Greyhound Days

A Jewel in the Rough

The function room at The Greyhound Hotel was a major band venue, however on Saturday nights, the owners had allowed a group of their gay clientele to start a night called Social Identity – much to the annoyance of the band promoters since, of course, Saturday would have been a big earner. Social Identity (S.I.) had slowly evolved into a drag night run by one of the original S.I. founders.

Far distant from Collingwood and Commercial Road, the gay meccas, the average audiences were 40-80 patrons. The drag shows were enthusiastic amateurs, and the drag shows were mocked by the Drag Queens on Commercial Road. I remember the night I went to check out the Greyhound shows for the first time, a fellow from Sydney, looking to chat me up, asked if it was ‘amateur night’. His mistake was understandable.

With a regular audience of around 50, the performers were familiar with a lot of the audience, and with that familiarity came a casual approach to the stage. The microphone banter was often offensive, and not clever, with in-jokes, and racist remarks over the P.A.

It was an excellent venue for drag shows. A good stage, a large dressing room and an amazingly good live band P.A. system, which gave the show soundtracks even more power, having our tracks running that analogue ‘live’ sound.

Showbags Takes Over

I was offered management of the Saturday night entertainment by the promoter the week after I had hosted my first ever drag show. I’d gone all out advertising and getting a good line-up to ‘host’ and I drew an audience of 160 or so – which was twice the ‘best night we’ve had’, or so I was told. 

The following week, a lot of that audience returned, presumably expecting more of the week before, however because the promoter had allocated a different group to each Saturday, that week’s line-up was one of the terrible ones, and the first show opened with a standard song, followed by perhaps 30 minutes of the two hosts abusing each other. One performer was a Maori I think, either way, although they were good friends off-stage, their microphone banter was racist and crude. The audience heard only the racial insults, the F-ing and C-ing, and not a laugh to be heard.

The crowd had halved by the time of the second show that night, and the offensive routine was repeated by a different host. I took that moment to tell the promoter that all the work I’d done to draw an audience to the venue was being undone by what he was presenting on stage. To his credit he knew an opportunity when he saw one, and so he said to me “You’re in charge of Saturdays now”.

So I became the show creator/promoter, and so Saturdays became  The Early Show, The Late Show and the Showbags. 

As you may imagine, quite a few noses were put out of joint by this turn of events. The fact that the promoter didn’t mention this to anyone else meant that I was the one telling performers their run was done, which they discovered when I distributed a promo leaflet with the new show schedule. This started an anti-Amanda campaign that lasted quite a while, but success is hard to argue with. Their complaints to the promoter fell on deaf ears as the numbers climbed , and the Greyhound became a “destination.”

Wednesday Nights

The success of Saturdays led to Jess and me asking for a Wednesday night of our own, which we were granted and immediately set about doing something a little different to Showbags. So with Terri Tinsel from Pokeys we opened Wednesday nights with Hot Dogs and music around the subject of cars – “Car Wash”, “Hit The Road Jack” and so on. 

Wednesday is where we got the idea for Miss Melbourne Drag. Our version of the drag competitions that had been going on for years. Our point of difference was the prize money – with up to $20,000 worth of sponsor support one year.  MMD saw a lot of performers who graduated to the spotlight.

The Beginning of the End

Wednesday night is where we came to loggerheads with the promoter, when we launched Red Curtain. The show was unique in that it was all tied together in a loose narrative. The first time we’d done anything like that. Firstly we were congratulated on ‘the best drag show I’ve ever seen’ and then we were told ‘I want it on Saturday Night’, which was of course Showbags and a different cast.

I explained about Showbags cast – what does Vivien do? It would have been us shifting Showbags to Wednesday which didn’t worry me but the budget did. Wednesdays was on a shoestring, we had put all our profits into Red Curtain, and Vivien would expect the same pay as Saturdays.

We offered to put on a new Showbags like Red Curtain with two boy dancers if the budget went up, but that was flat out turned down. It was Red Curtain only. We said no and from that moment on the promoter began to lean on us; sending messages through third parties and demanding rent for the use of ‘his’ lights on Wednesdays. I was offended in view of all the free advertising Saturday received in my paid adverts, but the final blow was with The Early Show. The promoter decided to replace me and put in a new host, which in typical fashion I heard from my replacement.

I was angry, disappointed and hurt after all the work I’d put into the night; the whole night, not just the numbers through the door. The Early Show was building loyalty and giving queer Melbourne an opportunity at community, and the Late Show was launched weekly with the energy in the room already high. When I spoke to the Promoter about why, he had no real answer but he didn’t need one. It was evident that I was mistaken in my assessment of him. I thought we were building the best drag venue in Australia, and he was just counting the dollars at the end of Saturday nights, and playing in the petty world of drag gossip and politics. 

But that’s show biz, and so we opened our new Showbags show as planned.

The day after opening I received an email from the promoter, (for the first time ever), complaining about the show not being good enough and telling us we’d better fix it for the following Saturday. So after a brief email exchange, Jess and I quit.

Life After Showbags

The writing was on the wall, writ large before then with petty undermining and minor silly demands, and I knew I couldn’t go any further with drag at The Greyhound. We told Vivien, (who knew already via the grapevine – gossip we were leaving was apparently weeks old) and Viv decided to stay on as Saturday’s main attraction. Shortly after a group called The Classics, assembled by Kerry Le Gore took over Saturday nights until it was sold and became a nightclub. A few years later the building was sold to developers and demolished.

When it was demolished, some people collected bricks as souvenirs, such were the memories it fed. For me it was a magical time. I discovered what drag was about, I was able to practice the Art of drag and improve, and I also made some wonderful friends. How could I be sorry? Showbags ending at the Greyhound opened the future for Drags Aloud and our achievements there.