Whole Lotta Love + Post Office Hotel

LIVE MUSIC for free on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights as part of their beloved free gig series – full of some of Melbourne’s best up-and-coming acts. FAMOUS FOR their weekly Tuesday trivia nights, where you can grab as many $12 pizzas as you can eat. INFAMOUS FOR their extended Thursday night happy hour – stretching from 5 – 11pm, that’s a lot of time to guzzle their $9 pints. A two story venue located on High Street, the Thornbury Local are a huge supporter of the ultra-local live music scene. “This is a local’s bar,” says co-owner Nick Darling. “The kitchen’s open late seven days a week and we’ve always got music on.” Co-owner Daniel Crowe adds “We feel incredibly lucky to be part of such an friendly and supportive community. It’s been exciting to see how the neighbourhood has grown and changed over the years to support a bustling nightlife and live music scene. Thornbury is the place to be!” They’re known for their live music series, where they invite local acts to play on their stage in a series of free gigs that take place every week on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Enjoy, or perform in, their open mic on Wednesdays from 8pm, accompanied by $12 burgers. “Ours is really an incredibly bustling, fun community of people that come every week,” Darling continues. “There’s always a couple of new people who’ve never been here before. The hosts are very focused on getting the new people up onstage as a priority. Relax after work with an extended happy hour on Thursday between 5 – 11pm, where the kitchen dishes out $1 buffalo wings and buffalo cauliflower bites, as well as $9 pints. With friendly staff, two levels of funky bars and North-American style flavours from the kitchen, visit the Thornbury Local and discover why it’s so beloved by the regulars.

Head on down to The Thornbury Local on 635 High Street, Thornbury. They’re open ‘til late from 3pm Monday – Thursday and midday Friday – Sunday.

LIVE MUSIC takes place on the front stage. With standing room only, they’re up and close, intimate gigs. FAMOUS FORthe friendly staff and locals, if it’s your first time, or your hundredth visit, you’ll always be welcomed at Whole Lotta Love and feel right at home INFAMOUS FOR their Led Zeppelin murals – the rock legends take up the entire back wall watching over you as you enjoy your beer, while the stage backdrop is one of the most recognisable around. A bastion of the local music scene that gives as many acts as possible a chance to perform – whether it’s your first gig ever or you’re a bigger artist looking to sell out a more intimate show. They’re small, but they pack a punch, you can get cosy in this small venue or hang out in their wood-panelled garden with heaters and umbrellas.

Supporting local artists at all points of their career, the musicians perform on a stage that faces the small and intimate bar, making it the perfect place to get up close and personal with an up-and-coming act. They’re a Led Zeppelin themed bar, but they support a diverse range of genres, running everything from open mic nights and acoustic showcases, to brutal metal or groove laden blues. Come for the bands, stay for the vibes.

Now, after surviving a pandemic, state of emergency, lockdowns, development threats, and just the challenge of operating a live music venue in Melbourne, The Whole Crew are celebrating the last 11 years with 11 special gigs throughout July, and you are all invited to be part of it.

Rock out at Whole Lotta Love by heading to 524 Lygon Street, Brunswick East. They’re open from 4pm Tuesday to Sunday.

Words By Sidonie Bird de la Coeur

“It’s not an easy process, moving a radio station,” says Adrian Basso, the outgoing general manager of PBS, in something of an understatement.

In his 15-years steering the community radio station – champions of local artists, little-heard music, niche genres and under-represented voices – Basso has ensured they’ve continued broadcasting through a global financial crisis, the Covid pandemic and, most recently, physically relocating every last piece of equipment to the station’s shiny new high-tech home. With the 2022 PBS Radio Festival recently completed, when volunteer presenters ask listeners to ‘Complete The Connection’ by either joining or renewing their membership, they did so from the $2.5 million digital studios they moved into over Christmas, which are conveniently located 200 metres from their previous building. Public support is the bedrock upon which PBS can not only survive, but thrive. PBS, which stands for Progressive Broadcasting Service, began life back in the late ’70s in St Kilda, moving to Easey Street in Collingwood in 2001. “We knew that was coming to an end, because the building got sold and the new people weren’t going to extend any further terms,” explains Basso of the move they had been logistically pre-planning for years. “Sort of like Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, you open them up, but there’s nothing behind it”

“Collingwood Yards popped up just around the corner, which timing wise, was perfect. Conceptually, perfect,” he says of the Johnson Street location, where they are now neighbours with The Push, Music Victoria “and a whole bunch of other like-minded music organisations, or just creative organisations, so it’s a precinct that’s bustling with creativity.

“When the opportunity came about we put in an expression of interest and were the first tenant to be announced, and because of the complexity of building studios and all the tech, we’re the last tenant to move in.” The relocation process involved 25 large skip bins as they demolished the old studios, salvaging what they could for others to benefit from. “A lot of the stuff we repurposed, like some of the old desks we gave to other community radio stations, so we’ve sent one up to an Indigenous station in central Australia,” he says.

Some pieces of history made their way across, such as the old entrance doors with their “little PBS backlit light, quite a part of the fabric of the station” that featured in the background of countless guest Instagram photos. They’re now inside, decorating the corridors.

“Sort of like Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, you open them up, but there’s nothing behind it.”

The move has also included updating a lot of gear. “This is probably the first time that we’ve had a lot of new stuff, ever,” he states emphatically. “Most of the time it’s been secondhand, recycled, reused, like we’ve re-purposed a lot of things because that’s the nature of what we like to do. We’re not into contributing to landfill, by any means; and always quite frugal. But it’s nice to have something new that we know is brand new and it won’t break!”

Impressively, the move was navigated without a moment of dead air, as they continued broadcasting the entire time. PBS, which can also be listened to via digital radio, web-streaming and PBS-On-Demand, can now settle in to the next chapter.

“It’s like when it moved from St Kilda to Collingwood. This is a new era for the station, new facilities in an exciting precinct, and all that that brings, there’s lots of possibilities,” says Basso, which is why come mid-year, he will step down as GM. “The station is fully equipped for the future and I think it’s just time for me to do something else, and hand over the reins to someone who can write the next chapter,” he says.

Basso says he’s proud to be leaving PBS 106.7FM poised for an exciting future. “That’s not just for us,” he clarifies. “It’s for music lovers, musicians, it’s for the community. I feel like a custodian of an institution and it’s a quite a living and breathing organisation.” While PBS exists for the listeners, they also can’t function without listener support. “We need people to get behind us to keep this great institution going, so it’s the time of year that fills the tank and keeps us on the journey for the coming year,” he says of the current membership campaign.

As he prepares for his final day, Basso says his time there has been both wonderful and rewarding, and moving on is not without emotion. “Yeah, I’ll miss the place. But, there’ll be the next me, they’ll go through it and then they can miss the place. Hopefully, the station will be here for decades and decades to come and I’ve got no doubt it will”.

Listen to PBS at 106.7FM or via their website.

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