The Empire is Dead. Long live the Empire!

Here's a message to all Sydney pubs from me, written by New York poet Chi Chi Valenti

Take back the Night

Take it back from mere attitude and return it to grand gesture.

Take it back from every futures trader yearning for a new life.

Take it back from sweater consultants and out-of-town investors.

Return it to ruined men with no feeling for the masses, and no stomach for the shameless sell.

The Empire Hotel in Annandale is the self-proclaimed Home of Sydney Blues. Right now it is closed for renovations, until September 16.

Can you put new wine in old bottles?

The good news. When it re-opens, the Empire will have a new backstage area (no more stumbling over guitars lined up in the hallway) and a beer garden (so you can hear the music and have a smoke).

The bad news? Well, let's hope it doesn't become a sports bar with fluorescent lighting and bored DJs. I'd prefer the old betting area with the blue TV glare of the horses races in Hong Kong than that!

They wouldn't, would they? On the final week before it closed for renovations, on a cold June night standing outside on Parramatta road for a smoke, I heard many rumours from the local regulars. But the website is still taking bookings for gigs when they re-open, so that's a good sign.

I just hope The Empire doesn't become one of these pubs popping up like cool death around Sydney and about as atmospheric as a dentist's waiting room.

I DON'T WANT MY BLUES CLEAN - I DON'T GO THERE IN THE DAYLIGHT!!!

The Empire I know is the one place in Sydney where you expect to see Bukowski in the corner writing a poem on a napkin. Blues music thrives in an environment of barflys, beer-spilt carpets and dark corners. A talk, a drink and people playing their soul. That's what it's about.

Chris, the bar manager, said it will be kinda retro and not too futuristic "so if you throw up it won't disappear into nothing." It will have air-conditionining. But without the mask of cigarette smoke there’s always the smell of stale beer, sweat and Parramatta Road.

Hmm. I know which carcinogens I'd prefer in the "Home of Sydney Blues."

Somehow I don't think out-of-town investors, futures traders and sweater consultants are reading from the same song book.

Here's the url to The Empire Hotel Annandale's webpage.
(btw - no one is paying me, worst luck. This is merely a salute for those about to rock. There are very few places left in Sydney to do that anymore, so let's keep it alive.)