2015 was a right proper rollecoaster of a year – in February we were hit with the news Soundwave’s Adelaide days were numbered, disappointing fans and prompting Dave Grohl to come in and bat for us. By the year’s end, the whole festival seemed done and dusted.
It’s also been a year of huge stories at ripitup.com.au. We weighed up the balance between food trucks, “pop up” venues and fixed premises, examined the effect of lockout laws on our club scene in the wake of high profile closures, brought you an inside look at some of Adelaide’s most exciting new clubs and venues and premiered too many new Adelaide releases to count.
At other times, we tried to sit on Santa’s knee a bunch of times, hit all of Adelaide’s 24 hour bakeries in one calorie-intensive night, analysed which East End pubs serve the most head and asked important questions about Adelaide’s guilty fashion pleasure, the Sneans.
We saw old stables transformed into New Orleans themed whiskey bars in NOLA, Pink Moon Saloon build a mountain hut in a 4 metre-wide laneway and a garden café pop up on Hindley Street with its own adorable live-in bunnies. We saw a depressing new Adelaide record set for quickest live music venue closure, the Fat Controller reinvent the old Cavern and established venues expand their operations.
In short, it’s been a big 12 months for Adelaide and the wider world of music and culture. But which stories were you guys most taken with? Let’s find out.
Rip It Up’s biggest stories of 2015
15. Lessons we’ve learnt from TRADE*LAIDE
An opportunity to cast off the shackles of capitalism that quickly grew into its own huge, slightly eccentric online community, TRADE*LAIDE is an amazing place to both marvel at the generosity of complete strangers and score a sweet salt lamp on the cheap.
14. Are lockout laws destroying Adelaide’s club scene?
Adelaide’s West End saw a string of venue closures earlier in the year, with many operators pointing the State Government’s lock-out laws, which bar people from entering licensed venues after 3am (with the exception of the Adelaide Casino), as cause.
After a review of the code later in the year the Government opted to continue the program, albeit with a few tweaks. Debate continues, however.
13. 15 female Adelaide musicians you need to hear
The announcement of this year’s incredible, but all-male recipients of the State Government’s Stigwood Fellowship raised important questions about why dudes still tend to be over represented on our stages and record store shelves. Whatever the answers are, it certainly isn’t down to a lack of incredible talent around our city.
Photograph via Naomi Keyte/ Lauren Tropeano
12. NOLA Adelaide brings the Deep South to the East End
One of the more ambitious new bar projects to pop up in 2015, NOLA Adelaide transformed an old East End cellar into a beautifully rendered two story bar with an emphasis on whiskey, local craft beer and an air of Southern America.
11. New Adelaide farewells vegetarian unfriendly pub The Stag closes
The closure of The Stag pub sent Adelaide into overdrive in April, triggering debate about whether it was a sign of Adelaide’s stagnating pub economy or just a sign that maybe actively alienating a large chunk of potential customers wasn’t a sound marketing strategy. Then it reopened again, so it’s all good we guess.
10. New cafe and bar Peter Rabbit opens on Hindley
Drawing inspiration from post-earthquake Christchurch’s use of shipping containers, new Hindley Street foodspot Peter Rabbit proved an intriguing and colorful addition to the West End’s daytime trade. But what really seemed to capture people’s imaginations was the fully-fledged rabbit enclosure featuring two adorable little guests by the names of Flopsy and Mopsy. Obviously.
9. Social media campaign for Adelaide girl goes viral
A pretty incredible story of an entire community (and a bunch of internationally famous stars) rallying together to give Adelaide 20 year old Lauren Krelshem a birthday surprise as she continued treatment for Leukemia, the outpouring plus the coup of keeping it all a secret on social media made this a very remarkable gift.
8. Tijuana Showgirls called out for ‘transphobic’, ‘racist’ rebrand
Popular Hindley Street nightclub Tijuana Showgirls unveiled its latest rebrand back in March, but clearly never anticipated the wave of outcry their new (and still current) name ‘Go Go Lady Boy’ would provoke. Some on social media was quick to label the new name “offensive”, “racist” and “transphobic”, while others couldn’t see what the fuss was about. While the initial controversy died down, there are still some in the community pretty teed off that it went onto become an official Feast Festival venue.
7. Ja Rule and Ashanti choose Alice Springs over Adelaide
The ultimate 2000s RnB duo broke our hearts when they announced their would embark upon a long-awaited reunion tour in Australia, only to bypass Adelaide in favour of regional dates like Geelong and Alice Springs. While both eventually announced separate Adelaide dates, who can really hold it against our small regional pals who almost always get passed over.
6. AC/DC Australian tour support acts revealed
People sure were psyched to find out who would open AC/DC’s 2016 Rock Or Bust tour, although the comically apathetic reaction of Adelaide crowds to The Hives would beg to differ.
5. Royal Croquet Club reveal massive mainstage lineup
Controversy continued to swirl around Royal Croquet Club this year, but it couldn’t put a dint in how excited Adelaide was for the 2015 musical lineup bursting with acts including Mr Scruff, Hiatus Kaiyote, Remi, Oscar Key Sung, Banoffee, DJ Shadow and Bonobo. Sorry Victoria Square grass, Adelaide voted with its feet on this one.
4. Phone clock glitch causes wave of accidental sleep-ins around Adelaide
We were confused when ripitup.com.au writer Anna sent us all a text apologising for running late… at 7.00am in the morning. It turned out an “overnight maintenance upgrade” of the Optus 4G Plus mobile network caused some phones in SA and the Northern Territory – both with Optus and other carriers that use its network – to switch to a different timezone, and half of Adelaide ended up a bit out of sorts.
3. Dave Grohl defends Adelaide at Foo Fighters concert
Poor ticket sales and a lagging appetite for rock shows among Adelaide punters were frequently cited as the reason for Soundwave Adelaide’s demise this year, but Foo Fighters frontman and Nice Guy Dave Grohl took some time out from the band’s packed Adelaide show to point out that hey, people actually do come to concerts.
“I was reading the paper the other day and it was saying nobody in Adelaide comes to shows anymore, the music culture is dead, and a band like Foo Fighters can’t sell tickets,” he said. “This one is for all those promoters that think Adelaide doesn’t have a fucking rock scene.” Thanks Dave, you’re alright too.
2. 8 things we learnt at Groovin’ the Moo, Oakbank
The mud! The music! The… mud! This year’s Groovin’ the Moo was a delicious mess of incredible bands and shoe-destroying weather. Can’t wait ’til next year though!
1. Meet the world’s first Ned Flanders themed metal band
But, bewilderingly, far and above our biggest story of 2015 was that time we introduced the world to a Ned Flanders-themed metal named Okilly Dokilly. The Phoenix, Arizona were yet to play their first show when we reached out for their first ever interview via Facebook chat, and it went all kinds of vi-diddly-iral. We’re talking our-website-crashed-at-2am-when-America-woke-up-and-discovered-the-story viral.
“Myself and our drummer (Bled Ned) were in line at a grocery store, entertaining ourselves by coming up with really cutesy names for really hardcore, brutal bands,” singer Head Ned told us at the time. “The name Okilly Dokilly came up and was very funny to us,” he says. “We ran with it.”
The world is glad you did.
More you might like:
Rip It Up’s top 10 albums of 2015
Rip It Up’s top 5 films of 2015
Rip It Up’s top 5 TV shows of 2015
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