By Erin Eddy
Every heavy music punter in Melbourne knows The Tote. It has incubated and hosted some of this country's biggest acts, such as King Parrot, Amyl & The Sniffers, Magic Dirt, The Beasts Of Bourbon, The Datsuns, The Hard Ons, Mudhoney, The White Stripes and the list goes on.
The building itself is 152 years old, but has been operating as a live music venue since 1981. If you’ll allow me to do the maths for you, that’s 41 years of punk, rock and metal marinated into the walls of this iconic structure.
In recent months, The Tote has been put on the market; not simply the business but the entire building. It has a hefty price tag of 6.6 million dollars, and unsurprisingly the Melbourne music community is extremely nervous that we’re about to witness the demise of one of the city’s most important hubs for rock and roll.
The heroes of this story are power couple Shane and Leanne, who have been at the helm of another legendary Melbourne music venue, The Last Chance Rock & Roll Bar, for around eight years now.
They have embarked on a quest which they have titled “The Last Chance To Save The Tote!”
Shane and Leanne have dedicated their entire adult lives to working in and running venues and they eat, sleep and breathe the city’s live music scene.
Shane says The Tote is a venue he has wanted to own and run for 20 years, and has been waiting for his chance to swoop in. But he was never expecting that when finally, his chance arose, that the sale would include the actual building itself, and therefore was not prepared for the price tag associated with that.
“I’ve wanted to run The Tote forever,” Shane told HEAVY, “simply because I love going to The Tote!”
“We knew that at some stage it would come up for sale, but we were kind of blindsided by the fact that the entire building was up for sale and the price that’s on it… it’s not doable.”
Shane isn’t exactly the type of person to let pesky finances deter him from a crusade to save this venue, however.
Together, he and Leanne and the patronage of The Last Chance Rock & Roll Bar have begun a crusade to raise funds for half of the asking price of the building, in a bid to save it from falling into the hands of developers, who Shane fears will convert this piece of history into “shitty apartments.”
“With a six-million-dollar price tag, it’s unattainable for someone who is passionate about music,” Shane laments. He’s calling upon the Australian music community to rally and attempt to achieve the seemingly impossible and ensure magical music moments continue to take seed within the walls of The Tote.
The deadline is this Thursday April 6 th .
“The time is now,” Shane says. “Don’t protect the walls, protect what happens within those walls. If we’re going to let our most important venue die because some shitty investor has lots of money and they want to build apartments, then we can’t claim to be the live music capital of the world.”
If Shane and Leanne are successful at obtaining The Tote, the first thing they’re going to do is put the building in trust, so that it remains untouchable and a live music mecca forever.
Shane is one of the most enthusiastic, passionate, salt of the earth people we at HEAVY have had the pleasure of speaking with and his bid to save The Tote is nothing short of admirable.
Please listen to our interview to get the scoop straight from the horse’s mouth, then make sure you hit up www.facebook.com/thelastchancerockandrollbar for updates on the campaign, and more importantly, to make a donation.
No money pledged will be taken from your bank account until the start of May, and donations will only be extracted IF the guys are successful at meeting their target. So pledge today, you have nothing to lose, and can be a part of Melbourne music history if the target is met.
The Last Chance Rock & Roll Bar is also hosting a pledge drive spectacular this Monday the 3 rd and Tuesday the 4 th of April, which will be live streamed via YouTube, with some of the industry's most well known musicians getting involved.