Kings Cross Whispers

Art Deco Idyll

I am in Sydney to perform as one of five singers in an homage to Lou Reed. Lou Reed the actual iconic singer and songwriter and persona who lived within stand alone iconic status for most of his career. Many copied him and some succeeded in elevating their own talents to greater heights than they otherwise would have by doing so.

The Velvet Underground of course, as well as his own solo career, the beginning of which he was constantly measured up to the instantly iconic band he had led and left. The drama was ongoing. The critics were on his side, hissing at him always.

Generations of indie bands emulated “The Velvets” in looks and sound. Part of the sound for instance being the primitive drumming of Mo Tucker. This led to a savage constriction in indie ideology against the use of any tom toms or ride cymbals, probably to this day and onwards!

People into the Velvet Underground (and the Stooges) had so much invested in the bands mythology that they sometimes sounded as if they had been members themselves.

We recorded a song called VELVETS MC in 2023 and my lyric was marinating in all this clubbish intrigue…

Anyway, I’m only singing one Velvet Underground song and mostly doing Lou Reed solo material songs from the 70s. All upbeat groovers. I have been listening to these five or six songs over and over and thinking about Lou Reed and how he managed his situations and how he communicated and wrote and sang and led bands and held bands together and dealt with his legend and the business as well as “what becomes a legend most?” . I have gotten to like him even more than I did.

I am looking forward to it!

Meanwhile, we took a walk around the Kings Cross area with a guide book for art deco buildings. It was a lovely, mild Sydney day and we walked out of Kings Cross station and started along Darlinghurst Road. This place is fascinating to myself and Clare Moore as we spent so much time passing in and out and through here from the early 80s to the early 2000s. It was Australias den of iniquity, it’s hollow for sin, it’s erogenous armpit. Stepping out of a car into ground zero Kings Cross in its prime (which began well before the Vietnam War with its influx of US soldiers and sailors and drugs and rock’n’roll) was exciting. The air was fizzing, electric. Warm, humid, full of fumes, smoke , lights and noise. Madness. Now it’s like a fairground in daylight with all the magic and most of the set disappeared and the spell broken. Darlinghurst Road has lovely grey gum tress that hang overhead which must have been hanging over so much street drama for a hundred years. Now its all very quiet and genteel. No sex, no drugs, just real estate. Still beautiful and perhaps still a home for some lucky bohemians. Built on hard Sydney rock and made on hills and valleys and around surprising quiet bays of water. The name Kings Cross to me probably takes in Woolloomooloo, Double Bay, Darlinghurst. It’s a vibe.

Pretty much all the photos taken by Clare Moore.

Outside what was formerly the Manzil Room / Springfields.

directly across the lane from the old Manzil Room, still a bit of what architectural folk would call SCUZZ.

Humble apartment block in Springfield Avenue.

The Hotel New Hampshire where all the Australian out of town bands stayed in the 80s/90s. Now apartments.

A whole band could stay in a studio apartment here and leave the gear in the underground carpark.

Former art deco theatre and then former offices of film producer George Miller after the success of Mad Max.

I think this was the back of the Elizabeth Bay building where David Bowie had an apartment from 1983-1992. Looking onto the bay shown above.

The font is great here, it says CHATSBURY.