oddlight

wow, this caught me by surprise... the worm turns eh?

Rock gigs to top the play list at Home

Home, Sydney's dance music super club, will be converted to a rock'n'roll venue in a bid to tap into the city's booming live music market.

Although Home was launched as an exclusive super club in the late 1990s for Sydney's dance and rave scene, its conversion to a live music venue reflects the diminishing clubbing scene in Sydney.

Simon Page, who co-owns the club with British businessman Ron McCulloch, has declared the Cockle Bay venue will "become a fully-fledged rock venue".

To be rebranded as Home: Sydney's House Of Music, it is expected to compete against live venues including the Enmore Theatre in Newtown and The Metro on George Street, which already cater for well-known international and local acts ranging from Foo Fighters to Missy Higgins.

"I think there's a real gap in that market," said Mr Page.

"Being a custom-built venue, which had a lot of dollars put into it in 1998, Home is relatively new. So it will give quite a different experience. I love going to old theatres like the Enmore, don't get me wrong, but I think with the modernity of Home, it being a live music venue could be striking."

Mr Page said the main auditorium inside the club had already been reconfigured and the DJ booth shifted to cater for a large live music stage.

"There's quite a difference between a live music sound system and a dance music system," Mr Page said.

"The sound system which went into Home was modelled on the Ministry of Sound's and was for dance music. So I've done some research on what's required for live music.

"We've got a sound system the size of the one inside the Hordern Pavilion going into Home. They're starting to install it on Monday and it will be fully up and running in two to three weeks."

The dance club's management will also refit various areas of the club to attract the world's biggest names in rock, for gigs scheduled on Saturday nights and weeknights. The traditional dance music night, Sublime, will continue on Friday nights.

"You really have to look after the live music properly," Mr Page said. "So we're building a suite of dressing rooms and ... a tour manager's office which has direct access to the stage."

As part of Home's complete overhaul, staff have been poached from major rock promoters, including Michael Coppel, to book some of the world's biggest bands. Mr Page said big-name acts were already being considered for October, November and December.

The shift towards live music at Sydney's biggest dance club reflects a trend in Britain, where the clubbing scene has been slowly losing its appeal over the past few years. While it was a hot, underground movement in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, clubbing went entirely mainstream with super clubs such as the Ministry of Sound in London and Home in Sydney. Now it appears to have given way to old-fashioned live bands.

"All around the world big nightclubs, pure dance clubs, have difficulty getting more than one night happening [each week]," Mr Page said. That's why he's now considering every possible genre of live music to revitalise the venue.

"I'm happy to have country and western on the floor one night and trance the next," he said.