FEATURES
FAD Gallery Once you find FAD Gallery, it’s not uncommon to become part of the furniture. Take Venue Manager Oriana Aprico-Wister who’s been with FAD for 12 years. “Yeah, it’s just a little bit of time,” she laughs. BY MEG CRAWFORD
Aprico-Wister’s attachment to FAD is testament to a bunch of things. First, she loves the place wholeheartedly. “Oh mate, it’s my favourite place in the world, so I’m a bit biased,” she says. “There’s nothing like it. It’s got so much character”. Second, FAD’s been cool ever since its inception. When Owner Johnny Halleday opened the venue 24 years ago, tucked away in Corrs Lane in the heart of Chinatown, it attracted buzz as one of Melbourne’s first laneway bars. It’s remained a beloved icon ever since. Sadly, it’s now also something of a unicorn. “Yeah, it’s the last of a dying breed for small bars owned and run by one person,” confirms Aprico-Wister. That FAD, which stands for “fotographic art and design”, has never fallen out of favour while other bars have come and gone is a nod to its eclecticism and purpose. “From the outset, it’s been a place of assembly and a cultural hub,” explains ApricoWister. Functioning as parts gallery, bar and sometimes comedy club, it also operates as
a home-away-from-home for its patrons and regulars. “Anyone can come in and have a great time all the time. It’s like going into your living room and having a dance and everyone’s family. You know the TV show Cheers? It’s like that on heat, that’s the only way I can explain it.” It’s also somewhat of a destination venue for out of towners, who are also wont to return. “We get a lot of people from overseas or interstate who always specifically, when they come back to Melbourne, want to come to FAD. There’s a couple from WA who come to Melbourne every six months and for the ten days that they get to have a holiday, they’ll spend every night in at FAD Gallery.” So, why can’t people stay away? FAD’s range of regular nights are part of the puzzle. The week starts on Tuesdays, which are customarily laidback, attracting a bunch of regulars kicking off the working week, amongst others. Next up is Wine and Whine on Wednesdays. “It’s for that mid-week hump,” ApricoWister explains. “Hence the ‘whine’. You can
have a rant and a beverage”. Then there’s live music every Thursday, while Friday and Saturday launch the weekend with something akin to a house party. Other nights see Aprico-Wister take over the decks, playing everything from Bowie to the Stones, with “good time” being her guiding vibe. “Whatever’s good for a boogie,” she adds. FAD’s super popular and free Thursday nights are further evidence of the loyalty the venue demands, featuring long-term residencies by firm favourites. “Rocky and the Two Bob Millionaires play every second Thursday of the month and they’ve been playing with us for over a decade,” marvels Aprico-Wister. While Rocky and co. are a rock twopiece, the other residencies include FAD’s funk, soul and blues house band, Frank Raymond & The Silhouettes – the lineup of which includes Halleday moonlighting as
Frank Raymond – and neo-soul chanteuse Bernadette Novembre backed by her eversmooth ten-piece band. As for patronage, it’s as diverse as you’d expect, with punters spanning the ages 18 to 85. “It’s like the best bag of lollies. There’s one of everything. No joke. From lawyers to publicans to artists and everything in between. It’s the best bunch of people who can assemble in one place, but no dickheads. That’s our only policy. You can be whoever you want to be, just so long as you’re not a dickhead.”
party a couple of years ago. He has embraced the 40th birthday with such enthusiasm. It was significant in his life, at that time.” Also on the lineup, you have shakuhachi player Anne Norman, violinist Ernie Gruner and oud player Yuval Ashkar, Kat Stevens and Pascal Latra exploring the Greek and Mediterranean repertoire, and a half dozen others. Virtue names some highlights. “Nina Rose Lim is a young woman who’s just released an EP called Patterns. She comes from a very interesting series of backgrounds. On one side there’s Austrian and various other European input, and her father is MalaysianChinese. There’s a bit of Indonesian there, too. “Her songs are very pretty and she’s a good instrumentalist and her trio is terrific. Pat Evans – the luthier of Maton guitars – he’s playing fiddle with her, and Fran Evans is the bass player.” Longstanding Boite favourites the Melbourne Georgian Choir will provide authentic Georgian music. “Georgian singing is a weird ancient form of polyphony that comes from the Republic of Georgia, off the far end of Russia. The
ensemble is guided by a couple of Georgian ethnomusicologists,” says Virtue. “The Scottish Fiddle Club is a huge phenomenon. They’re just fantastic. There’s nothing quite like the sound of mass fiddles launching into a tune.” The Fabulous 40th Finale Fling doubles as The Boite’s year-end fundraiser. Tickets are $30 and just $15 for under-25s. The artists are all volunteering their time to help support the organisation’s pursuits in 2020. “The Boite has a series of sources of funds which have kept us going,” says Virtue. “Our box office is the biggest contributor, but some of the projects that we take on don’t return enough money to break even. For those things, we seek funding from government agencies. Creative Victoria has been the strongest supporter of The Boite for many, many years. We are deeply grateful for that money.”
Find FAD Gallery at 14 Corrs Lane, CBD, open from 4pm til late Tuesday to Saturday. For more information, visit fadgallery.com.au or their Facebook page.
The Boite’s 40th Finale Fling Victoria’s iconic multicultural music organisation The Boite celebrated its 40th birthday on June 1 this year, the same date on which the organisation held its first concert in Richmond in 1979. BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
Educator and musician Therese Virtue has been involved with The Boite since 1984 and has been The Boite World Music Café’s program coordinator for the past 22 years. “We have been very conscious of the premises on which The Boite was founded and we’ve made a really conscious effort to stay with them,” says Virtue. The Boite was founded at a time when significant numbers of Greek and Chilean migrants were coming to Australia, many of them refugees. The resistance movements to the governments that were making these people refugees were strongly characterised by music. “The founders of Boite were often tied up in education, some of them were teachers, so they were meeting these kids coming into the schools with no English,” says Virtue. “So on the one hand, they saw an educational opportunity for us – the Australian population – to learn about this new cultural
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stuff that was coming in. On the other hand, they recognised the needs of these musicians to perform and to perform professionally, as they had in their own countries.” The Boite’s Fabulous 40th Finale Fling is happening on Saturday November 30 at the Abbotsford Convent’s Laundry venue. Ten artists will perform, representing a range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Included on the lineup is the Chilean-born Alex Vargas who, as a 15-year-old, performed at the first ever Boite concert. “Alex is the only person that we’re still in touch with from that very first concert,” says Virtue. “When I began to work for The Boite, he was still performing for The Boite. After a while he became a tour manager for Illapu who are an internationally famous group from Chile who were exiled, and so he travelled with them and toured with them and played with them. “We haven’t had him in gigs in recent years, but I actually reconnected with him at a
The Boite’s Fabulous 40th Finale Fling comes to The Laundry at Abbotsford Convent on Saturday November 30. Tickets are available via boite.com.au.