November 1, 2007 by The Lazy Aussie
To celebrate 20 000 visitors in the last month, here’s another Worst of Perth classic for yous all. This would be somewhere around 20 years ago at The Firm nightclub, which was upstairs at The Old Melbourne Hotel on the corner of Milligan and Hay Streets West Perth. I can’t remember why I took this. Probably drink related. I’m not sure if it was some special event. I think everyone is just standing around waiting for texting to be invented.
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I can feel the love.
Anyone got any pics of Jeremiah’s or Gobbles nightclubs (both also in “the old West End”)?
I pray someone also has pinnochios and Eagle 1 too
This is a bit terrifying but I think I recognise someone in this picture.
Meccano – what do you think? The profile of the person second from the right look familiar?
hahaha nice shot i dj’ed there for 5 years , great photo
hey man
im still in that zone
viva lime spiders
oly the mod
great photo!
check out the ‘tude on the dude with the David Bowie hairstyle. is that morrisey in the middle of the room?
i used to go there when you were dj’ing, rhys….good times
To the left of Major Tom seems to be a guy with some kind of fur hat, or knight’s helmet. Or is that hair too?
looks like they were serving VB or Fosters – before the boutique revolution obviously!!
Maybe a can or two of melbourne bitter as well.
dr pangloss yeah they were great times mate ill never forget em , i think they served emu export also :~D
#3
youre right golden1! i thought exactly the same thing. it looks just like my sister in melbourne but i wouldnt tell her that.
u lot a are a bunch of wankerchops!. did you know there’s gonna be an “official firm renunion” not that crap that they served up to you at the loft with the tenuous connection of
some barmaid who worked there for six months, annie car, rhys, me, kelly, pat murphy etc etc. putting it together with anton maz from
yummy fur. anyone interested, email me, it’ll be
in summer in a suitably sleazy venue.
sue (who the hell is susan hammersley?)
nah it’s not mechanno’s it’s the firm altho they are definately red parrot types
DOH!sorry meccano i thought your nick was in reference to the club that was there b4 the firm , sorry about that im still learning to read :D
Wasn’t it Milliways or something before that?
yes it was i still have a milliways poster somewhere
they were all good clubs
Ah yes…I remember the days…
i remember jim looking like uncle fester on acid
See (slightly tragic depending on your age) Facebook group ‘Inner City Firm (We Were There)’ for more photos if you dare.
great photo, got any pics of gobbles or other clubs/pubs back then ? the floreat ?
Oh Gigdiary, if only I did.
After seeing this photo, people under the age of 25 could be forgiven for thinking that during the 80s everyone walked around looking like Morrissey or Ian Curtis. Wrong. The men looked like David Boone, the women looked like Billy Ray Cyrus. If they happened to see anyone who DID look like Mozzer – usually outside Dadas or a DSS office (ask your dad) – they’d kick the living shit out of them.
ohmygod
I think that’s me in the hat
I’ve still got that leather jacket
though sadly, not that waistline
I remember the Firm very well, the dancefloor used to bounce like crazy and it felt like the joists might give way at any minute. The stairs were also lethal – very steep and very tricky to negotiate after a few overpriced warm tinnies of VB. I still have a scar on my shin from those ruddy stairs.
Hi Skink,
there’s not many hats like that, and I recall yours at Mecannos as one of the regular features.
Funny, I recognise all of the recognisable people and would have talked to all of them several times a week (For the young folk, it really was a club – drop in any night it was open and you’d find the same crowd there) Not that I knew all the names then (let alone remember them now)
In fact, I think that’s the drummer from one of my bands at the bar in the paisley!
Many have claimed to know people in this photo, though none have been confirmed. I believe it was taken on a night Thou Gideon played.
That’s part of the fun of a quarter century gap, isn’t it?
I certainly saw Thou Gideon, and think it was at The Firm. (Then it could have been at the Wizbah, a little further east up Hay St
But the usual crowd would have been at The Firm, regardless of who was playing.
Are you really saying that’s you? If I remember the night was a promo for a band. I think they were called Thou Gideon. The lead ate dogfood if I remember.
it looks like me
I had a cap like that once, and not many people can say that.
the leather jacket and earrings are like mine,
and i was a regular at the Firm for a few years between 1990 and whenever it closed (I think I was a member – I recall a keyring)
difficult to recognize yourself in profile – I shall refer it to the missus for confirmation – we spent many nights there together
i don’t recognize anyone else in the picture, but then I don’t recall much from that
well, my wife tells me it is not me, so I’ll take her word for it.
thanks anyway for reminding us of some good times way back.
nostalgia is not what it used to be.
i was a regular there.
even had the members keyring.
does anyon e remember that lad in the Killing Joke Leather jacket.
and the manageress with the baldy head with mohawk.
