Live
The band has kept a diary since the first night. It is complete except for 2003, which was used to level a caravan at Rosebud.
The Emerald Room, Coburg
The Long Goodnight — week 24
8.30pm · Two drinks minimum
The Emerald Room, Coburg
The Long Goodnight — week 25
Guest: the Northern Suburbs Chamber Ensemble (six players)
Preston Bowls Club
Thirty-fifth year at the club
Doors 7, band 8
The Emerald Room, Coburg
The Long Goodnight — week 26
Requests taken from 9.15
Golden Lotus, Thornbury
A wedding. Not open to the public.
Casino Estoril, Portugal
Eighteenth annual return
Terrace, 10pm, if it is not raining
Cascais — venue to be confirmed
Marco Reis is arranging it and has not said where
The Emerald Room, Coburg
New Year’s Eve · from 9pm
Candles on the tables
Weddings, funerals and private functions are listed by date only.
Nine rooms in thirty-five years.
The band has never toured in any conventional sense. It takes a room and stays in it. The two longest residencies account for more than half of every performance the band has given.
| Room | Nights | Period | Shows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Golden Fleece Hotel, Brunswick | Tue | Aug 1991 – Mar 1993 | 78 |
| Astoria Reception Centre, Thornbury | Sat | 1991 – 2000 | 212 |
| Chandelier Room, Hotel Sirocco | Wed–Sat | Apr 1994 – Jun 2000 | 611 |
| Preston Bowls Club | Sun | 1996 – | 286 |
| Neptune Lounge, M.S. Coral Duchess | Six nights | 2005 – 2011 | 814 |
| The Palais Rialto, Fitzroy | Thu | 2013 – 2016 | 121 |
| Casino Estoril terrace | Annual | 2008 – | 34 |
| Balcony, Reservoir | Nightly | Mar – Jun 2020 | 91 |
| Golden Lotus, Thornbury | Fri–Sat | Feb – Mar 2024 | 18 |
| The Emerald Room, Coburg | Fri | Mar 2026 – | current |
Taken from the diaries. The notes are as written on the night.
| Date | Venue | Note from the diary |
|---|---|---|
| 14 Feb 1991 | Astoria Reception Centre, Thornbury | “No band. Did it anyway. 4 hrs 10. Paid $60. Named at 1.40.” |
| 6 Aug 1991 | Golden Fleece Hotel, Brunswick | First Tuesday. Eleven in the room, four of them related to the drummer. |
| 2 Jun 1994 | Hotel Sirocco, St Kilda | Argument with a heckler. Nothing was said about it afterwards. |
| 12 Apr 1996 | Hotel Sirocco, St Kilda | “Marsh in again. Back left. Wrote something down during Ipanema.” |
| 30 May 1996 | Hotel Sirocco, St Kilda | Kane and Farr left between sets. Third set played as a quartet. “Best of the year.” |
| 4 Sep 1998 | Palmerston North, New Zealand | Tiplady breaks a stick and a head. Frankie leaves the stage eleven minutes early — the only time. |
| 3 Oct 1999 | Hotel Sirocco, St Kilda | “Ipanema 41.12. Nobody stopped it. Nobody left.” |
| 31 Dec 1999 | Hotel Sirocco, St Kilda | Power out 11.58pm. Finished acoustic by lighter at 1.20am. |
| 30 Jun 2000 | Hotel Sirocco, St Kilda | Last Chandelier Room night. Diary entry reads only: “611.” |
| 12 Sep 2004 | Function room, Fairfield | Norm Castellan’s wake. Band reforms without discussing it. |
| 12 Jul 2008 | Casino Estoril terrace, Portugal | 700 people, nine encores, thirty-one degrees, white jackets. |
| 8 Aug 2015 | Preston Bowls Club | Double-booked with Sonny Kane and the Velveteens. Alternate sets to 11.40. Takings split. “Cordial.” |
| 28 Oct 2016 | The Emerald Room, Coburg | Nino Pesic’s last engagement. Nobody present knew. |
| 11 Nov 2017 | The Palais Rialto, Fitzroy | Bettina Croll’s first night. The chair had been empty for 52 engagements. |
| 26 May 2020 | Balcony, Reservoir | Night 62. A woman three balconies along joins in on the last chorus and is invited back. |
| 14 Feb 2024 | Golden Lotus, Thornbury | 33 years to the night, in the room. Opened with eleven bars of an organ finding the key. |
| 6 Mar 2026 | The Emerald Room, Coburg | First night of the Long Goodnight. Sold out. |
Six of the nine are gone.
The Hotel Sirocco was demolished on 14 March 2001. Nino Pesic took the framed drinks list down from above the bar the night before, and kept it in his van for fifteen years.
The Golden Fleece is flats. The Astoria is the Golden Lotus and does very good weddings. The M.S. Coral Duchess was sold for scrap in 2014; the Neptune Lounge piano went to a hotel in Fiji and Del Auguste has been trying to find it since 2019.
- Golden Fleece Hotel, Brunswickapartments, 2006
- Hotel Sirocco, St Kildademolished 2001
- Astoria Reception Centrerenamed 2011
- M.S. Coral Duchessscrapped 2014
- The Palais Rialto, Fitzroyclosed 2019
- Preston Bowls Clubstill there
- The Emerald Room, Coburgstill there
- Casino Estorilstill there