The Family Inn at Rydalmere, in Sydney’s western suburbs, is a truly iconic venue. It featured the cream of Australian rock bands as well as a long list of Internationals.
My lasting memory of a typical Family Inn gig was seeing The Allnighters there on a screaming hot summers night. The place was packed to the rafters and going off. It was so hot that there was a constant queue of people heading in to the toilets to dump cold water all over their heads in an effort to keep cool. The music was pumping and the people were jammed in so tightly that you couldn’t help but dance.
It wasn’t the biggest place around or the flashest, but it will always have a genuine place in the history of the Sydney rock scene.
Images
Known Gigs
| Date | Artist | City | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 02/10/79 | Cold Chisel | Cold Chisel in Rydalmere | |
| 03/12/79 | Jimmy And The Boys | Jimmy And The Boys in Rydalmere | |
| + The Lonely Hearts | |||
| 15/12/79 | Matt Finish | Matt Finish in Rydalmere | |
| 29/12/79 | Matt Finish | Matt Finish in Rydalmere | |
| 12/01/80 | Cold Chisel | Cold Chisel in Rydalmere | |
| 12/01/80 | Matt Finish | Matt Finish in Rydalmere | |
| with Cold Chisel | |||
| 15/01/80 | Swanee | Swanee in Rydalmere | |
| with Bon Scott, Jimmy Barnes and The Lonely Hearts | |||
| 01/02/80 | Matt Finish | Matt Finish in Rydalmere | |
| 01/03/80 | Matt Finish | Matt Finish in Rydalmere | |
| with Swanee and Radioactive | |||
| 29/03/80 | Cold Chisel | Cold Chisel in Rydalmere | |
| 06/05/80 | Outline | Outline in Rydalmere | |
| + The Lonely Hearts | |||
| 23/05/80 | Crisis | Crisis in Rydalmere | |
| + The Lonely Hearts | |||
| 03/06/80 | Cold Chisel | Cold Chisel in Rydalmere | |
| 04/07/80 | Matt Finish | Matt Finish in Rydalmere | |
| 08/07/80 | Midnight Oil | Midnight Oil in Rydalmere | |
| + Matt Finish | |||
| 25/07/80 | Cold Chisel | Cold Chisel in Rydalmere | |
| 05/08/80 | Matt Finish | Matt Finish in Rydalmere | |
| 23/09/80 | Matt Finish | Matt Finish in Rydalmere | |
| 24/10/80 | Jimmy And The Boys | Jimmy And The Boys in Rydalmere | |
| + The Lonely Hearts | |||
| 16/12/80 | Cold Chisel | Cold Chisel in Rydalmere | |
More Gigs here
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
again Motorhead. it was so loud i was hiding behind the pillars on the dancefloor. must have been 40 people there…….one guy and his girl were screwing in front of the sub…..we went outside for a joint and a guy from the council was on the footpath with a DB meter, he said it was more than 110 db outside…….at the end of the set, Lemmy jammed his bass into the aircon vent that was above the stage, walked offstage and let it feedback………the venue didnt last long after that night.
We remember the Family Inn well. Hell, I only lived about 3kms away from it during the 80s. That airvent was a very popular one for guitar hanging, as was the roof of many venues that I remember our guitarist Craig enjoyed. Ha! Does the Family Inn have bands anymore?
I was the publican at the pub when we had Motorhead .
It was 1983. The place was a great venue but in the end there was the licencing sergeant intent on closing us down.
It was the beginning of the end of the big venue nights.
By this time the venues were battling against the rising prices of the bands,outrageous and ever growing demands of band ‘riders’ ,the security,the police and the start of the card machines made the running of a big band venue less enticing from a financial point of view.
I remember Lemmy being upstairs with myself and family in the residents for most of the afternnon and was a terrific bloke.
totally unaffected man ,gentle,entertaining and a pleasure to converse with.
The night they played I had the licencing sergeant turn up with his group. One guy with the decibal meter . He got out of the car and said directly to me ‘what are you going to do blow the ****ing roof off the joint’. This was before the band had struck a note. I knew I would be in for a ‘hot’ night from the constabulary.
That was the last big band night at the Family Hotel in my time.
i remember supplying the staff and security with ear plugs for the night. Believe me they tell me you needed them. I actually never got to see the show as I was out side trying to calm the ol’ sergeant and his band of merry men down.
They went away for a while (to the club close by) and tried to ‘nail’ me for staying open after midnight but failed.
80′s were a good time to be in pub scene.
i lived about 1 km from the family and was a local!!
i loved the place and was a regular at the weeknight gigs,i did a bit of casual roadie work with the harbour agency back then and was getting a bit of work with kevin borich,heaven and a metal band called killer.
my greatest meeting/gig was to meet steve marriot there and buy him a beer in 1983? he toured with a version of humble pie!
great guy,extremely funny,sadly missed!
i was at the coogee bay hotel when at that time motorhead toured,it was the loudest gig i also had been too!!
i loved the family,great pub,sorely missed,great memories of my youth!!
thanks for the post
cheers,
glenn
{ 1 trackback }