New circuit set to honour Adelaide’s live music heritage
A new initiative to honour Adelaide’s past and present live music venues is set to soon hit CBD streets.
A Live Music Circuit – to be delivered by Adelaide City Council – is tipped to immortalise Adelaide’s best past and present live music venues within the next 12 months.
Adelaide City Councillor Patrick Maher describes the circuit as a pet project that has been “bubbling away” since his Save the Cranker campaign in 2024.
“We’ve obviously had quite a few venues close in recent years, and usually once they go, they’re gone, and then the live music history is lost to memory and time,” Patrick tells CityMag.
“The way that our heritage system works, it doesn’t necessarily protect the most recent cultural use of a space, so that live music history is not recorded in any other way.
“I thought, well, we can step in and do something here.”
Patrick presented the circuit proposal to council earlier this year to unanimous approval.
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The circuit, which he says was inspired by the Boston Freedom Trail in the US, will feature a walkable trail and involve a series of plaques and QR codes that provide an in-depth history of Adelaide’s most beloved venues, both past and present.
“In the old days, you would go to the Exeter and then the Cranker and then The Producers and Tivoli and you might go to The Stag,” Patrick says.
“There was a circuit and a walkable path across these venues, and since most of those venues are gone, the circuit itself is gone.”
Patrick has remained tight-lipped on which venues will be the first to feature but told CityMag an initial eight venues were in mind to join the circuit within the next 12 months.
It is expected that up to 10 venues will be added to the circuit each year, with the potential of old radio stations and recording studios being thrown into the mix.
Adelaide is currently the only Australian city designated as a UNESCO City of Music, with the new trail aiming to enhance the status of Adelaide as a premier live music hotspot.
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Other key initiatives honouring Adelaide’s live music history include the City of Music laneways, which feature streets named after top SA talent, including Sia Furler, Paul Kelly, Cold Chisel and most recently the Hilltop Hoods.
“We have a responsibility to promote the industry and to promote live music and arts as a UNESCO City of Music,” Patrick says.
“It also ties into the historical side of things and the promotion of current industry, so having this walkable circuit hopefully will inspire a few people to actually walk that circuit, and they might discover a new live music venue that they’ve not been to before.”
The Adelaide City Councillor has a history of advocating for Adelaide’s live music scene, heading the ‘Save the Cranker’ campaign to stop the demolition of popular pub and music venue The Crown and Anchor.
While he admitted he loves the Cranker, Patrick surprisingly admitted that a now closed venue remains his all-time favourite.
“I don’t know how many hundreds of gigs I saw at Enigma Bar back in 2009 to 2012,” he says.
“I was a massive metal head at the time, and that was that was the place to be. It’s a shame it’s gone because that was my favourite spot.”
He says Adelaide currently has a strong live music scene with emerging local bands deserving of recognition in boosting the city’s musical status.
“It’s good to see that people are still out and about, still attending, still getting to see that live music. It is a key part of Adelaide’s cultural landscape,” he says.
“I’ll give three of my current favourites. Druid Fluids is like Pink Floyd incarnate, The Yellow Wallpaper is a little bit more of a grungy type rock, and Cherry Daisies just make feel-good music.”
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