7 January 2008

The night that the music died.

| Pandy
Join the conversation
37

The owner of Toast had with his battle with the adjoining Waldorf apartments, closed and re-opened Toast a couple of times over the last few years. Toast as we know closed down some weeks ago, because they were ordered not to play amplified music after 10pm which made the place unviable: Or so we were told.

Last night I walked past the Waldorf around midnight. Across the road from them is the City YHA backpackers. There must have been a hundred people outside sitting and standing around the pavement tables having noisey conversations. From downstairs in the pub a noisey band was playing with the sound zooming-up the scale everytime someone opened the front door. All this noise must have made it difficult to sleep in the apartments.

How could the YHA be allowed to operate thus? So is this the case of one standard for Toast? Or had Toast just become a tired-worn out venue?

Join the conversation

37
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest

What is wrong with Academy and the Uni Pub?

Anyway, Monkeybar has the b8uzz of being the new Toast.

That rumour probably only came about because there’s a vacant spot where Impact/JB was. The reason I doubt it is because Toast occupied the shop where Impact USED to be, before it moved to the downstairs shop. People are probably getting their past confused with their future.

And if they change Transit Bar, then I’ll get militant about it. Toast was old and smelly, even if they did put in a good effort in running an alternative club. Transit is the business though… thank god we can go there rather than Mooseheads, Academy and the Uni Pub.

The cube is back….on the other side of the Canberra centre.

“The giant cube that lit up with noise in Civic was the cause a lot of complaints, too; people would drive past in the middle of the night and honk to make it light up, and such.

(It was removed because of vandalism, which may or may not be related)”

Funnily enough, I heard that thing is coming back on Thursday.

I wasn’t a huge fan of Toast, but it pisses me off when people move into the city and then complain about noise.

Back when I was in Adelaide there was a lot of trouble when many new apartment complexes were opened in the CBD, people moved in next to hotels that had been there for decades and suddenly the hotels were under scrutiny for their noise levels.

If we want the city to be alive and have a ‘vibe’, we need more nightspots etc.

It’s very quiet on my street in Monash, so if people want quiet, they should move away from the CBD, IMHO

LOL.

Toast isn’t re-opening full stop.

Absent Diane4:01 pm 17 Dec 07

it would almost be like the gypsy bar all over again…

I’ve never been a huge Toast fan, but if justbands’ rumour is true, that would be a HUGE improvement location-wise for the club. I think they’d get a lot more thoroughfare in that spot, and maybe the more ‘mainstream’ location will do a little to change the dynamic of some of the patronage (which is what occasionally turned me off heading there). Given, it could also turn it for the worse! Who knows, but at least it would be in the more ‘central’ club area of town.

The new site is a long way from the Waldorf..thankfully. If they really are going to open in the old Impact/JB Hifi site then it’d be a fantastic venue location.

Perhaps they’ll reopen as ‘Focaccia’ to appeal to the wank*rs who live in the Waldorf.

Rumour has it that TOAST will be re-locating to the old Impact Records site. Stay tuned I guess.

“To the Laboristes reading these pages, why not here?”

Because there are far more important issues for the ACT Govt to be dealing with, like trying to halt capital punishment in overseas countries.

Sepi, that defense is now law in NSW. To the Laboristes reading these pages, why not here?

“The conspiracy theorists in me says, the Waldorf knew this, weighed up the cost of say double glazing and decent sound-proofing against the legal costs involved in having Toast shut down and, well the rest is history…”

Nice theory, but I doubt it, because the apartments in the Waldorf don’t actually belong to the Waldorf – they belong to individual investors who then lease the apartments back to the Waldorf to on-sell as nightly accomodation.

astrojax, I feel your pain about that damned bird, it’s worse than living near a club, because it goes all night AND all day

Yep – and why is ‘i was here first’ not a defence?

