How To Catch A Bus Around Yarra's Rich Musical History

Ever wondered where some of those classic venues, the legendary TF Much/Much More Ballroom, which spawned Daddy Cool, or The Tiger Lounge were — places now all too often the site of a carpark or a block of flats? Or where they filmed cult underground film, Dogs In Space, which starred the late, great Michael Hutchence? Well, Bruce Milne is your man, and during the Leaps & Bounds Music Festival, he’ll once again be hosting one of the most popular of festival activities: the bus tours of Yarra City’s music history, past and present. It’s something of a serendipitous affair for Milne.

"I can talk about a particular venue and someone on the bus will tell me a memory that they had there."

“In the ‘70s I actually started trying to track down where all the venues and recording studios and stuff were and started a list, and just kept adding to it over the years and showing it to old musicians, and then realised that even the punk rock venues were disappearing so added those to the list. Then when I got a computer it was the first thing I ever learnt to do on a computer using Word, was entering all this stuff. So when Mary [Mihelakos], who is one of the organisers of the Leaps & Bounds Festival, rang and asked if I’d be interested in doing this, it was like, ‘Sweet, I’ve got it all listed!’ I really do have every venue and pretty much every recording studio, every site where a video clip was done. So it was fun, just going through my list going, ‘Oh that might be interesting,’ and ‘That’ll be good.’” 

Milne’s own musical history is pretty iconic. A lifelong resident of the municipality, in the ‘70s he founded the store and associated indie label, Au Go Go Records, and more recently In-Fidelity, managed The Blackeyed Susans and Dan Kelly and was, some years ago, licensee of The Tote. This is the third year of the Music Sites Bus Tour, heading out from the Corner and taking in sites from Abbotsford to Richmond and all points between every Friday, Saturday and Sunday during the festival. 

“I guess the great thing is the music community includes everyone,” he points out. “Everyone goes to gigs, so I can talk about a particular venue and someone on the bus will tell me a memory that they had there, and I’ll go, ‘Great, I’ll use that on the next bus tour.’ So it’s like a communal pot that everyone throws their two bits into. There are lots of great stories that come out that people have told me that I really can’t say on the bus trips,” he laughs. 

“This time I’ve got a guest music celebrity on every tour, so I’ve got Paulie Stewart from Painters & Dockers, who co-owned Richmond Recorders; I’ve got Bob Starkie from Skyhooks, who recorded at TCS Studios, which is in the area, and Adalita’s on another one, so I’ve got these fantastic guests.”