Manageress name with mohawk Micaela my daughter in law
I remember the mohawk woman. I wish you had that keyring still for a photo.
i remember mike from faith no more turned up after a gig.
surrounded by birds, the jammy get.
had keyring for years.
but it fell apart totally. COULDN’T EVEN READ THE WRITING ON THE BACK
should have took it off me main bunch, and stuck it in a drAWER.
DAMN!!!
Thou Gideon! Hideous flashback you’ve induced there LA.
# 23
http://pigmeat.customer.netspace.net.au/thou_gideon.html
They were pretty bad.
Ha! Thou gideon were hilarious with their dog-food and power-tool antics on stage!
Loved the Firm. Danced my arse to the wax of Rhys, Dan Tha Man (a mere babe back then), and my old fave, David Zahari.
God damn I was 19 and working at the Aberdeen. I spent two years dancing, drinking, tripping, fucking, and laughing my arse off.
Drinks for Aberdeen workers at The Firm were one dollar for quite some time! If they hadn’t closed I’d never have left.
I even loved “The Infirmary”! You cannot stop us!
Sue Hammersley will always remain in my mind as the ultimate big-sister of my club days.
My own sister, Anna, graced the dance-floors of Milliways when I was too young to get in. (around 15)
I have photos taken inside Pinocchios in the 80’s, and inside Beethovens in the early 80s somewhere. If / when I find them I will let you know. There’s staff shots, band shots and other stuff.
would really like to see those pics of Beethoven’s if you ever find them.. and hey, Beethoven’s became Rumours right ?.. and the building, Dunlop House 418 Murray St burned down in July 2001 ?
Peter, forgot all about it until I got this pingback today. I am moving at the moment, so when I am in and settled I’ll hunt them up. Sorry I forgot.
Judging from previous posts, you will be mighty popular if you find those shots rhubarb.
What was the place on lake street? Lots of wall carpet. Shot some video in there once.
[I have photos taken inside Pinocchios in the 80’s, and inside Beethovens in the early 80s somewhere. If / when I find them I will let you know. There’s staff shots, band shots and other stuff.]
If theyh include Gary Shannon’s Almost Anything Goes Show you will be an absolute legend – I still recall the ads on 6PM with Bad Manners version of the Can Can as the musical backing.
Hmmm … Lake Street you say, TLA ? Presuming you mean north of the tracks, the obvious ones were Eagle One on the corner of James St, and The Underground on the corner of Newcastle St. Something tells me I’m probably completely wrong, but the real monstrosity was I think named Hannibal’s. I’m not sure about the wall carpet as I never actually ventured inside. It was next door to a pizza place called Uncle Vince’s ( Vincent’s ), which did the best chilli mussels anywhere, and directly opposite an Italian store which featured some choice lamps and statues in the window.
While I’m here, I might as well ask. I always thought the best venue for a club would have been the circular carpark directly opposite the Ent Cent on Lake Street. What ever happened to that place ?
i believe the circular carpark is now apartments.
so perth.
Hannibal’s. Had to video some abortion of an event called I think The Evolution of Rock. Peter Chase’s Evolution of Rock maybe. I forgot the Underground. We knew a girl that cage danced there. Ms O, are you a lurker on this site?
Wall carpet – must be Hannibals.
Ooops, you already answered yourself. Ohh the underground, forgot about that place too.
LA, will hunt up the shots, give me some time though. Shots of Sam’s pizza place (for the gobbles / beethoven crew) and the opposition – La Gondola, for the Pinocch’s crew. A divided camp were we.
Frank – I was working there when those shows were on. That seems a lifetime ago.
Snuff – I remember those chilli muscles, they were legendary. Was it the Re store’s original shop that was opposite? I also remember that as the Pinoch’s crew ‘grew up’ we migrated to Hannibals. Sat in the lounge chairs drinking champagne and orange jiuce or pina coladas.
Indeed it was the Re store, rhubarbwine. Thanks for putting a name to the place. Uncle Vince’s chilli mussels with crusty, ( in a good way ), garlic bread, were so deservedly and famously popular I don’t know why they bothered with the rest of the menu … nobody ever ordered anything else.
As I previously mentioned, I never actually saw inside Hannibal’s, but now strangely, I wish I had … just once. I’m still unable to forget, however, the long queues outside of, it has to be said, southern European punters … all mullets and stonewash denim for the guys, big hair and shocking frocks for the gals. Oh, the humanity.
