What ever happened to The Espy Hotel at St Kilda Melbourne

[Music] and here I am looking for the esnard hotel inant K I saw it a few years back and it was um just being renovated and it had a lot of scaffolding so I'm not sure what's going on with it [Music] today here we [Music] go [Music] hi everyone and welcome back to my Channel today it's all about the esnard hotel in St Kilda in Victoria and um so firstly St Kilda itself as a town began as a seaside village uh in about the 1840s when it was settled and the esad hotel began its life as the new bath Hotel Hotel uh it was in 1856 for a guy called James Johnston and it was actually his successor Charles Mell who changed its name to the Criterion and in fact Charles was um instrumental in introducing uh string music as part of you know the hotel's entertainment so look the hotel was demolished and it lay vacant for many years uh it was rebuilt in 1878 and the hotel esnard came into existence now the hotel was actually um home for um many years for a guy um called Alfred Felton he was a wealthy philanthropist and he loved classical music and art and I mention him because he's a really important figure he actually Beed his fortune to the Victorian National Gallery and um yeah so in fact you can actually find on the top floor at the s a bar that's dedicated to Alfred Mark Twain apparently also stayed at the hotel in the 1880s now more changes came to the hotel um from a guy called Thomas Caron in the 1920s and during his Reign the hotel actually became a premier Jazz venue a ballroom was added and um apparently the actress Sarah burnhard stayed at the hotel with an Entourage apparently of 12 animals here I am inside the gersman room which is quite old it was it's been around since the 1920s and used to be a ballroom absolutely gorgeous check out the ceilings check out the ceilings up there wow really nice you can see how they've tried to keep it intact with um just all the um yeah historical elements really pretty gersan room Hotel esnard you know the 1920s 30s 40s there was entertainment um you know frequently at the hotel that featured Jazz uh there were big bands that were performing there weekly and it was in the 1960s when uh with st kilda's affordable sort of housing a lot of people kind of moved in um you know there were more and more sort of live music venues that were becoming you know Common and um pubs kind of started to appear uh or live music started to appear in pubs I should say um so yeah that's when it started to really become uh very kind of popular with people now I did want to highlight the relevance of jazz and Jazz musicians playing in St Kilda and not just at the ESP I guess but um the Victorian jazz club for example they held regular gigs at the SV or the esnard hotel and there are a lot of um live record recordings um for example Roger Bell the new Harlem jazz band Tom Baker's San Francisco Jazz Band and the Yara Yara jazz band so look by about 1979 the hotel esnard was one of the few venues where Jazz continued to be played as it had since like the 1920s um with you know various acts such as you know the late great Ruby Carter mid 1970s wasn't just all about jazz they they did sort of um there all there was a time when disco kind of you know crept in and a lot of crowds a lot of disco fans did frequent the place now the late uh Dolores San mguel of the crystal borro Fame uh she actually ran some um of the shows in the gersing room in the mid 80s and I wanted to pay particular attention to Trish shith the late Trish uh shith who um was really popular with a lot of people at the H Hotel Esplanade in 1989 she took over the bookings and the era of original bands actually did begin uh although she did I think still keep some of the traditional bands that were playing now yeah as I said sadly Trish is no longer with us but it's really clear to me from some of the literature that I've read that she was really popular and passionate um she didn't really care who was signed to her uh as Dallas crane actually um said in a post that I read yeah she wasn't really fussed about you know how many times a day the latest this band got played on Triple J and he said that she just wanted her Pub to be the rock and roll heartbeat of the town with artists who bled bullets and played from the gut and that's exactly what it became he's the interior it's a Monday morning so not a lot of people here I've never been here how how have I never been here wow wow just fantastic I can already sort of feel a bit of atmosphere even in an empty sort of setting it's very characteristic Don Deval and his Partners took over the lease of the esnard in the early 1980s and um you know he picked up various Acts including a lot of country music performers Bruce Wy he was uh the booker and a Publican and he tended to pick up the less exposed or the less well exposed artists and in 1988 Bruce actually began presenting live music in the lounge bar seven nights a week now various bands like the baby animals FFX the whitlams they all kind of started playing there and puns just came in their droves and really quickly it kind of became the place to play you know from what I've read there were other venues like the venue bananas and they all started to close down and places like Chasers uh the Chevron on they kind of changed into dance club so is it true that I read somewhere that there were other venues around um like the venue and um the Prince of Wales it kind of attracted the bigger sort of bands whereas in the beginning um the S kind of only sort of you know picked up the less exposed artists would that be true well yeah I remember a lot of