Way back in January 2006, before YourSpace was called YourSpace, iPods hadn’t been invented, Indie-Electro wasn’t yet a genre and the Sly Fox Hotel didn’t have live music, a group of musos got together to start an open mic night. It ran weekly, first at the @Newtown RSL, then at The Shannon an Irish pub in Chippendale, followed by a short stint at the legendary Marrickville warehouse space The Cadfactory.
Throughout these early days, many artists came and went, many house whites and ales were consumed and a whole lot of new friendships and jam bands were created. A regular group of devoted musos and fans attended regularly so a new musical community was born. Easter 2007 found the ‘YourSpace’ music night move to the Sly Fox Hotel in Enmore. Starting with ‘we’ll give it a couple of weeks and see how it goes’ from the lovely and generous then-Manager of the Fox, Arlene – YourSpace soon settled in to its new Thursday night home, one that would go on to host YS every week (besides xmas) for – as of this week – 2 years!
With the venue jumps and name changes, founding members were shed and regimes were changed. Online promotion kicked in and word-of-mouth grew the night from a simple open mic with 3 or 4 acts each week (and a whole heap of drinking and jamming) to a live music event with 10+ full bands, singer-songwriters, spoon-players, comics, electronic artists, harpists, performance artists…and a whole heap of drinking and jamming.
With an open policy of anyone can play (the only rule being you must be 18+) the YS stage provides a totally open-minded, all-genre-friendly, supportive environment for people to share their music, whether they are new to the scene, an established band trying out new material or just having a jam.
In the last 2 years at the Sly Fox, YourSpace has hosted well over a 1,000 musical acts, of every genre you can imagine along with most instruments, from double necked flying Vs, melodias and accordions to marimbas, pan-drums, lagerphones and toy pianos – you name it.
Another element of YourSpace is the inclusion of the visual arts. Each week paper, textas and plasticine are provided for the audience and players to design artworks, drawings and moulded creations which are then photographed and/or scanned for inclusion on the YS MySpace. The art is also on show each night in bound albums and on our plasticine artwork display. The amount of musos that have played can only be matched by the amount of artworks collected.
So now that YourSpace has hit the 2 year mark at the Sly Fox, it’s time for a birthday celebration – Thursday 9th April – YourSpace will host a wild party featuring performances by over 25 acts, a giant pass-the-parcel, the usual raffle hi-jinks along with a couple of birthday surprises, PLUS as the next day is Good Friday everyone can have a nice sleep in.
The night will be hosted by long-time MC’S: Grantus Jacquet and Rex Havoc, with performances by YS alumni, old-school and new. 10 Bands: The Kandy Apples, TRIP, Baba O’Riley, Trojan Pony, supersede, Yum Cha Blues, The Walk On By, Deaf Hedge, Protect The Innocent and Upside Down Miss Jane and 15 Solos: Captain Brendan Parker, Elias Jordan, Matt Reilly, Bel Woods, Melanie Sawayama, Heidi Elva, Zelda, Yu Si Liu, Being, Sally Hackett, Attila, Simon Li, TAOS, Tommy Picket and Ken McLean
Kicking off at 7pm as always with FREE ENTRY, $8 cocktails 6-9pm, FREE POOL and $10 jugs til 11pm expect a MONSTER open stage jam session after the booked acts
For more info on YourSpace and to book yourself in to play sometime down the line, visit: http://www.myspace.com/getyourspace
YourSpace is presented by Cadence Commotions, if you are looking for gigs around Sydney, add yourself to the database via http://www.myspace.com/cadencecommotions
