts, has been documented in a wide range of media. The Crystal Ballroom scene inspired the creation of a number of zines, including Pulp, Fast Forward and Tension. It was also covered in the punk magazine Roadrunner, which celebrated its second birthday at the venue in 1980.[13] Australian culture critic Clinton Walker devoted much of his first book, Inner City Sound (1981), to the Ballroom, and in his fourth book (1996), he revisits the time and place in greater detail.
Singer-songwriter Paul Kelly refers to the venue in his song "The Ballroom", released on his 1986 album Gossip.
Live Ballroom recordings have appeared on official releases by acts such as The Moodists, Crime and the City Solution, Radio Birdman, Iggy Pop and New Race. Side 2 of Adelaide band Grong Grong's self-titled debut album, released in 1986 on Alternative Tentacles, is composed of songs from their October 1983 Ballroom show.
The 1986 punk film Dogs in Space, directed by Richard Lowenstein and starring Michael Hutchence, is partially shot and set in the Crystal Ballroom, and features many musicians, artists and others who frequented the venue. The Ballroom's role in Melbourne music is also reflected upon in Lowenstein's 2011 documentary We're Livin' on Dog Food.[14] In 2011, San Miguel published a book titled The Ballroom: The Melbourne Punk & Post Punk Scene.[15]
Books