bluesy type bands I remember people like Phil par he played there forever and it was like Jimmy Hendrick uh kind of sounding guitarist who's supposed to be very good at copying Jimmy Hendrick's style but I remember I started managing ice spin in the gravy later yes and I noticed you got the photo there on the you know step the well I organized that oh wow you can see me there with a with a black and white weird black and white op shop suit okay in the background there I'm in there and all that and so yeah yeah yeah so many there was a recording studio behind the gersman room and this became known as ESP recorders now artists like the Beast of bourbon things of stone and wood YY Yi Men at Work Renee gay the bad loves rck Smith uh Dave graany Nick Barker and yeah like Paul Kelly he recorded tracks for his album live at the continental and the esplan Ard in the Gman room and uh not just that the hotel also um started to host uh a phenomena you know called The espie Comedy in 1990 people like Trevor Hall who created this performance space that was kind of found nowhere else in Melbourne and um yeah a lot of really awesome comedians like Peter Grace Steve Bedwell MC Malloy Magda zansky Tony Martin all kind of you know showcase their uh their talent on the stage there you have to keep of very in ay psychopath thank C there it is the musical component how is that choreography how many people thought over here to see Ricky Martin I'm living LV anco since about 2005 the Music Quiz show rock whz has been filmed in the gersan room in the late '90s uh the ABC aired a show called hessy shed which was hosted by Paul Hester uh that was filmed uh live at the SB and it feeded his band the largest living things ladies and gentlemen welcome to the famous gers room an oasis of quality in a sea of Madness at the at the esnard you know first show they were filming it was yeah they started that a pilot it was the very first one anyway and then what they do is that they have competition between all the tables where our table one yeah and and so I ended up going up on stage oh how funny and my you know they have like you know famous musicians as a you know on table and Joe cameri was on my on mine but but I do remember drinking too much and and you know obvious questions about you know music I just it just all like escaped me I oh and I was so from Rock and Roll to pop to grunge to metal country um all kinds of genres and whilst it has been difficult to you know find all of the bands that played at the espb I've decided to include just a few pictures and uh images of posters and bands that that did you know perform at the ESP two [Music] two around night where you a treating me right I come back again I'm just [Music] you no no no now listen step it [Music] up turn around turn around once and going do the by about 1989 1989 there was a lot of community concern about development proposals that were threatening the future of the and um yeah it was really prominent there was a lot of activism that was going on in the streets and with um you know the general public the councils uh the developers the owners of the time and there were things like safe and kilder and turn the tide that really I think were instrumental in keeping the SV alive well done local debate is now raging over the fate of a Melbourne icon and live music institution the esplanad hotel as Alex T reports the development of the SB recently purchased by the property group beckon will set the Benchmark for sers future and a lot of culture takes place um a lot of rights of Passage you know a lot of the community grows up in the pub and around the pub and that's what the SP is in silda people who own this hotel should really think twice about changing it into a block of flats you know we've all seen Number 96 and you know it's it's okay for the developers they get a nice little bit of money in their bank account but you know we live here we breathe here we breed here be very careful so yeah regarding the owners there were various owners throughout the sb's life uh I think it's important to note that the building does have National Trust Heritage listing and I think the new owners are fantastic in that they wanted to keep the character of the SB intact uh for example when they were you know undergoing the renovations they said that anything original they did want to keep or restore and they've been um noted to describe the SP as I can iconic Grand and beautiful and they sort of you know they understood that the people of Melbourne were connected to the building and said that you know everyone does have ANB story regarding the look and the feel of the SB I think you know just go and check it out today see for yourself what it looks like with all the different levels all the bars restaurants Bee Garden the basement public Bar there's even a fully equipped um podcast Studio which uh patrons can rent out so it's a fabulous venue I think they've done a fantastic job so this room is called the basement and they have uh local bands that play down here you can see it's very intimate it's got a cute little bar there's the basement bar at the esie and if I pan it around you can see some of the posters up here fantastic really cool oh all these posters and down here I think is a kitchen maybe there's some more posters I asked the esnard when it reopened I asked them what's going on with the basement they said well it's going to be open and I said well what about if I open it as a bartender and I said oh come on Timmy surely you want to run a night there I said well I just I just want a bartend and I I was looking to get out of playing and touring