Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Music
Melbourne's cultural image has involved music since the city produced two of the most en-
duringly fascinating talents of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Opera diva Dame Nellie
Melba was an international star who lived overseas for many years, but retained a senti-
mental attachment to her home town (hence the name). Percy Grainger, whose innovative
compositions and performances prefigured many forms of 20th-century music, was born
and brought up in Melbourne. Grainger's eccentric genius extended beyond music to the
design of clothing and objects; he was also known for his transgressive sex life. His life
story is all on display at the Grainger Museum in Parkville.
More recently, Melbourne's live-music scene exploded in the mid-1960s with a band
called the Loved Ones, which broke the imitative mould of American '50s rock 'n' roll.
The early 1970s saw groups such as AC/DC, Skyhooks and Daddy Cool capture the experi-
ence of ordinary Melbourne life in their lyrics for the first time. By the end of that decade
punk had descended; Melbourne's grey weather and grimy backstreets had a natural syn-
ergy with the genre, providing a more arty, post-punk sound. Nick Cave's Boys Next Door
and the so-called 'Little Bands' shrieked their way through gigs at St Kilda's Crystal Ball-
room (now the George Hotel), a venue whose dilapidated splendour was straight out of
central casting. Bands and performers that grew out of (and beyond) this scene included the
Birthday Party (evolving into Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds), Young Charlatans, Sports, the
Models, Dead Can Dance, the Johnnys, X, Primitive Calculators, Sacred Cowboys, the
Wreckery, Hugo Race, Crime & City Solution and the Moodists.
The '80s pub-rock scene also gave birth to Crowded House, Paul Kelly, Hunters & Col-
lectors and Australian Crawl, while the '90s and 2000s punk/grunge era saw the likes of the
Cosmic Psychos, the Meanies, Powder Monkeys, the Dirty Three, Magic Dirt and Eddy
Current Suppression Ring carry the torch passed on from their late-'70s predecessors. Mel-
bourne's other international success stories include the Seekers, Air Supply, Olivia
Newton-John and Little River Band, along with Kylie Minogue, Gotye, Jet and the Temper
Trap.
Melbourne's live-music scene has had a rough run of late; residents moving into new
apartment buildings near established venues have certainly had their voices heard, and as a
result some clubs have been forced to close, or reduce the volume. The Tote in Colling-
wood was an apparent victim of new liquor licensing laws requiring even small venues to
have a security presence; when it closed, Melbourne's music lovers weren't happy. Around
20,000 people rallied in Melbourne's city centre, resulting in the future of live-music ven-
