Article written by Lauren Johnston
This week I was lucky enough to go to two different events that were on this week, one of them being ‘Cloudland’. Some people mostly know Cloudland now as an apartment block, but many do not know that it was originally a music venue, the other event was a music gig at ‘Ric’s Bar’ in Fortitude Valley, The two bands that played were amazing and definitely different genres to what usually gets played at a bar for live entertainment. Both events were more than I expected them to be and I will go into depth about them later on.
First of all the Cloudland exhibition was something that I have never seen before, I turned up and was completely shocked to the core, there was so much history and information to take in, there were things I didn’t even know about. Cloudland is possibly the oldest venue that I personally know about. Cloudland was constructed in 1939-40 by The Eslik and had its grand opening in August 1940. Eslick had intended to have the place set out to be a ‘fun park’ just like Luna Park in Melbourne which Eslik had built in 1912. By the end of construction Cloudland had the best ballroom of the Southern Hemisphere! It was the largest venue of its kind in Brisbane.
Cloudland was abandoned until 1942 because of Eslick disappearing shortly after the construction of the building. In 1942 the American military made use of the building shortly after the Pearl Harbour Bombing in December 1941. When Cloudland re-opened the name ‘Luna Park’ was dropped and retitled and therefor known as ‘Cloudland Ballroom.’ The U.S military as a gift to the people of Brisbane, rebuilt the dance floor, which I surprisingly found out was interestingly put together. The smooth hard floor was constructed of one inch tongue and groove boards that ran the length of the ballroom. The close fitting narrow boards were not nailed to my surprise which meant that, the floor area reserved for dancing sat on huge metal coil springs placed uniformly underneath the bearers so that dancers could feel and see the movement of the boards beneath their feet, which I personally thought was absolutely incredible.
As a pop/rock/old time music venue Cloudland hosted thousands of dances and concerts in the 50s, 60s and 70s, including a number of notable events. Music for Cloudland functions was provided by Brisbane musicians and Australian bands from the '50s to the early '80s, and for much of the 1960s, this included functions on many different dates such as public holidays and long weekends during the year such as the midnight-to-dawn dances that were held, usually with featured guest artists of national fame, e.g. The Bee Gees, Little Pattie. Dayman also installed a huge mirror ball over the center of the ballroom's floor.
Despite strenuous public calls for its preservation, the building was demolished overnight on 7 November 1982 to make way for an apartment complex. The demolition was done by the Deen Brothers, a demolition company often used by the state government, the Brisbane City Council and the "white shoe brigade" for controversial demolition projects. The demolition took place despite there being no permit and in spite of its National Trust listing.
Ric’s on the other hand is a local bar located basically in the heart of Fortitude Valley. Ric’s is host to a lot of different music talents, but entertainment is mainly based off the local music scene. Alaina and Brendan the Bard are both local bands, Brendan the Bard being a folk-rock/roots band, their inspiration for their music are based of ‘Mumford and Sons’, ‘Johnny Cash’ and ‘Rodriguez’. It was actually pretty fricken cool, I thoroughly enjoyed their entire set which consisted of 6-8 songs. Even though there was a small crowd I did not see one person not enjoying their time listening to an awesome band. They put on a great performance and seemed to be pretty flawless. Just like Aliana who played an 8 song set list similar to the amount of songs on Brendan the Bards’ set list. If you are looking for a band that covers a range of topics from homelessness, to politics, to personal relations that are happening within the artist lives then this band is the band for you, Brendan the Bard.
Aliana performed eight songs in total, six of them being originals from the actual band and one purely amazing cover of ‘Fall Out Boy’s’ song ‘Sugar We’re Going Down'. They got the whole crowd singing and dancing along with them and it was thoroughly enjoyable. Alaina is a four piece band from Brisbane just like Brendan the Bard. Alaina’s set list consisted of some bangers which I highly recommend that you go and check out, songs such as ‘Moonlapse’, ‘Rain’, ‘Bring Me The Sun’, ‘Lay Your Dad On Me’, ‘Earth Means Dirt’, ‘Illuminate’ and ‘I’m Not A Freak’. All of these songs are upbeat and enjoyable no matter what. They also put on a great show and had the crowd engaged bobbing, dancing and singing along with them. For a band that has just recently been up and running, I was so proud of their performance.
If you attended either of these events, I sincerely hope you enjoyed it as much as I did and had a great time because I sure did. Brisbane has a wide range of events and exhibitions running all the time involving the local music scene and it’s important we support Brisbane’s talent and help them grow, after all they are our own local community.
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