Geelong will welcome another new live music venue at the end of the month, with the opening of St James. Many people would know the space by previous names including Blue Martini, Statik or even Escalation, however the new owners are looking to bring not only a fresh face to the venue but also a fresh sound. We spoke with venue manager Ken Fountain and entertainment manager Brendan Yuen to find out a bit more.
“We are doing something different in Geelong. It’s always been so commercial here and people are pretty much sick of the same scene, sick of the same music, so we wanted to open up a venue that’s pretty much unique and custom. So from the interior design and decor all the way through to the acts that we have and the atmosphere, it’s going to be something a bit different,” Ken says.
“Brendan’s booked some great headline acts for our opening nights and we are continually working on bringing some big international acts too. So pretty much every week here there is going to be something different and we are possibly looking into every three to four weeks having a major headline act here.”
St James is looking to be open from Thursdays to Sundays and with its 7am license wants to bring something new to the area – which is situated amongst other venues including Beav’s Bar, Eureka, Pistol Pete’s and fellow new music venue, The Workers Club.
“We are looking to cater for a number of different groups with Thursday night for the uni crowd and our bigger events on Saturday nights, then we are also looking at catering for the after work crowd on a Friday with Sunday sessions later down the track,” he said.
Entertainment manager Brendan Yuen has spent the last couple of months securing some big name acts and has endeavoured to bring Geelong some options that are a bit different. He has already secured some big names with beat-master, D-Cup scheduled for opening night as well as the likes of Kid Kenobi, Monkey Safari and Paces all booked in for the first month.
“We want to build the culture here. Geelong’s got a scene of just going out and getting smashed. We think with The Workers club, we’ve also got some live music that we won’t be really trying to compete with them, we would love to work with our neighbours to build this area up and make it the music precinct of the region. We want to establish ourselves as a venue that people want to come to week in and week out and not get bored of the same thing time over and over,” he says.
St James is located at 5 James Street in the Geelong CBD, it opens on Saturday March 28 and promises to be a night unlike any other. Head to their facebook for further information www.facebook.com/stjames.au
Written by Abbey King
