NAKED CITY: COULD THIS BE PARRAMATTA ROAD?
Here at the Naked City we are all about innovation and creativity and last week’s compact version of the SMH carried a story that just reeked of both. It centered on the Mayor of Leichhardt, Darcy Byrne’s plan to set up a New Orleans style entertainment precinct around the Annandale Hotel, triggered by the recent appointment of receivers to the iconic live music venue.
The Mayor enthusiastically stated that he would like to see a section of Parramatta Road, eventually stretching from Sydney University to Lewisham, turned into “a thriving strip of small bars, comedy, theatre, bands and buskers, drawing crowds of locals and tourists into the wee hours.” The area immediately around the Annandale Hotel, currently home to a diverse range of businesses, including a tattoo parlour, a knock shop and the vacant shell left by the demise of Jacksons Rare Guitars, would be first in line for the New Orleans style makeover.
The SMH joined in the spirit of renewal by including a pic of a New Orleans marching band and a reference to the traditional N.O. jazz funeral. It was a connection we didn’t quite get but overall the plan to bring Bourbon Street to Parramatta Road is an absolute winner. The first thing we would like to see built is a giant levee, somewhere around Leichhardt, to hold back any plans by the State Government to build a twelve lane superhighway through to the Sydney CBD. Once the area around the Annandale Hotel, now known as ‘Preservation Hall’, was secure, the Bourbonisation of the area would begin.
Parra road would actually be narrowed (stuff those trucks, buses and commuters) and a façade of wrought iron terrraces installed to give it that real French Quarter feel. Bars would blast out live music, virtually 24/7 and an endless stream of punters would trawl the precinct celebrating Mardi Gras all year round. Like the Big Easy, drinking laws would be relaxed, so revellers could carry their ‘Hurricane’ style cocktails in a big plastic cup from venue to venue.
Most importantly the ‘good neighbour’ policy, recently introduced by the Leichhardt mayor, to curtail those endless complaints against live music venues would be extended to include the New Orleans spirit of ‘laissez-faire’ – a philosophy that the Crescent City has embraced for hundreds of years and one of the main reasons which attracts people there from all over the world.
Live and let live means mixing residential and entertainment in a relationship where differences are settled over a friendly drink rather than interminable litigation and red tape. Whilst it’s a cultural norm in New Orleans, it’s an anathema to many inner city residents especially those who have just bought a house with a pub next door.
So let the party begin or as they say in New Orleans, “Laissez les bons temps rouler”. And as the morning breaks and the last of the weary revellers trudge past Preservation Hall, it’s time to clear the streets for the inevitable jazz funeral, slurp down the last of your Hurricane, grab a Po Boy for breakfast at Maccas and dig that crazy Bourbon Street beat!
THE HIT LIST: Few international artists could claim some 30 different tours to Australia since 1999. Texas based soul and blues singer Eugene “Hideaway” Bridges is currently doing just that and this Saturday 16th returns to the venue where his Australian odyssey first began. It will be “nothin’ but a party” when Eugene is joined by the Continental All Stars, featuring Robert Susz, at the Basement from 9pm onwards.
