thecityguy wrote:Not saying the rhino room shouldn't stay. But can someone explain why it's so important? I thought it was just a small bar/live music venue? Easily moved or replaced?
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No offence but that is a very narrow minded view, which is unfortunately the view of most people who aren't associated with the arts in this city.
I can elaborate further for you... Sure, these venues can be moved but at the cost of the venue operators; which nine times out of ten, these operators don't have an annual turnover to finance such a move. HQ is a rare example of a venue that will easily move on from their current site (mostly due to their regular crowd numbers and their staging of international artists - lot's of $$), whereas Supermild is a fine example of a venue that has really struggled to get their doors back open after their move. Furthermore, even if Rhino Room were to move, you can't simply recreate that kind of a space... Sometimes you can, but a lot of the time it’s never the same (particularly in the way of atmosphere and acoustics); the Jade Monkey whilst they've done some cool things with that place, will never be like how it was on Twin Street... Now the old site is a carpark...
The government and council approve these buildings and there is absolutely zero consideration for these venues, there is no legislative protection and if there were there is no guarantee that they'd be protected when such developments go up. Similar has happened in Melbourne with Cherry Bar; they built a residential building next door and the construction alone was very disruptive to the access of the venue, once the building was complete, there were complaints every night about the noise which lead to legal threats/demand that the venue fork out $50,000-$100,000 soundproofing the building (money these establishments simply don't have lying around). Eventually the Victorian government stepped in and established an act that would both protect live music venues from being closed in favour of development and that would provide finance for projects such as soundproofing (where required).
What gets me is that the council are so opposed to pop-up venues during the Fringe, but they fail to protect those buildings that are actually useful alternatives. I don’t see establishments such as Sugar or Distil providing their space as a Fringe venue.
What I would like to see if any development on this site is to go ahead... Build on the site of the carpark; acquire the Teds camera shopfront on Rundle Street; use that site as a pedestrian access point to the building (a covered laneway); vehicle entry via Tavistock Lane; then keep the bottom 50% of the eastern wall of this building blank and maintain the Rhino Room building and Eckersley building, they can then sell the land wedged between the two for retail... If the pedestrian access via Rundle Street can't work, have the access via the land wedged between the Rhino Room and Eckersley's on Frome Street but still have enough blank wall on that eastern side of the building to keep any noise out of apartments. Alternatively you could buy one of the warehouses on Synagogue Place an have access from that side... The problem with all of these ideas, it's Adelaide, developers couldn't give a fuck about spending a little bit more on quality finishes, respecting surrounds, or respecting any heritage elements on the site... Whereas in Melbourne, they usually do.