sydney festival - parramatta tour of lost venues

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/parramatta/return-to-parramattas-lost-nightclubs-as-sydney-festivals-disco-dome-tour-resurrects-legendary-venues-of-west/story-fngr8huy-1227182402063

A rare image of Midnight Oil performing at War and Peace in Parramatta, September 18, 197

WAR and Peace is better known as a literary masterpiece but in 1970s Parramatta it was the name of one of the city’s most notorious nightclubs—and it was wild.

The staff kept buckets of ice behind the bar to plunge their hands into because of the frequent fist fists.

And the dumb waiter (normally used to move food between floors) had a dual purpose as a way to quickly get rid of troublemakers by hurtling them down into the street below.

It’s Friday night in Parramatta, and sadly the site of the old nightclub is no longer buzzing, in fact it’s been turned into a block of apartments.

But the night is young and I’m with a group with a mission to relive the heady days of disco with a tour of the city’s lost discothèques.

The night started with champagne cocktails at the Information and Cultural Exchange and a historical talk by the organisation’s executive director John Kirkman.

He leads the tour and keeps the crowd entertained with behind-the-scenes stories about the clubs and the big names from AC/DC and The Radiators to Midnight Oil that used to hit the stage in Sydney’s west.

“People used to go out closer to home,” he tells us, which is why Parramatta CBD was once home to more than 20 nightclubs in the 70s and 80s.

The tour continues and we walk around town, bopping away occasionally to the disco tunes pre-loaded into individual MP3 players handed out at the start of the night.

We revisit the sites of some of the city’s lost nightclubs as the stories continue.

The Roxy in Macquarie St is one of the few that remains in its original form, but even it has closed up shop at least for now.

Next stop is Fitness First in Macquarie St, once home to a nightclub where punters would have been getting physical on the dancefloor, rather than the exercise equipment.

The night suddenly gets interactive and we’re told to hop on exercise bikes and handed tambourines.

Last stop is a disused Chinese Restaurant in Station St, once known as the nightclub Lucky Lil’s that has been transformed into nightclub central.

Each room is a different clubs themed art installation, with one featuring the names of old nightclubs in lights.

You can listen to the stories of people including someone who met the love of his love on the dancefloor at Traders.

Another story is that of an angry Lebanese mother pushing through security at one of the clubs to drag her son by the ear from the dancefloor.

Apart from the art, there is also a DJ set up, a dancefloor, and slushie machine serving up icy cocktails.

Like a cocktail, the tour is a mix: history, art, and the odd performer riding the escalators at the Connection Arcade dressed in glitter heels and gold sequins.