There should be precincts that are gazetted as noisy zones, where people/businesses can be noisy, where it doesn’t adversly affect anyone else. The gazetting should be quite clear and public, so you don’t get people gettingn upset about it.

tossed salad

Ingeegoodbee8:32 am 16 Dec 07

The bush lawyer in me says Toast was going to be fu’ked over from the start because its not a defence to say you were there first – if you qualify as a nuissance then you’ve got to do somthing about it…

The conspiracy theorists in me says, the Waldorf knew this, weighed up the cost of say double glazing and decent sound-proofing against the legal costs involved in having Toast shut down and, well the rest is history…

And not just in Canberra…the Rainbow Hotel in Fitzroy has just pulled the plug coz of noise issues as well

i wish these bloody birds would shut up. a common koel moved in locally recently and i can hardly nap at all… not tomention the bloody magpies and parrots. government oughta do something. someone should write a damn letter…

(oh, and did i mention that a road runs right out the front of my house? and cars, yes cars!, travel up and down it all the time, with an engine noise emanating therefrom. sheesh.

Yes, but Ant, surely the middle of the city, in a high-density business area, where there are already a crapload of noisy bars and other industries that run 24 hours, those who want peace and quiet should go elsewhere.

There is no difference between going into a rock club and demanding they turn the music down, versus going into a library and kicking off with a quick burst of Motorhead. Neither is morally superiour to the other. In both cases you are acting inappropriately with regards to the purpose of the venue.

Yet somehow, the “I want peace and quiet” people get painted as saints, while those who are looking to have a little fun are demonised…

The age old problem. Those who want to make noise vs those who want peace and quiet.

It’s fought in cities, in suburbs, and out in the country. And it only takes one noisy person to affect the daily lives of countless quiet people.

Traitorsgate12:05 am 16 Dec 07

Jeez, and you wonder why Canberra has this appalling reputation for being dull and sterile. People living in the CBD area should stop whining and get a life. If you want your nights to be deathly quiet then move to the suburbs (Not Charnwood, obviously). Its completely unreasonable to live in the CBD area of any city and expect everything to shut up shop at 2200HRS.

Oh and this applies to the whingers from the City Walk apartments as well who have a rather militant Body Corporate committee.

Sepi, good point. I guess the idea would be to try to contain to certain parts of the city, especially around areas with shops that are closed at night when the nightlife is happening, so noone gets too worried. Toast’s location is really what killed it. That said, the Waldorf is a crap building with very little sound insulation, and is known as a place to avoid for investors (for many reasons, not just the noise issue).

Having some well known places with noisy clubs and bars is fine. Perhaps other places could host more of the cafe scene or quieter pubs?

Normally a city centre has a bit of nightlife about it too though.

“Because the bar was there first.”

So what? Don’t misunderstand me, I don’t ‘hate’ Toast or ‘love’ Waldorf, but I fail to see how a noisy club is more important than building a city centre where people actually want to live and work.

Because the bar was there first.

Then people moved into inner civic, and suddenly noise complaints came thick and fast.

Bit like Tralee and the airport will be i’d say.

Why is everyone so bent out of shape about a (crappy) bar closing?

Deadmandrinking5:16 pm 15 Dec 07

It’s therapeutic.

el ......VNBerlinaV84:12 pm 15 Dec 07

Agreed.

Deadmandrinking4:02 pm 15 Dec 07

F-k you!

el ......VNBerlinaV82:40 pm 15 Dec 07

shout random obscenities at no-one in particular.

Wait…do you mean that everyone else isn’t doing this already?

Oh my…

Deadmandrinking12:16 pm 15 Dec 07

I’ve had a gutful of the Waldorf. I vote that a protest be held a midnight, every night until they shut-down.

Play music, talk loudly, shout random obscenities at no-one in particular. We can do it from the toast side of it so the Transit won’t get blamed. Let’s get these f-kers closed down, people!

The giant cube that lit up with noise in Civic was the cause a lot of complaints, too; people would drive past in the middle of the night and honk to make it light up, and such.

(It was removed because of vandalism, which may or may not be related)

That ‘pub’, Transit Bar, is not part of the YHA. They also gets a stack of complaints, one incident of which led to a number of interstate bands being cut short and pissed off a few weeks back.

The question should not be “How could the YHA be allowed to operate thus?”, but “WTF doesn’t Waldorf pay for double glazing and recognise that they exist in the city.”

Perhaps with a suitable injection of new yeast, they will rise again.

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.