Anyone remember the Wiz Bar? They didn’t have a license to serve full strength beer, so they sold Swan Light with vodka it it.
Yeh cookster see Ent Cent.
That was a really, really really great place.
I have found some night club photos in the state library…
Here’s the celebrity nightclub in Vic Park in 1967
http://henrietta.liswa.wa.gov.au/search/Xnight+club&searchscope=1&Da=&Db=&p=&SORT=A/Xnight+club&searchscope=1&Da=&Db=&p=&SORT=A&SUBKEY=night%20club/1,177,177,B/l962&FF=Xnight+club&searchscope=1&Da=&Db=&p=&SORT=A&2,2,,0,-1
http://henrietta.liswa.wa.gov.au/search/Xnight+club&searchscope=1&Da=&Db=&p=&SORT=A/Xnight+club&searchscope=1&Da=&Db=&p=&SORT=A&SUBKEY=night%20club/1,177,177,B/l962&FF=Xnight+club&searchscope=1&Da=&Db=&p=&SORT=A&2,2,,1,-1
http://henrietta.liswa.wa.gov.au/search/Xnight+club&searchscope=1&Da=&Db=&p=&SORT=A/Xnight+club&searchscope=1&Da=&Db=&p=&SORT=A&SUBKEY=night%20club/1,177,177,B/l962&FF=Xnight+club&searchscope=1&Da=&Db=&p=&SORT=A&2,2,,2,-1
nightclub, 70’s
http://henrietta.liswa.wa.gov.au/search/Xnightclub+picture&searchscope=1&SORT=A/Xnightclub+picture&searchscope=1&SORT=A&extended=0&SUBKEY=nightclub%20picture/1,9,9,B/l962&FF=Xnightclub+picture&searchscope=1&SORT=A&2,2,,0,-1
I searched ‘post industrial post punk alternative psychobilly photo’ but there’s nothing in there. Bah.
OK I’m on a roll. Some parrot punters at the lime spiders:
http://davidgerard.co.uk/pf/07/pf0703.gif
and possibly more of that sort of thing at the links here:
http://davidgerard.co.uk/pf/07/
All of which puts me in mind of a Patrick Cook cartoon from, well, I won’t say when, poor lisa:
“And so Ben Ean, we meet again.”
Love your work, poor lisa. Thanks so much for those links. When I’ve got some serious spare time I’ll read through those zine articles.
Some of the zine advertisements are classic worst, I think. This one > http://davidgerard.co.uk/pf/07/pf0708.gif
for Black n Blue Records may be the first and only time I’ll read an advertisement for a record store, or anywhere else for that matter, which enigmatically boasts ” Conveniently located next to public toilets ”
And I’m sure this one > http://davidgerard.co.uk/pf/07/pf0709.gif
was Ken from The Equator’s beautiful take on the Red Parrot logo. It was arguably a far more accurate representation, if not at the beginning, then certainly toward the end of the evening.
The caption on the Triffids photo is a charming touch too … ” If you don’t know by now which is which then you’re an ignorant bastard. “
Just a couple of memories from this thread. Remember that little coffee shop called Ophelia’s or Obellias (or something like that) in the laneway between Gobbles and Murray St…also Ric Chan used to be DJ at Gobbles and I think he wrote a column in the Sunday Times
OH MY GOD.
what a fun time we all had Jim King i miss you and the missus
If anyone is interested the lead singer Mark from Thou Gideon is living on his property in rural Darwin and is a very good friend of mine….I moved here too in 98 needing to escape from Perth and a few demons…..He’s so chilled out now, and is DJing around town… trance, hip-hop, 70’s 80’s and 90’s stuff….very eclectic! From eating raw fish and throwing dogfood to growing pawpaws…..Oh how we all change….Oh and hi DJ wayne…..good to see you’re still around….I don’t remember many people from the firm days….too many drugs…..but hey…..it was the first club i every went to and it was fucking fun….
Was actually MY logo Snuff…..and yes it was a pisstake of the parrot
Thanks for that correction, Tren, and for the terrific logo. I’m sure you understand that it’s not easy to recall anything related to Equator. How good was it that night the cops raided and couldn’t work out who was supposed to be running the place ? God knows it probably wasn’t much use trying to get sense out of Ken, or anyone else for that matter. Fine times.
yeah phsycadelic nights wednesdays
with me and Vincent djaying, i had too much to dream last night,. Oh man, im still doin it but its a little better still.
Gotta take and gather & bring forth to accumalate yeah.
Keep the faith brothers and sisters,.
Awwwwwlright
Oliver
and yes i am alive