Coburg never had it so good

The Thumpin’ Tum, Sebastians, Catcher, Berties, Garrison, The Biting Eye, Opus… when I read about the legendary live music venues of 1960s Melbourne and the boss-bitchin’ bands they hosted, I can’t help thinking that the city’s current claim to be some kind of live-music paradise is a tad delusional. Yeah, so we may have more venues per capita than Austin, Texas – and we’ve sure got a surplus of bands -- but how many of them (venues or bands) will be remembered in 50 years time?

But while information about most of the aforementioned venues is easily available with the most cursory of Google searches (and they’ll no doubt find their way into this blog at some point), there is one Saturday-night dance about which I simply cannot find any details, save what I posted earlier this year. Yep, we’re talking ‘Swinger’ at the Coburg City Hall: home to those bodacious Batgirls.

Go-Set, August 20 1967: the Batgirls seen around the scene (Adam West would flip his wig)

Now before you get any inappropriate ideas, let me clarify: it’s not the name of the night that's piqued my interest so much (which is a shame, really, because Google spits out plenty of search results of that nature).

What originally began as curiosity about Swinger's Batgirls has since cranked up several notches thanks to the following series of advertisements I came across in old, microfiched copies of Go-Set magazine at the State Library of Victoria when I was researching an article I was writing. They're just so evocative of the time...so eye-catching...so damn hyperbolic!

Amazing to think that wild nights like this….

From Go-Set, early August, 1967. So we can at least establish that the night started on August 12. of that year

...and this....

Go-Set, early August 1967

…were going down every Saturday evening here, in the stately surrounds of Coburg City Hall!



Of course, these days, instead of embracing the ‘Batman fantasy of gigantic sounds’ (oh how my mind is boggling!), the neighbours would complain about the noise.

Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs and the Chants? Wowsers

Northside was where it was at, baby!

Apologies for the wonky scans -- I was caught up in the fantastic mind-bending moment!

Although all the adverts featured here are from 1967, I believe Swinger lasted a good few years -- until at least 1969, when it played host to US band The Platters on one particular night, and The Easybeats on another. The Easybeats in 1969? That would have been a weird one, right at the tail-end of their career, when disillusionment and debt were dogging them, undermining all the brilliance that had gone before. 

From Go-Set, October 1967. 

From Go-Set, November 1967

Which brings me to the end of the small amount I know about Saturday nights at Swinger. By the way...anyone else agree that the two ads above look like lurid psychotronic movie posters?

Holy go-go boots, Batgirl!

Stumbling upon this mind-blowingly groovy quartet of Bat-babes during my cyber-wanderings recently, I thought all my blogmases had come at once. Not only did the photo date back to 60s Melbourne, but it had a Batman theme - could the planets align any more perfectly?

But there's always a catch, isn't there?

Much like Jan Stewart, the mystery model I posted about last year (a helpful reader informed me that she ended up marrying Ian Turpie!), I encountered a big fat dead end when I tried to investigate these gorgeous Bat-chicks further. But here's the little that I do know...

This photo appeared in the 27 September 1967 issue of Go Set magazine, and was taken at the Coburg Town Hall, at a Saturday-night dance called 'Swinger'. Can't you just imagine the search results that Google threw at me when I tried to look into that?!

The Coburg Town Hall was a popular live music venue during the 60s, hosting everyone from The Strangers to Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs and The Masters Apprentices. And sometimes the occasion would be Swinger...

I don't know how long Swinger lasted, but if the advert above is any indication, it was Melbourne's own 'big established fun centre'. Indeed.

And the Batgirls? I have a suspicion they were go-go dancers and seem to remember once seeing a photo of Denise Drysdale shakin' it with some Batgirls (that's not her on the left of the image above, is it? There's a certain likeness but I'm not convinced), but can't find anything to either support or refute this notion.

I do know that the character of Batgirl was introduced in season three of the original Batman TV series, which went to air in - you guessed it - 1967. 

If there's anyone out there who knows anything else about this photo (including the name of the photographer and who the chicks are), the Swinger dance, or even just what it was like going to gigs at the Coburg Town Hall, please get in touch and put me out of my misery!