Brown tribute the Hydey

Wed 5th Jan, 2011 in Local News

On the first anniversary of last drinks with live music at the Hyde Park Hotel, local experimental band Brown popped in for a memorial show.

Though the Hydey is all but demolished, awaiting reconstruction from the inside, the group found a way inside through an open door, and armed with battery operated and acoustic instruments, played a Hydey-length set for a select audience.

The Hydey was an iconic venue that supported local, original and sometimes completely-off-the-wall music and is the place most Perth bands played their very first gig in. It was dingy, dark, had terrible acoustics and sticky carpet, sold cheap beer and was loved and loathed in equal measure by local music fans.

Despite several stays of execution, the final one saw the bands kicked out and all but the heritage listed façade demolished, ready for refurbishing into one of those trendy bars with expensive beer and (probably) jukeboxes. The Dan Murphy’s bottle shop behind it is still doing a roaring trade. Despite attempts by other venues in the area to fill the gap left by the Hydey, none have quite succeeded, and many in the industry doubt that anything could take the place of such an integral and formative part of the local music scene.

In the year since it closed its doors, wanting to preserve some of the magic and make a tribute to the iconic venue, local film makers Lindsay Hallam and Travis Johnson have put together a short film with footage collected from the Hydey’s music supporting history. It is due to screen at the Town of Vincent’s Summer Concert Series on 13 February.