If you were a punk or goth hanging around Brisbane City in the '70s and '80s, chances are you spent a fair bit of time at popular counter-culture haunt White Chairs.
White Chairs was a bar in the Carlton Hotel [now just a facade on Queen St Mall], which stretched from Queen St through to Elizabeth St and also housed clubs Wilson's and Twelve Seats. The club passed into history when it was demolished to make way for the Myer Centre, but the memories remain for the club kids who called it home.
As such, the second Return To White Chairs reunion brings the old crew back together thanks to mastermind Susan Welch who was also a member of Brisbane '80s new-wave band The Hostages.
The show features some classic local acts from the time, with most of the bands reforming exclusively for the reunion. Bands like RAZAR, Toy Watches, Scrap Metal, Chrysalids, Horny Toads and more will be on hand to rock out like the good old days.
We have a chat with Marc Austin-Zande, who is part of the team putting together the Return To White Chairs 2 night.
What are some of your favourite memories of spending time at White Chairs?
[Marc] The juke box. White Chairs had the best juke box in the country. But aside from that, the best memories would have to be meeting people, people from some very different backgrounds, belonging to very different sub-cultures (goths, punks, skinheads) and yet all bonded by the same love of music and the same hatred of the State Government and its police force of the era.
On a regular Friday or Saturday night, who might you run in to at White Chairs?
Friends… pure and simple. It was a meeting place, a place to gather and decide 'where to' for the rest of the evening. Of course, there were many new friendships made there too as it was such a comfortable, friendly environment.
Now and then you’d notice members of various Brisbane bands having a drink and you’d say hello to them. There were occasions when high profile international touring artists would pop their head in. The bar was diagonally across the road from Festival Hall and local crews would no doubt inform artists of the laidback bar across the road.
What made it such an important venue in Brisbane at the time?
White Chairs was different to just about every other bar in Brisbane because of the friendliness and the feeling of safety. In our pre-social media, indeed pre-mobile phone era, it was a great place to hook up with friends and plan the night out. There were a dozen venues within walking distance, so it was a logical meeting place.
What are you looking forward to most about the Return To White Chairs reunion show?
Two things rate equally for me (and for many) and they are catching up with old friends from that era, some of which contact was lost decades ago, and the other is quite obviously the bands.
This is a rare opportunity to see many of these bands reformed, let alone on the same bill. Ultimately seeing RAZAR, 40 years on, has to be the most exciting opportunities in years, indeed, decades.
Who are you hoping will attend?
Well, old friends for a start. I do hope the White Chairs regulars will be there but I also hope a younger demographic come and check out what the fuss is all about.
This was Brisbane's underground music of the era, politically driven by reaction to the Bjelke-Petersen Government and the virtual police state we lived in, and I feel the generations to follow can’t quite grasp the importance of this era.
Brisbane was truly a hotbed of restless young people and the punk music that evolved from that is without peer; it was real anger, real protest and real restlessness. There was nothing ‘plastic’ about our punk movement. It wasn’t contrived, it wasn’t created to generate money, it was spontaneous.
RAZAR played a notorious reunion show in 1989 at The Speakeasy in Brisbane.
As a hot spot for teens and counter-culture, no doubt it was also popular with police during Sir Joh's authoritative reign?
Ah yes, it certainly did attract a certain demographic but none of us recall ever noticing anything like we did at the band venues where police were a regular, uninvited presence and often things went very badly with the police turning violent against teen punks.
'Offensive language' was enough to get you dragged out by the hair, bundled into a paddy wagon and taken back to the watch house to be [finger]printed. Nothing much ever came of these incidents, but the police then had you on record.
Was it ever dangerous to be part of the White Chairs scene?
Not at all. If anything, White Chairs was a ‘safe space’ for all of us.
This is the first show for RAZAR in 29 years after “a notorious show at a Brisbane speakeasy”; what happened at their last show?
The 1989 reunion was most notable for the 800 attendees cramming into a 370-capacity venue! It was hot, jam-packed and I keep meeting people who were there but who didn’t see the band at all. They could hear the band but there was no way of making eye contact with the stage.
Nobody had, in their wildest dreams, imagined this show would be so popular. There was about two weeks of promotion, photocopied handbills passed around, poster runs and some local radio mentions and yet none of those involved in the show imagined the response.
There are also a slew of other bands performing; what are the highlights?
Every one of them! Obviously RAZAR are the top of the bill, even the other bands are excited about seeing them play. Ipswich’s Toy Watches were also a pretty wild band. For me, there’s not one band on the bill that I would miss out on seeing.
There are twelve bands playing and of those, eight are reforming just for this show. The remaining four are current bands who are made up of members who hail from bands of the era. There’s nothing to not like about any of the show.
Apart from the bands, what else can audiences expect from RTWC 2?
Punters will be treated to a massive slideshow of images form the era. There will be thousands of images projected including band photos, people and places shots, poster images, and all of it form the 1977 to 1987 Brisbane scene.
Naturally there will be merchandise available including autographed posters, shirts and other mementos. Of course there will also be the camaraderie, and you can’t put a price on that.
