A Place To Go...

Rip It Up, Issue 88, 1 November 1984, Page 2

A Place To G 0...

Auckland’s under-age rock cabaret The Venue closes down with a gig by crowd favourites the Mockers on November but it won’t have been a total loss. As the club closes, 11 young Auckland bands will get their first release on record. All Dressed Up and No Place To Play is the name of a compilation album conceived and put together by the Venue’s mainman, Russ Le Roq. From the dozens of young bands who played at the Venue, Le Roq chose the 11 to be on the album and take advantage of a Lab Studios offer of a day’s recording for SIOO. He produced and mixed all the tracks himself with the aid of Lab’s owner Bill Lattimer and his staff. The average age of the performers on the record has been worked out at 18 years, two months and most attacked their first recording projects with an enthusiasm which comes through on the record.

"j' (There was a lot of energy in some, of the sessions,'' he said. "Actually, it was the bands with the most experience who were the most boring to record. They didn’t try as hard.” He said most of the bands on the record were part of a loose community that grew up around the Venue. “They all know each other, they help each other out, .they’re friendly in a competitive way. They'd get talking backstage, even exchange members.” , Financial problems have forced the Venue to go under, nine months after it opened in the old SPAM premises in Symonds St on Feb 11. Le Roq said lower than expeced audience numbers caused initial problems in covering overheads and when the Venue had to close down for two weeks Mn, August-because of violence from outsiders dealt finances a death blow, leaving him facing bankruptcy court not a pleasant experience , / The problem had been with teenagers coming up from Aotea Square because of . increased police pressure and coming to the Venue less for the music, than to bother .the existing patrons, he said: Tit would be easy to become a racist running the Venue. Which would be odd, seeing as I’m part Maori myself." But the Venue had its good

times too, highlighted perhaps by the final of its Liberty Stage band battle, which, saw 560 people cram in on a Saturday night. Russ Le Roq wouldn't be Russ Le Roq if he didnfhave another scheme or two underway. And he has. He wants to get back into performing himself (“I still want to be a pop star this has just been .like a year off from that.") and has put together a band to tour in the summer, one composed of younger musicians rather than the experienced players he has used previously. He also has three tracks of his own, recorded at Mandrill Studios which will be released when he has the readies to do it. .- ■ He wont be leaving his role as motivator behind, however. He's helping Wentworth, Brewster and Co. with a recording project and is considering an offer from the Waitemata Junior County Council to : run an underage venue in Henderson. All Dressed Up features Chinese Eyes, Stick No Bills, Broken Edge. Plastic Pegs, Autobahn, The In Crowd. Standing Joke, Third Wave, the Wait, Splitting Image and the Bellboys So what will happen to all those bands now? “I don't know, they’ll probably all break up,” he sighs. "But at least they’ll have done it and found out it's possible they wont be in awe of it any more" Russell Brown