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Booker Owed ‘Tens Of Thousands’ As Geelong Venue Shuts

Scott Fitzsimons

The Yarra Hotel - formerly Bended Elbow - has shut its doors

Geelong's Yarra Hotel, a prominent live music venue as Bended Elbow until earlier this year, has closed its doors, allegedly leaving industry stakeholders out of pocket.

Steven Nichols of former bookers Spinning Half confirmed to theMusic.com.au today that the venue has been shut, with the windows blacked out as of yesterday. The Scerri Hotel Group, who have been the hotel's operators for the last 12 months, told theMusic they 'handed back the keys' to the Colonial Leisure Group [CLG] who have since made the decision to close the venue. The venue's closure was first reported by Tonedeaf.

Locally based Spinning Half are believed to have outstanding invoices with the venue with “tens of thousands” of dollars owed for artists payments. Nichols told theMusic today that they had paid artists themselves, but claimed that the company is still chasing payment from the venue. He also believes that there are other creditors of the venue, including local music media and tradespeople.

Today the Scerri Group's Mario Scerri told theMusic.com.au that they didn't make the decision to close the venue, but admitted, “The hotel was losing a considerable amount of money which we could no longer sustain. We had been in discussion with CLG In handing back the keys.”

Lawrence Dowd, GM for CLG Victoria, told theMusic today that the decision to shut the venue was because they didn't have the capacity to run the venue.

“Mario owed us rent for a fair while and had committed to buy the free hold,” he said. “This has now fallen over. When we ran it, there were bands and it [was] very successful, but since the new ownership its gone downhill which is very disappointing.”

Spinning Half, who also manage artists and offer music services, ceased working with the venue April 26 this year because of the financial strains. Live music has continued at the venue, but had focused on cover and acoustic sets.

“A lot of money is owed to a lot of suppliers,” Nichols said, adding that he will be looking to discuss unpaid invoices with CLG this week.

Since their partnership with the Yarra Hotel ended, Spinning Half have been booking live music into function venue the Wool Exchange. Known for its weddings and functions, the venue now has shows on sale for Snakadaktal, Dead Letter Circus and Boy & Bear amongst others.

Update: Story amended at 5pm to add quotes from CLG rep.