Ding Dong Lounge to close doors in January 2018
Monday, 18 December 2017 | by Carbie Warbie

Ding Dong Lounge to close doors in January 2018




In a shock announcement today, Billy Walsh, founding member of Cosmic Psychos, publican and original architect of Cherry Bar, announced today last drinks will be called at Ding Dong Lounge in January 2018.

The last day will be Saturday the 13th January.

Billy states:
“I’m proud of the venue and what we were able to achieve in helping to create an important part of the Melbourne music fabric. We’ve always been a venue that presented unique offering in the Melbourne CBD and people embraced us. We didn’t big note ourselves, we tried to be hospitable, caring and fair, although, there have been times when we struggled to make ends meet. We received wide support from all quarters, including band managers, agents, touring companies, media, and most importantly the musicians themselves. Our staff really cared about the welfare of our customers and we stayed true to ourselves."

“It’s an open secret that venues in the Melbourne CBD have been struggling lately due in part to the broader proliferation of similar clubs and bars across the inner north and combination of the heartbreaking homeless issue and ongoing late night violence in the CBD the time is right to pull up stumps."

"We’ll be going out with a huge bang, so look out for our last gigs leading up to our closing party on Saturday 13th January. Until then, have a safe and happy Christmas.”

Such a sad announcement as the Ding Dong Lounge has been one of our favourite music music venues over the years. So many great gigs from performance from The White Stripes, Queens Of The Stone Age, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Cosmic Psychos, Eagles Of Death Metal, Mariachi El Bronx, The Meat Puppets, King Gizzard and so many more. It is going to be sadly missed by the Melbourne music community.

Here is a photograph of Billy with Mark Lanegan, who performed a few times there over the years.

Ding Dong Lounge to close doors in January 2018

Here are some of our FAV memories of bands playing at Ding Dong.


X with Billy Walsh on drums.






X with Billy Walsh on drums.














Billy Walsh via Facebook: "I'm not upset, in truth the time is right"

Thank you Billy and your amazing crew.

UPDATE:
Mark Lanegan comments via Twitter.

Ding Dong Lounge to close doors in January 2018
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