2018 WRITERS’ WRAP UP
Top Five Gigs of the Year: 1. Primal Scream – The Forum tied with David Byrne – Margaret Court Arena 2. Peter Murphy – Max Watt’s 3. Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds – Caravan Music Club 4. Cosmic Psychos – Corner Hotel 5. Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto – Hamer Hall Top movie/TV show: Killing Eve Favourite meme of 2018: Nope. I’m too old Highlight of 2018: Melbourne Festival was a corker this year. Best yet Lowlight of 2018: Sadly, we lost a lot of local luminaries (including Conway Savage, Brian Henry Hooper and Spencer P Jones) One tour Australia needs in 2019: Ride Name: Rhys McKenzie Top Ten Albums of the Year: 1. The Midnight – Kids 2. Tremonti – A Dying Machine 3. The 1975 – A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships 4. Rivers of Nihil – Where The Owls Know My Name 5. Janelle Monae – Dirty Computer 6. Ninja Sex Party – Cool Patrol 7. Bruce Springsteen – Springsteen on Broadway 8. DMA’s – For Now 9. Judas Priest – Firepower 10. Alien Weaponry – Tu Top Five Songs of the Year: 1. The Midnight – ‘America 2’ 2. Tremonti – ‘A Dying Machine’ 3. The 1975 – ‘Love It If We Made It’ 4. Judas Priest – ‘Spectre’ 5. CHVRCHES – ‘Graffiti’ Top Four Gigs of the Year: 1. Foo Fighters 2. Iron Maiden 3. Paul McCartney 4. Def Leppard Top movie/TV show: Mission Impossible: Fallout Favourite meme of 2018: Captain America and Your Daughter meme Highlight of 2018: ABBA & The Kinks reforming. Hope is in the air Lowlight of 2018: Goodbye Rush & Aretha Franklin’s death
One tour Australia needs in 2019: Tremonti Name: Scott Hudson Top Ten Albums of the Year: 1. Mac Miller – Swimming 2. Janelle Monae – Dirty Computer 3. Moses Sumney – Black in Deep Red, 2014 4. Anderson .Paak – Oxnard 5. The Internet – Hive Mind 6. Leon Bridges – Good Thing 7. Tom Misch – Geography 8. Noname – Room 25 9. Matt Corby – Rainbow Valley 10. LANKS – twentyseven Top Five Songs of the Year: 1. Moses Sumney – ‘Rank & File’ 2. Montaigne – ‘For Your Love’ 3. Matt Corby – ‘No Ordinary Life’ 4. Maggie Rodgers – ‘Light On’ 5. Mac Miller – ‘Come Back to Earth’ Top Five Gigs of the Year: 1. Loyle Carner 2. Drapht 3. Didirri 4. Oh Pep! 5. Lil Dicky Top movie/TV show: BlacKkKlansman (movie), Maniac (TV show) Highlight of 2018: Avengers: Infinity War Lowlight of 2018: Trump’s entire presidency One tour Australia needs in 2019: Little Simz Name: Tobias Handke Top Ten Albums of the Year: 1. Phantastic Ferniture – Phantastic Ferniture 2. Denzel Curry – Ta13oo 3. Jorja Smith – Lost & Found 4. Travis Scott – Astroworld 5. Jay Rock – Redemption 6. Cardi B – Invasion of Privacy 7. Fenne Lily – On Hold 8. Westside Gunn – Supreme Blientele 9. Malena Zavala – Aliso 10. Vance Joy – Nation of Two
Top Five Songs of the Year: 1. Jorja Smith – ‘Let Me Down ft. Stormzy’ 2. Drake – ‘God’s Plan’ 3. Phantastic Ferniture – ‘Fuckin ‘n’ Rollin’ 4. Interpol – ‘The Rover’ 5. Flight Facilities – ‘Need You’ ft. Nika Top Five Gigs of the Year: 1. David Byrne 2. Paul McCartney 3. Kendrick Lamar 4. SZA 5. Phantastic Ferniture Top movie/TV show: Mission Impossible: Fall Out (movie), The Terror (TV show) Favourite meme of 2018: American Chopper meme Highlight of 2018: Cardi B Lowlight of 2018: SoundCloud rap One tour Australia needs in 2019: Dr. Dre Name: Will Brewster Top Ten Albums of the Year: 1. Jon Hopkins – Singularity 2. Pusha T – Daytona 3. Kali Uchis – Isolation 4. Mac Miller – Swimming 5. Saba – Care For Me 6. Noname – Room 25 7. A.A.L (Against All Logic) – 2012-2017 8. Kids See Ghosts – KIDS SEE GHOSTS 9. MihTy – MihTy 10. Travis Scott – ASTROWORLD Top Five Songs of the Year: 1. Young Thug – ‘High ft. Elton John’ 2. Jon Hopkins – ‘Everything Connected’ 3. Yellow Days – ‘How Can I Love You?’ 4. Kanye West – ‘Ghost Town’ 5. Blood Orange – ‘Chewing Gum ft. A$AP Rocky and Project Pat’ Top Five Gigs of the Year: 1. King Krule – Golden Plains 2. Vince Staples – The Forum 3. Kamasi Washington – Golden Plains 4. Skepta – Listen Out 5. Portugal. The Man – The Forum Top movie/TV show: Skate Kitchen Favourite meme of 2018: The endless amount of meme material Pusha T’s Drake diss provided
to the world Highlight of 2018: Kissing uni goodbye and seeing significantly lesser amounts of puffer jackets and Polo shirts on a day-to-day basis Lowlight of 2018: Kanye pushing my tolerance of his shit to the absolute limits One tour Australia needs in 2019: If the Australian government could unban Tyler, the Creator that’d be splendid! Name: Zachary Snowdon Smith Top Ten Albums of the Year: 1. Joshua Redman – Still Dreaming 2. Paolo Fresu, Dino Rubino & Marco Bardoscia – Tempo di Chet 3. Jonny Greenwood – Phantom Thread 4. Les Cris de Paris – Melancholia 5. Víkungur Ólafsson – Johann Sebastian Bach 6. Teodor Currentzis – Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 7. James Brandon Lewis & Chad Taylor – Radiant Imprints 8. Saturn Will Not Sleep – Voyager 9. Axel Gillison – Slow Motions 10. Akira The Don ft. Jordan Peterson – 12 Rules for Life: The Album Top Five