One of Brisbane's most well-known music venues has been confirmed as permanently closed, ending months of uncertainty.
West End's iconic Music Kafe officially shut its doors on February 18, with the Public Trustee unable to find a buyer for the venue. The Kafe had been managed by receivers since October 2012 when the new owner was found to have obtained the business through fraud. Booking manager and local musician Sandy Heron confirmed the closure and the bizarre events that led to the venue's demise.
“It's quite a story,” Heron explained. Following a battle with liquor licensing in early 2012, Heron said the business's owner, Fred Loukaras, was eventually forced to sell. The South Korean woman who bought the Kafe — identified only as Mrs X — would later be brought to Court on fraud charges for siphoning her elderly Australian husband's money into her own accounts. The new owner “was only here for a week, and then she went back to Korea,” Heron said. Australian and Korean businesses and properties purchased by the woman were then frozen and placed on the market by receivers.
“We were managed by receivers for three months,” Heron said. “It was weird, since we'd always been grassroots. When they decided it wasn't making enough money, it was closed.”
Heron recalls being abruptly informed on February 18 the venue would close. “I got a text message the day before [it closed] from the new manager saying 'Come and get your stuff. Show's over.' It was a sad job having to call all of the bands booked months in advance to cancel.”
Rupert Faust, owner of Beanstalk Records, said he had bands booked in for 19 February when he received Heron's memo. “I had a band booked for the Tuesday and found out from Sandy on the Monday,” he said.
The vibrant Boundary Street venue, formerly known as blues cafe Satchmo's, was purchased in late 2008 by Loukaras “with the concept of music for everybody,” said Heron. Thus, the Music Kafe was born. Offering live music every night, Heron was booking around 30 gigs a week. “It was an easy gig for musos to just rock up and rock on,” Heron said of the venue's setup. “Monday was open mic night, we had touring artists, underage bands, and lots of bands played their first gigs there: We The Ghosts, Emma Louise, Thelma Plum.”
Heron believes that the local music scene will suffer without a venue like the Music Kafe. “It is a massive loss; there really wasn't anywhere else like that. It's a big loss for garage bands wanting to get out of the garage and onto the stage.”
Heron is planning an RIP gig for the Music Kafe on April 6 as a thank-you to the musicians and staff, and is in the process of securing a West End venue and a line-up of local acts. More information to come.
