Mick Thomas Opens Melbourne Music Venue

Australian singer/songwriter and Weddings Parties Anything frontman Mick Thomas will open the Yarra Hotel next month, with live music set to be a major part of the Abbotsford hotel's operations.

Thomas, a part owner in a consortium of five that also includes Greg 'Clanger' Kleynjans, who transformed Adelaide venue The Grace Emily, has spent recent months renovating the hotel, including the installation of a new stage and PA – a “pretty standard 16 channel modern, reasonably crunchy PA” which, “should be enough.”

Speaking to theMusic.com.au today Thomas said that the venue's first show will be Friday 8 February with a set from Thomas' Canadian friend Ron Hawkins. The event will serve as an opening party and test for the new set-up before the pub opens with full facilities later in the month.

“We'll have some gigs in February, and it will be running as a pub by the end of February… music's a really big part of [our plans],” Thomas said, but admitted that the frequency of live shows “remains to be seen.”

He added that the new venue, “It's very much a pub with music, rather than a music venue… In Sydney the Hopetoun was a venue, but it was a really good pub as well. You never thought 'What are we going to do until the band's on?' [Likewise, the Yarra] has got to be a pub, where people walk in and think straight away see that it's got its own shtick.”

Thomas believes that there is always space for another venue in Melbourne.

“We can't have too many good gigs… that's what we're counting on. There's a lot of good bar gigs in Melbourne, we think we can do a really good job of it.”

With a expected capacity of 150 (“maybe a little more”), Thomas is also leaving the door open for bigger acts to play “quieter” shows at the venue. That would continue in the tradition of legendary Trinidad-born English pianist Winifred Atwell, the first black person to have a UK number one single. Following shows at Melbourne's Tivoli during the '50s, she is believed to have played intimate after-party shows at the Yarra.