the sp sp isn't what it used to be but neither are we and but the basement I thought well I could work here cuz they don't make cocktails and you can sling beers and and um maybe put on music cuz still a great little stage there and so they said well you can have one night a week doing the rogerin lounge or whatever you want to call it and we had nights down there which was great fun and then I said look can I get some other shifts and so I was doing about four or five shifts a week just down at the basement and it was great we had um you know the blues after on Saturday and and um Steve Lucas had come down uh and other acts that were great I love talking to folks who came down there I loved working at the myth warhurst remembers walking into the when she moved to Melbourne in the early '90s she said she saw so many bands there and recalls everyone at the pool tables looking like they were having a fabulous time she said it was uh it felt really welcoming and a lot of Comedy icons actually started there people like Judith Lucy as well Steve Lucas Steve from X um he's spoken about his love and affection for the SV often he does say that it may not be you know Sydney's um opera house but she is a grand old Dame as far as the melbour music uh scene you know goes he actually met his first wife on the steps of the SB and he played a few New Year's Eve gigs with bigger than Jesus um and he has he has some fantastic memories of theb he say that it didn't matter how late his band X played uh elsewhere the night before they'd always head to the S at opening time head straight to the booths and he recalls B-52 cocktails were a favorite at one time and said that the gigs in the front bar were the stuff of Legends Ken farmer said the SB was completely unpretentious no other venue has the same atmosphere um and its value is cultural as well as historic horsee head played often at the front bar at the um SB Scott Kingman recalls it some of the most memorable gigs of Melbourne music um were at the SV the staff the stages he said the vibe was like a breeding ground for some of Melbourne's greatest art cultures and it is a really sorely missed venue Steve Cummings he said that the venue has a great kind of feel that nowhere else in nowhere else in Melbourne has he speaks about a special atmosphere in the front bar and how there's an incredible mix of Ages and different types of people Tex Perkins he says it's hard to fathom how his career would have gone without the ESN Art Hotel and the niche that it provides for upand coming as well as established artists so it's good to hear from punters and Andrew Robinson has been a punter of the ESP for a long time he said it was a wonderful mix of seediness bygone Splendor and fun for seeing bands of all standards the Gan room he said was fantastic for bigger gigs and a particular favorite of his was to meet friends to attend the live pbsf moving and grooving hour um he said that with all the different band stages along with the old pool room at the back the small Bee Garden and quality food uh he reckons that you could spend almost a whole day there and bump into all sorts of friends and acquaintances good day Fred negro is a name I draw the pub strip in in press and various other Publications and basically what I do is just Chronicle the uh the history of rat bags in St Kilda Fred negro what can I say about Fred he's unofficial mayor of St kilder uh the late Roland S Howard once said that you hadn't made it in Melbourne until you'd appeared in one of negro's Pub strips so negro is um the subject of a recent documentary by filmmaker Andrew Leal I had a chat with Paul Elliot um a man involved in Melbourne Community radio for over 40 years now uh he once owned the Melbourne shop po books and Records actually what started it really I was a frustrated I wouldn't say musician I'd say more performer my clim to fame there actually I didn't mention that before is I was on new faces back in the when I first arrived in Australia in in early in in 1970 and I got myself on new faces it's funny how it was a different era in those times I actually came be came second oh with a song that wrote called Heaven and Hell or the bathroom floor oh that's hilarious and I was very stoned actually when I was on TV show and I'm sure that the statue of limitations have for that there's been a lot of talk um you know over the years with like about the Rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne you know about who is the music capital of Australia all I want to say about that is that every city you know every city in Australia has produced gems venues like the espie um in Melbourne Selenas in Sydney some venues just have a particular magic more so than others I guess I hope I've done Justice to this wonderful venue unfortunately coming from Sydney I never really attended gigs in Melbourne so yeah I just wanted to um really shine a light on the esnard hotel as being an iconic venue that thankfully is still around so whatever happened to the ree it's been salvaged uh there was too many or there were too many people that just loved it and uh check it out it's still there thanks for watching guys and be sure to like And subscribe check out all the other you know gigs um check out all the other videos that I've done and and any future upcoming um Vlogs thanks

Channel: Gioia

Views: 12,739

Keywords: epsy hotel, espyhotel, the espanard hotel, epslanade hotel, aussie rock, 90s rock, 80s rock, 90s aussie music, st kilda hotel, st kilda comedy, melbourne comedy hotels

Id: 4JrmLUuuTTc

Length: 21min 20sec (1280 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 15 2024