IN the late ’70s and early ’80s, St Kilda nightclub the Ballroom was the centre of Melbourne’s flourishing punk scene. The woman who ran it, Dolores San Miguel, was its queen.
Over the years, the Fitzroy Street venue hosted its share of well-known bands, including the Boys Next Door, Midnight Oil, Paul Kelly and the Dots, The Cure, Hunters & Collectors and INXS. But San Miguel developed a reputation for giving underground and often chaotic punk bands their start, and has just recounted her story in a tell-all book.
Still strikingly glamorous at 61, San Miguel has lived a life as colourful as the hot pink lipstick and nail polish she dons today. Sitting in a coffee shop a few doors down from the Ballroom – now part of the George Hotel – she says being in its vicinity takes her back. “It’s 33 years ago, but it only feels like yesterday.”
After spending time in London in the early ’70s, where she witnessed the rise of such artists as David Bowie and the Velvet Underground, San Miguel returned to Australia to find the music scene “hopeless”, until she saw the Boys Next Door play at the Collingwood Town Hall.
“I just felt this amazing electricity. I knew something new was happening.”
It was serendipity that led her to run the Ballroom. Her husband’s band, the Secret Police, was due to play at a venue that had been double-booked, so they quickly found an alternate location.
The gig was a huge success and San Miguel had the idea of hosting a permanent night.
“The music gods or the fairies or something were saying ‘something’s got to get started’ and that’s how it happened,” she recalls, with a twinkle in her eye.
The Ballroom seethed with youthful energy. Boys came suited, pierced with safety pins and wearing heavy boots. Girls came dressed as deviant goddesses in ripped ’50s ballgowns, ’60s retro, fishnets and leather. Among the crowd were young fashion designers Alannah Hill and Jenny Bannister.
“Every gig, especially in the early days, was like one big party,” says San Miguel.
“You’ve got all these people from all different sorts of statuses, but when they all got into this one room at the Ballroom, it was like they were all the same. I think that was the magic of the place.”
Working in a male-dominated industry 30 years ago wasn’t easy. Although she was pushed out of the Ballroom twice, San Miguel never became bitter. She learnt to make the most of whatever was thrown her way. “You have to be optimistic in your life,” she says.
Has St Kilda changed since the Ballroom’s heyday? “It’s still got all the drama really, when you think about it. I love coming back to St Kilda. It’s one of those suburbs that’s just iconic.”
The Ballroom: The Melbourne Punk and Post-Punk Scene by Dolores San Miguel (Melbourne Books, $29.95).
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