New venue Hindley Street Music Hall to open in Adelaide in August 2022
The team behind two of Brisbane’s most popular music venues will soon launch a new 1800-capacity room in the South Australian capital, with the investment backed by Live Nation.
The team behind two of Brisbane’s most popular music venues will soon launch a new venture in the South Australian capital, in a surprise move that cuts against a two-year run of hardship for the live entertainment sector.
Set to open in August, the 1800-capacity Hindley Street Music Hall will be situated in the heart of Adelaide’s night-life scene, with the $6m redevelopment to be based on the site of the HQ nightclub, which closed in January 2020.
The new venue at 149 Hindley Street is backed by multinational company Live Nation alongside prominent Australian promoter Secret Sounds – whose major events include Splendour in the Grass and Falls Festival – and SA-based live music business Five Four Entertainment.
Its development will be overseen by Powderfinger bassist John Collins, who has managed Brisbane venues The Triffid and the 3300-capacity Fortitude Music Hall since 2014 and 2019, respectively.
“Currently in Adelaide, if you play The Gov, it’s got a capacity of 800, and the next jump is to the Thebarton Theatre, which is 2000,” he told The Weekend Australian. “We were looking for a room that could take artists from The Gov to the Thebby, so that they can have that growth.”
There’s a nod to Collins’s musical past in the venue name, too: the street was immortalised in the title of the opening song from Powderfinger’s chart-topping 1998 album Internationalist.
“When we were touring, Hindley Street used to be a lot different: in my memories, it used to be tattoo parlours, bikies and strip clubs,” he said. “Now it’s a nightclub district, and it’s pumping, like going to the Brunswick Street Mall [in Brisbane].”
The first ticketed event to be held at the new room in August will be Pub Choir, the popular community singing event which celebrated its first birthday at The Triffid in 2018, with Collins making a guest appearance during a performance of Powderfinger’s signature song My Happiness.
“When a venue is run by a musician of the calibre of JC, you know that you’re going to be looked after in all facets of the experience,” said Pub Choir co-founder Astrid Jorgensen.
“We call him ‘Pub Choir Dad’: he was so supportive of us at the beginning, so it feels nice to be able to help launch a new exciting project,” she said.
For Live Nation, Hindley Street Music Hall is the newest addition to a growing portfolio of 300 venues worldwide, including the Palais Theatre in Melbourne and Spark Arena in Auckland.
“Hindley Street Music Hall will be a great new addition to our venues across Australia,” said Live Nation Asia Pacific president Roger Field. “The venue will ensure the continued development of the city’s incredible live entertainment scene and will attract amazing performances for local music fans to enjoy while also creating jobs for the local community.”
The Adelaide venue is the newest venture from Secret Sounds, the festival and tour promotion company in which Live Nation purchased a controlling share in 2016.
“South Australia is the State of Art and I have long-admired the value that SA puts on culture and social infrastructure,” said Secret Sounds co-founder Paul Piticco, who was also Powderfinger’s longtime manager.
“Our plan is to build one of the best music halls in the southern hemisphere right here on Hindley Street, and to also do our bit filling it with the greatest local and international talent,” said Piticco.
Craig Lock, founder of Five Four Entertainment said, “Having a venue of this size and quality will no doubt increase the calibre of artists willing to play in SA. Music fans should be really excited about this venue cementing Adelaide as part of global touring circuit.”
Live music industry workers across the country have suffered during the pandemic, as rolling state government restrictions on crowd gatherings greatly affected their ability to stage events.
Some venues were forced to shut their doors for good, but prominent industry investment in the Hindley Street Music Hall is a promising sign that the worst may be over for the live sector.
“This is about looking forwards, rather than looking sideways or backwards, as we’ve done for two years,” said Collins. “We’ve been sitting on the tarmac; now we’ve jumped on the plane, and there’s going to be some turbulence, but at least we’re starting to fly again.”
“This to me is just another part of that flight; expanding outside of Brisbane into a city I’ve always had a great time in,” he said. “It means a lot to be doing something positive, after two years of being stuck on the tarmac.”
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