Songs of the Year: 1. Joshua Redman – ‘Unanimity’ 2. Muse – ‘Something Human’ 3. Esbjörn Svensson Trio – ‘Tide of Trepidation’ 4. Scott Hamilton – ‘Young and Foolish’ 5. Boi Spicy – ‘Love is Love ft. Chris Chan’ Top Five Gigs of the Year: 1. Don Quichotte – Arts Centre Melbourne 2. Take Five drum showcase – Paris Cat Jazz Club 3. Born To Be Blue: Celebrating the Musical Life of Chet Baker – Paris Cat Jazz Club 4. Robbie Williams – Rod Laver Arena 5. Yungblud – Corner Hotel Top movie/TV show: Phantom Thread Favourite meme of 2018: Gamer Joker (“We Live in a Society”) Highlight of 2018: Google scraps plans for a censorship-friendly Chinese search engine Lowlight of 2018: The hate speech conviction of YouTuber Mark Meechan One tour Australia needs in 2019: Marina Diamandis
The Espy
“If you want to see great bands in Melbourne, in St Kilda, this is a place you can come to. If you want to have great food in Melbourne, in a suit, you’ve got options.”
When Andy Mullins, one of the owners of hospitality group Sand Hill Road, signed on the dotted line to buy The Espy, he says the previous owners warned him: “As much as you bought this, you boys, you’ll never own it.” Anyone who grew up or lives south of the river, especially in St Kilda or its surrounds, feels like they have some ownership of The Espy, so making everyone happy was never going to happen. “There’s just so much love and angst and nervousness,” laughs Mullins. “Trying to keep everyone happy at the same time, it’s fucking impossible.” That said, the good news is that the Sand Hill Road team have given it a fine crack. The renewed public bar still has a super casual beer and jeans vibe, meanwhile the standing bar in the middle of the space has been decorated with a stash of musical artefacts salvaged from a room behind a locked door that the new owners stumbled upon after they took over. “We eventually got it open and there were about two-and-a-half thousand band posters and also boxes of demo tapes, video tapes, CDs for bands,” Mullins explains. “That legacy was handed back to us. We’ll just keep layering it up over time.” Elsewhere is the basement stage which holds around 180 people. There are currently around three to four days a week of music scheduled, but this is set to grow to seven days a week. Mullins explains that the Espy’s live music offering will boast everything from punk, blues, roots, rap, metal and a healthy dose of rock, while he also asserts that it will remain completely free. The main bar (in the space that used to be the main stage) offers a light-filled terrace dining 22 BEAT.COM.AU
area. This is the setting for the second stage, which has been a controversial addition because, quite frankly, it’s not much of a replacement for the iconic Espy main stage. But Mullins says it serves a totally different purpose, and expects it to be a great platform for up-and-comers. “That’s where you go ‘oh, okay, so there’s this cool three-piece.’ They’re playing their own indie, you can walk past – [it’s] almost like busking,” he says. Walk down past the main bar and you’ll land in the studio, which is a small area with booths on one side and a pretty shmick looking podcast studio – for recording live performances and oneon-ones with bands – on the other. Later, this will become a space that community podcasters will be able to use too. Further along is The Espy Kitchen, a huge dining area that sits in the old loading bay and has parmas, burgers and pizzas on the menu. “This is food to eat in your hands. And we’re doing a barrel-aging cocktail program,” says Mullins, adding that there’s barrel-aging wine and beer available too. On the second floor is Cantonese restaurant Mya Tiger, while the top floor features a more upmarket cocktail bar named The Ghost Of Alfred Felton.
It’s going to be interesting to see how the Espy toes the line between the upmarket cocktail and whiskey-loving clientele upstairs, and the beer-swilling live music fans in the basement and the Gershwin stage, but Mullins would like to think it just means there’s something for everyone. “If you want to see great bands in Melbourne, in St Kilda, this is a place you can come to. If you want to have great food in Melbourne, in a suit, you’ve got options. So it’ll work itself out,” he says. The iconic Gershwin room heads the music front, which is set to see a slew of fantastic artists in the near future, including Tumbleweed, C.W. Stoneking and Kingswood on New Year’s Eve. Some unexpected names also pop up on the gig guide, including Mental As Anything and Daryl Braithwaite. According to Mullins, everything old is new again. As for who he’d like to see down the track, one name comes to mind. “I think a really emotional night would be seeing Paul Kelly on that stage on his promenade singing about his Esplanade. I think that’s a real moment. I get funny just thinking about it.” BY ISABELLE ODERBERG
The Espy is located at 11 The Esplanade, St Kilda. Find more details on their new offerings via their website, hotelesplanade. com.au.
