Festival Hall: the greatest moments from Melbourne’s favourite live venue
IT’S not flash or modern but we’ve all been to Festival Hall. It’s one of our favourite live music venues, a sporting icon and many Melburnians would be sad to see it go. Here are some of its greatest hits.
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MUSIC promoter Michael Gudinski once dubbed it “a loveable s---hole”.
Wedged between Dudley Street and the rail yards, and its grey-walled exterior looks more weather-beaten warehouse than cultural powerhouse.
But, for more than 100 years in a gritty corner of West Melbourne, Festival Hall has been an irreplaceable part of Melbourne’s musical and sporting life.
It’s hosted Olympic events, almost comical pro-wrestling bouts, Aussie boxing stars and some of the world’s biggest musical acts – from Sinatra and The Beatles to Kanye West and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Festival Hall was established as the West Melbourne Stadium in 1912 but a towering figure of the day in Melbourne life, John Wren, took over in 1915.
It’s still in Wren family hands.
Wren was the thinly-disguised central character in Frank Hardy’s blockbuster political novel Power Without Glory.
Wren made his fortune through an illegal SP bookmaking business in Collingwood and developed private racecourses in the suburbs around Melbourne.
Wren rose to become a significant player in Victorian business and politics.
The West Melbourne Stadium quickly became a popular venue for boxing, wrestling and large meetings, known almost universally as the House of Stoush.
The original building was destroyed by a fire in 1955.
It re-opened in 1956 as Festival Hall in time for the Olympic Games and housed boxing, gymnastics and basketball events.
Around that time, at the dawn of the rock ’n’ roll era, Festival Hall took on a new life as a musical mecca.
Bill Haley and the Comets, Buddy Holly, Frank Sinatra, Roy Orbison and Shirley Bassey were among the greats that graced the hall in the 1950s and ‘60s, but nothing prepared Melbourne for The Beatles, who played the hall in June 1964.
Screaming teens almost drowned out the Fab Four during their back-to-back matinee and evening shows in Melbourne at the height of their worldwide fame.
Just ask Molly Meldrum, who was ejected from The Beatles’ June 16 show along with his mate, singer Ronnie Burns.
“I was out of control, screaming: ‘John, I love you!’ and ‘Paul, I love you!’. The security was a bit butch and they asked me to calm down,” he told the Herald Sun in 2015.
“For some reason, I got up, and this poor girl sitting in front of me ... I grabbed her hair and pulled her down.
“They threw Ronnie and I out. I was outside on the street. By that time, they were doing Love Me Do and Long Tall Sally. I cried and kicked the door. I never saw the end of the concert.”
“If you look very carefully ... maybe if you use a magnifying glass, I’ll bet you can still find my boot print on that f---ing door.”
Just a month before The Beatles rocked the house, Judy Garland shocked it with a stumbling, shambolic performance that earned the ire of concert-goers and made headlines around the world.
Patrons hurled abuse at the fading Hollywood icon as they left, and Garland ended her show with no goodbye and no encore.
Rock singer Joe Cocker performed a wild show in 1972 amid a political and media storm.
There was pressure for Cocker to be deported after he and members of his entourage were arrested in Adelaide for possession of Indian hemp.
But the show went on to public and critical acclaim.
Frank Sinatra struck trouble in Melbourne in 1974 during his scandal-plagued Australian tour when on stage at Festival Hall, he criticised members of the Australian press.
“They keep chasing after us. We have to run all day long.,” he opined.
“They’re parasites who take everything and give nothing. And as for the broads who work for the press, they’re the hookers of the press. I might offer them a buck and a half, I’m not sure.”
The quip led to a union storm, a hasty retreat to Sydney and a three-day siege at his Sydney hotel and ended with an apology of sorts to the reporters he insulted.
Boxing gained renewed prominence in the 1960s and ‘70s, and Festival Hall attracted many world class bouts.
Festival Hall fights were televised on Channel 7’s TV Ringside.
Champions including Lionel Rose, Johnny Famechon, Tony Mundine, and, later, Barry Michael, Lester Ellis and Jeff Fenech continued the hall’s tradition as Melbourne’s House of Stoush.
Fenech said Festival Hall was perfect for boxing.
“If you think of the great places around the world to fight, you had Madison Square Garden in New York, and Festival Hall was the place to box in Melbourne. It had prestige. It was the place,” he told the Herald Sun in 2015.
It was also the stage for that other great Melbourne ringside institution, World Championship Wrestling.
The antics of Killer Kowalski and a cavalcade of wrestling stars kept bums on seats – and sometimes out of them – at the stadium and in front of television sets all over Melbourne on Channel 9.
Even big union meetings and ballroom dancing competitions are catered for inside the cavernous stadium.
Rock historian Glenn A. Baker, who in the 1970s promoted acts including Skyhooks, Sherbet and the Ted Mulry Gang to perform there, said The Beatles’ shows changed Festival Hall forever.
He said rock music and Festival Hall’s fighting heritage was a heady mix.
“Suddenly it was the perfect venue, before they built stadiums and arenas. It was the only place where you could whack all the kids into the bleachers. It smelled of liniment, too,” Baker told the Herald Sun.
“It’s probably the last of the truly old-style venues - and like Havana, Cuba, not a lick of paint has been put on anything in 50 years.”
Festival Hall is still an essential stop for touring Aussie and overseas artists.
Rage Against The Machine, Radiohead and Kanye have all played there in recent years. Gudinski said the stadium’s no-frills style led him to book Justin Timberlake there in 2004 in a bid to separate the star from his boyband roots.
“As time goes on, and things modernise, Festival Hall, for some, is still THE venue to play. Punk, metal and grunge acts love that place,” he said.
“Whenever I was under pressure with acts, I would tell them: ‘Festival Hall is historic! The Beatles played there.’ It would always make them feel good.”
Festival Hall managing director John Wren, the grandfather of the man who bought the stadium in 1915, told the Herald Sun in 2015 that there’s no plan to change things.
“I’m honoured and privileged to carry on what my grandfather started,” Wren said.
“As long as there is live music, we’ll be here.”
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