Dear Fly By Night, it’s time for a plan.
by Tim Grey-Smith
Current site, Military Drill Hall. Source: flybynight.org
For those involved in The Fly By Night Musicians Club, this hasn’t been a very fun week. Monday’s decision by The National Trust to enter lease negotiations with Sunset Events for the Military Drill Hall has left many feeling disheartened, ignored, and even betrayed. While Facebook is flooded with people decrying the commercialisation of public assets, ill-founded accusations of conspiracy and obituaries of Fremantle’s live music scene, I believe this decision may (potentially) be the best thing to happen to The Fly in the last 20 years.
Firstly, there has to be a realisation that the Fly By Night Club is not inextricably linked to the Military Drill Hall. Yes, it has a long and rich history at the venue, and that history should be celebrated. However, and to horribly butcher “Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”, a church is not the building that contains it, nor is a university the bricks and mortar in which people learn. The true Church and University are the thoughts, the activities and the body of faith/reason that exist within them. The same is true of the Fly. The real Fly, the true Fly, is its energy, its public interest, its activities and its goodwill. What will determine the failure or success of the Fly is how well its physical location can help facilitate these aspects.
The Fly is in a very fortunate position to have a supportive council that will actively work to secure it an alternative venue. It is doubly fortunate to have a council that owns two assets that are currently vacant and suitable for the activities of the Fly, namely the ex-Kulcha site, and Victoria Hall.
Victoria Hall. Future site of The Fly? Source: mingor.net
My personal belief is that Victoria Hall is a better fit for the Fly. It is large (300ish capacity), it has most if not all of the wiring, lighting, and BOH facilities, it has air conditioning and it has large blackout curtains to improve acoustics. It’s also much prettier. Not only this, it has an established bar facility that could be operated daily when events aren’t on, to generate income to offset its leasing cost, this could be run internally or subleased to an operator. I’d actually be surprised if the daily activities of the bar didn’t offset the entire rental amount.
Victoria Hall also contains a decent stock of high quality office space. Roughly three times what the Fly has now, and needs. Other arts organisations could rent cheapish office space from the Fly, further offsetting rent and creating great opportunities for synergy.
There is also the opportunity for the Fly to actively engage in daytime rental to small arts organisations such as Harbour Theatre for rehearsal space, to run it’s own music and sound production classes, as well as providing affordable practice space for local bands, an activity that is in huge demand.
It’s time for the negative publicity campaign to end, and for the Fly to actively take stock and assess their options. A productive and positive approach to council will surely see a good outcome. Go back to the National Trust and ask (politely) for a rent holiday for the remainder of their lease term to allow them to take stock. See if there’s the possibility to sell unnecessary assets to Sunset for a reasonable price. The one thing that I would say about my time in politics and change, is that the recently seen negative, media driven “storm the ramparts” campaigns rarely work. They might get the public on side and rally around them, however the quality of the conversation with key stakeholders is deeply compromised and they tend to end up marginalising those who could otherwise add value to the conversation. Productive relationships with high levels of trust will always trump distance and fear.
Here’s hoping the Fly can make the best of the situation, and turn an underutilised public asset into the Astor Theatre of the south!
You are making good and balanced points I believe, Tim. Let’s leave the emotions aside and look at the benefits to the heritage building. It will be restored with money from Sunset Events. The Fly can get a whole new start with the great old energy and people who have been running it. The passion and quality music remains but just in a new location. Fremantle benefits because we’ll have two music venues and it could be a win win for all.
As you say, having an all day cafe/bar could create enough income to pay the rent, renting out the back offices to arts organisations, artists, recording studio, etc. could also create new income. The deal between the National Trust and Sunset Events has been done, so no use crying over spilt milk, for the times they are changing, as Dylan sings.
Roel Loopers
I agree that between the ‘claytons’ choice of the Kulcha building and the Victoria Hall, the latter is the better, (having performed at Kulcha many times and had to lug gear up the fire escape stairs while looking sideways for the parking inspector)… even though neither venue has any parking for patrons, which could be part of the reason why both of them are now empty. Although your call for calm makes sense from a ‘hindsight is the exact science’ viewpoint, the spirit that created the Fly in the first place had a certain edge to it, so you can’t expect this coup de tat to pass without some spirited emotion unless you are on the happy pills. I do agree that pragmatism has to kick in to salvage some outcome out of this kick in the proverbials, and I hope that the spirit is still there to do it. However the prospect of running a successful grant-independent business in Victoria Hall given the lack of parking is dubious and it is also dubious if any grant money is available given the history of the previous incumbents in both venues. Not a great environment to launch a new independent business especially under the shadow of the newly branded drill hall just up the road, so let’s temper our optimism with a bit of hard earned reality.
Hi John,
Thanks for the considered comment. I don’t know if I’d put as much emphasis on parking as you do, especially considering the example of similar sized venues like the Astor in Mount Lawley that operate with a similar (non existent) amount. I suppose I’m just looking at the options, and trying to find the positives in the situation.
This said, there is the distinct possibility that given the capital works program that Sunset are looking to undertake, that a Vic Hall Fly By Night could be operating much sooner than the Sunset Drill Hall. Why not hit the ground running, book some great acts and do it better?
Cheers,
Tim
I forgot to mention, I am not the John Reid who manages the Fly By Night.
Hi Tim et al.
I agree with you Tim. The spirit of the Fly and what the associated energy of the Fly can do to promote independent and up and coming artists must continue. The Fly Board will explore every opportunity to seek out options other than the Drill Hall. We are having an initial meeting with the Mayor on Monday.
Storming the beaches can be costly and the victory if it happens not worth the damage inflicted on all sides. Pragmatism and optimism and flexibility are called for to push things forward for the Fly and through this the City of Fremantle and arts in WA.
There is still unfinished business however to be dealt with regarding the function and processes of the National Trust and particularly its CEO in relation to the concept of good governance and transparency. The Trust is responsible for cultural heritage management of the state’s heritage resources. If you consider what has become of the Warders Cottages and the Royal George Hotel to name a few buildings which the Trust managed in Fremantle then one would be within their rights to expect the state government to review the effectiveness of this organisation in carrying out its duties on behalf of the people of our state.
Hi Steve,
Great to hear we’re on the same page. It’s true that the National Trust have some structural issues, from what I’ve been told it comes back to the fact that they’re asset to income ratio is out of whack, as a result they don’t have the resources to properly maintain their assets, resulting in examples like you’ve mentioned. Definitely an issue that needs resolving on a deeper level.
More than happy to discuss Vic Hall further, I did a fair bit of work with Deckchair to get Hobbs licenced, so know the venue pretty well, although it was a little late in the end. There are some intricacies around it however nothing insurmountable.
Cheers,
Tim
Can we have an open community debate about Victoria Hall before its just hand-balled over to an organisation in trouble. It might work as a new Fly, it might work as an open access performance venue, it might work as a comedy club, it might work as a dance club… it won’t work without some serious consideration. Can we get together for a serious chat?
Hi Phil,
Not a bad idea. I’d suggest emailing the Mayor about it, from what I understand there was a meeting yesterday regarding the issue.
Cheers,
Tim