Now Selling:
The Chills - Kaleidoscope World
The Chills - Kaleidoscope World
Gig Guide
Friday November 21st
[View gig guide...]
· Empire Hotel: Hal's Teef
· The Backstage: Three Album Release! Onanon, Alpha State, Kitten Tank!
· Murphy's Irish Bar: Amanda Goodwin and Joe Setefano
[View gig guide...]
Latest Reviews
Active Artists
Feature Articles
15 May, 2008
The Truth about The Crown
Page 1
The Truth about The Crown
Page 1
comments
[start discussion]
[ next page >> ]
One of the oldest pubs in Dunedin and the oldest one to have kept its original name, which hosted acts like Shihad, Salmonella Dub, The Chills, The 3Ds and more, made a drastic move, the ripples of which swept through the music community in Dunedin, when it decided to shut its doors and had its last live gig on 29th of February 2008. Legions of Dunedin music fans were outraged at this central site of worship to the god of music being taken from their grasp. In pubs and music venues all over Dunedin over jugs of beer and glasses of house wine they bemoaned the loss of their ancestral musical home.
I had never been to the Crown when it was a music venue. I had just heard of the dirty place it had become. So I could be called a Crown virgin. When I heard people talk about the Crown, you could see them shudder. Some people talked about it so unfavourably it made me not even want to go there and see live music.
But why did this happen? This is what I went to the Crown Hotel to find out one sunny afternoon recently. I went into the new part and took some photos and the place looked really nice. I met with Jones Chin and later his brother Sammy to discuss the Crown as it was and what its fate is now. I started off talking with Jones, whose role was central to the existence of music at the Crown.
The Chins took over the Crown in November 1979. Their family have been associated with music in Dunedin since 1963, as Jones and Sammy’s father had the [Sunset Strip nightclub.]. Being a bit in the dark as to the history of the association local music had with the Crown, I asked them whether there had been any grand opening night with heaps of bands or some now legendary event, that kick-started the appearance of local music every week. But to my surprise, there hadn’t been. Jones replied, “Music has always been associated with pubs.”
Music has been playing so long at the Crown and so often that when I press him as to his favourite night it was hard for him to choose. The best nights he explained have been when bands have played to smaller audiences, “when big bands play to big audiences, they just go through the motions and that’s basically it. But when bands play to smaller audiences they have to work the audience and impress them.” When Head Like A Hole played sometime in 1984, this came to mind as one of the stand out nights for Jones. On the crazy night front, they featured again in Jones’ memory, having once played there –naked!. Another (nameless) band played one night and members of the audience thought that they hadn’t played long enough so they smashed a fire point and all the alarms went off and three fire engines turned up-one of the many interesting anecdotes from this pub.
At the end of the interview with Jones, I asked him what his take was the NZ music scene. He said “There are more venues to play at, a lesser number of bands but more original songs being played. But of course with modern recording technology, music can be made by anyone and music has now become more accessible.”
[ next page >> ]
Related artists: Small Victories, Conniption, Ritalin, Outbreak, The Puddle, Christpuncher, Blistering Tongues, The Futurians, The Gideons, SPASTIC LUSCIOUS NOBODIES, Made In China, KAKIROA, Skaface Claw
