Sydney's nightlife will be given a much-needed jumpstart when Home The Venue re-launches as a premier entertainment destination.
Home The Venue is getting a new lease on life courtesy of Stephen Sewell, who is the director of entertainment management company Kingdom Sounds. Under his guiding hand, Stephen aims to reinvigorate Home The Venue's image as a hub for live, electronic music.
“For about ten years Home's just been a programmed club,” Stephen says. “It's a huge venue down by Darling Harbour with multiple rooms. Now it's going into a new phase where it's going to become a ticketed venue for international and national live, electronic acts.”
“We're going to put Home The Venue on the map; obviously it's a very popular and established space, but we're very confident that this venue is going to go into the limelight a lot more with what we're bringing.”
As director of Kingdom Sounds, Stephen manages 18 other venues across New South Wales and says the move into Home The Venue represents an expansion by his company to attract more high-calibre live electronic acts to perform in Australia. “We're especially into the electronic realm and the company is moving further and further into that space. We still do lots of live shows for bands and electronic acts, but we're gravitating more towards the electronic side of things.
“I feel in Sydney that nothing provides an amazing platform for big, live electronic acts. Obviously you've got staple venues like Metro Theatre and Manning Bar, which sit more in the live band space, but this is really going to take the forefront of venues in the city.”
Image suppliedWorking with Stephen is booking agent Matt Wise, who says Home The Venue provides a perfect arena for accommodating the larger acts they will be bringing to the venue. “Especially in terms of the size of the space and the double levels as well,” Matt says, “that's something that in the electronic world creates a great vibe, particularly with the past acts we've had there as well.”
Stephen echoes Matt's comments, adding the revived Home The Venue will be a boon for the local night-time culture and economy by facilitating bigger productions for both 18-plus and all-ages audiences. “Home already provides a really cool venue for Sydney nightlife,” he says, “but we're bringing in even bigger nationals and internationals, a lot of the Triple J acts and a lot of touring acts will now have their EP, album and single tours in this venue.
"Rather than play in the standard club format they'll do their own headline shows. That's the space that we're in and we're very excited to be working on it because there's not really anything like it in the city.”
Matt adds: “It also opens up the ability to have the 18-plus and under-18 events as well, which is very exciting for people who follow music.”
Stephen and Matt both bring a wealth of professional music industry experience to their respective management roles with Stephen saying the addition of Home The Venue to the Kingdom Sounds roster is a natural progression for the company. “I've been booking live shows and events since I was 22 and I'm now 37, so I have a lot of experience,” Stephen says.
“Kingdom Sounds has 18 different venues on the roster and I think what we can bring to Home The Venue is something that it hasn't had for the past ten years and that is to create more of a ticketed, headline spectacle for touring acts.
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“We're super pumped on it. We're going to put Home on the map; obviously it's a very popular and established space, but we're very confident that this venue is going to go into the limelight a lot more with what we're bringing.”
In moving away from the 'superclub' tag left over from its halcyon days as a clubbing behemoth, Home The Venue will continue to run its standard club and DJ evenings that have made it a clubber's paradise since opening its doors in 1998. “It will be a slightly tweaked model than it was before,” Stephen explains.
“Back in the day there were three big clubs in the country, they would fly acts over and run them through the clubs and have personal relationships with all the big acts.
“Then the festival scene came in and that's why clubs don't do a lot of the big international acts anymore, but now we've changed the format of the venue. They'll all be coming back in because we'll be working with all the different festival owners and promoters to bring their acts out.”
As Home The Venue strives to reclaim its former crown as Sydney's prime, electronic music hotspot, Stephen and Matt are excited to roll out their strategy for the live portion of the club's regeneration. “Our vision is that we'll stick to the producers and DJs for the first six months, but we're very keen to be bringing the live element to the venue,” Stephen says.
“Because other venues tend to shy away from the electronic realm, this one has its arms open for the electronic scene. The cool part about the live element is that it will give the venue more credibility and more variety.”
Located in Darling Harbour, Home The Venue returns 7 July with Kayzo headlining; other notable events include RL Grime Afterparty 28 July and Cosmic Gate 1 September.
