Zondrae's
Wollongong' first Youth Centre?
Zondrae at her club in the sixties
Zondrae's started as a venue for the teenage 'mod' scene in Wollongong in late 1966. Zondrae King was 17 years old at the time at the project was helped along by her mother, who wanted to provide somewhere for the kids. She was 17 when she got the venue going.
A venue was acquired at 259 Keira Street Wollongong. Just behind the club was McCabe park, and across the other side of the park a local community hall - 'Pioneer Hall', was a venue were the local mods' main rivals - the Surfies would gather for their 'sand dances' (where they would literally spill sand onto the floor to groove on!) to the likes of The Tornadoes, The Livin' Dead, The Koffin' Cheaters, Swinging Meet, Mystic Eyes, The Valients, The Nightwalkers, Erl Dalby and more.
Zondraes
itself was a hall come coffee lounge by day (Monday to Saturday 11am - 5.30pm,
then 7 - 10pm), where local kids could hang out and listen to records on the
juke box, and most nights (Thursdays to Sundays). Parental inspections where
offered for the suspiscious parent wanting to know what their kids were up
to.
Many local and interstate bands would play to very receptive crowds of up
to 250 people. The main favourites were Sydney's The Missing Links, and The
Richard Wright Group. Many bands that visited Sydney would make the journey
down Bullli Pass to play at Zondrae's because they always got a good crowd
as well as free accommodation on top of food and pay.
Zondrae
always booked bands that kids recommended. The main requests were for the
wilder groups such as The Missing Links and The Creatures - bands that years
later would surface on garage punk compilations such as Glen A Baker's Ugly
Things series and inspire a whole new genre of garage punk.
Later as she got older, Zondrae started up another venue in Thirroul in the
north of Wollongong called Wonderland (now Thirroul Skating rink) which got
the pleasure of hosting the Beach Boys over two nights in 1969.
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LOCAL
BANDS THAT FRQUENTED THE ZONDRAE'S STAGE
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SYDNEY
/ INTERSTATE BANDS THAT FREQUENTED THE ZONDRAE'S STAGE
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| The
Living Dead The Four Moods Four Sale Earl's Court The Firebirds The Method The Mystic Eyes The Finks Pages In Colour The Marksmen Rev Black & The Rockin' Vicars The None Such |
The
Impressions The Throb The Probe The Id The Honey Bunch The Blue Beats The Morloch The Creatures Sebastian Hardy Richard Wright Group Blues X 5 The Bay City Union The Coloured Balls The Chain The Twilights The Loved Ones The Executives Oliver The Individuals The Spinners |
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Garage
punks The Creatues outside Zondraes
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The
Honey Bunch (ex Throb) at Zondraes
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Zondrae
with The Twilights at Zondraes
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The
Richard Wright Group and Go Go dancers
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