This weekend’s A Day By the Green, the 11th since the members of Cold Harbour first conceived and organised the event, features another stellar line-up of bands. Headlined by Kim Salmon and the Surrealists, the gig includes sets from Bittersweet Kicks (“they’re just back from Europe, where they absolutely killed it,” enthuses Nick Haines, Cold Harbour’s manager and fellow co-organiser of the festival), Geelong garage band The Living Eyes, Devil Rock 4, Kim Volkman and the Whisky Priests, Long Holiday, Los Dominados and, of course, Cold Harbour. “This will be the longest time we’ve had off for a while,” Teluk says. “Evan’s been overseas, and Vincent’s got a couple of young kids, so we took a bit of a break. But we’ve been back in the studio, and we’ll be playing a new song on the night – plus finishing off with an Oz rock classic!”
A change of management at the St Kilda Bowling Club hasn’t stopped the thrice-yearly event from returning. And, subject to the usual hard economic realities, it’s hoped A Day By the Green continues for a while longer. “It’s been great seeing a lot of the bands we’ve had play go on to do bigger things,” Teluk says. “Bittersweet Kicks have just come back from Europe, Burn in Hell have done a couple of overseas tours, Ron Peno’s over there at the moment. And there’s also been lots of bands that have got to know each other, and have gone onto organise shows with each other after playing together at A Day By the Green,” Teluk says.
While St Kilda remains under-represented in Melbourne’s live music scene – notwithstanding the emergence of smaller venues such as the Lyrebird in Ripponlea and Lost in St Kilda – there is the occasional glimmer of hope. “There are some venues around that’ll host bands, but it’s hard because of the noise restrictions that have hurt places like Pure Pop,” Teluk says. Haines and Teluk are, however, quietly confident that St Kilda’s rock’n’roll heritage may yet be celebrated on a semi-permanent basis if a fledgling idea for a performing arts museum at the old Crystal Ballroom can garner support. “It’s the perfect place for it,” Haines muses. “You can’t do anything else with the Ballroom – it’s heritage listed, you can’t have bands there because of the noise restrictions, and you can’t put offices there. It’s a great space – you could have a mixture of permanent and rotating exhibitions.”
With St Kilda Walking Music Tours (featuring Fred Negro and Fiona Lee Maynard) offering punters the opportunity to witness the colourful, infamous and occasionally dangerous sights of St Kilda punk rock history, St Kilda’s punk rock heritage is certainly not being forgotten.
Beyond this weekend’s event, A Day By the Green is scheduled to return in January for the summer leg of the event. There are contemplations of a live compilation of bands featured at the event over the years, and even a two-day festival at the same venue. “If we could get someone to do a decent recording of the day, I reckon that’d work really well,” Haines says. “We’d want to capture the vibrancy of the event,” Teluk says, “because that’s why we do it. It’s a really fun day, and that’s why we keep organising it.”
BY PATRICK EMERY
