Home
Venues that put the live in music
Case Study: The Northcote Social Club, Melbourne
For readers unfamiliar with your venue, can you tell us a little about the Northcote Social Club? How long has it been open, and what sort of music/punters do you have coming in?
We’ve been open since September 2004 as The Northcote Social Club in what was the old Commercial Hotel. We’re in the heartland of the inner north in Melbourne a vibrant arts and music loving area. Beside the band room, we have an old school public bar, beer garden, and for mine a pretty tasty little kitchen. It’s a pretty diverse mix of folks; the shows ensure that every day has a new core crowd base. Lots of locals in for a drink, and yes Northcote is the lesbian capital of the universe.
Why does the Northcote offer live music? What do you see as the benefits?
Music offers us an identity, a brand. It’s not all that we do, but it is what we’re known best for. We do live music because there is a market that supports us doing so and we love it. The benefits of live music are the constantly changing demographics through the pub, involvement in the local, national & international music scene, connecting with our local area which is very supportive of live music, and importantly the sense of fun it brings to what is after all your workplace. There are entirely too many pubs operating as leeches with poker machines chasing profits over community and it pleases us to have a business model doing live music that’s both viable financially and socially relevant.
