Systems ready at live music venue

On the steps leading down to new live music venue Vinyl Underground are co-director Ben Calder ...
On the steps leading down to new live music venue Vinyl Underground are co-director Ben Calder (left), general manager Zoe Jones and co-director Anthony Waldock. Photo by Christina McDonald.

At least eight months after popular nightclub Subculture's mysterious demise, a new venture will open within the next week in the underground Church St venue.

A focus of Vinyl Underground will be live music.

''We just want to take what Subbies did and keep that feel with live music ... and we're just trying to put our own personalities into it,'' co-director Anthony Waldock said.

The name Vinyl Underground represents ''an underlying tone'' of wanting to ''get back to when music was really, really good'' and, of course, the below-ground location.

''Live music is dying out a little bit,'' he said, adding that the resort needed a live music venue.

''What Subbies did back in the day was amazing ... we knew them [the original owners] quite well.

''We want to get that continuity going so it's not just one gig; it's every night.''

Mr Waldock is a co-director in Fat Badgers Pizza, which burned down in May and is looking to re-establish, and second Vinyl Underground director Ben Calder is the owner of the Big Night Out bar crawl business. Zoe Jones will be the club's general manager.

Subculture was established by Simon Hendl, who is also known by his DJ name Downtown Brown, and Crowley sisters Antonia and Michelle 10 years ago.

In February last year the Otago Daily Times reported the sale of the nightclub to a consortium headed by Wellington musician and entrepreneur Jostan Murray, and in December last year the Queenstown Times reported the closure of the club.

Mr Murray declined to comment in December and at the time Mr Hendl said he was also baffled by the closure.

Mr Waldock said Vinyl Underground would have a ''brand-new fit-out'', including new lights and a new sound system.

One of Queenstown's staple events, Gay Ski Week, announced last month its finale event, the Gaydar Mystery Dance Party, would be held at Vinyl Underground.

The last-night dance party is usually held in the World Bar, which burned down with Fat Badgers Pizza.

Add a Comment

 

Advertisement