Melbourne’s historic music venue The Palace will shut permanently in May.
Greg Young, general manager of The Palace, says that the fight to extend the lease with the current landlord has been exhausted and that the historic venue will be turned into a hotel and apartment complex.
Applications with the Victoria State Government and the Melbourne City Council to find an alternative location have also come to a dead end, thus ending one of Melbourne’s prime music locations for the last 150 years.
The original building was erected in 1860 and operated as The Douglas Theatre until it was destroyed by fire in 1911. The current building was reopened in 1912 as Brennan’s National Theatre for Vaudeville promoter James Brennan. After an internal redesign in 1916 the venue became known as The Palace Theatre.
In 1940 the building underwent a name change to the Apollo Theatre. In 1940 it was purchased by MGM and operated as St James Theatre and The Metro. It was last us a movie theatre in 1970. The final screening was the Academy Award winning Kelly’s Heroes.
In 1971-1972 The Metro as it was now known was the home of the Melbourne 39-week season of of the musical ‘Hair’.
In 1980 the venue was purchased by religious group The Revival Centre who used it as a Church. It was sold in 1987 and once again became the Metro Nightclub.
In 2007 the former owners of The Palace in St Kilda took over the operation and restore the name back to The Palace.
International acts including Slash and Duran Duran have performed at The Palace.
Karnivool, Jurassic 5, Killswitch Engage, Jake Bugg, Dizzy Rascal, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Ugly Kid Joe, Skid Row and John Newman are scheduled to perform at the venue before it closes on May 31.
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