Is the Oxford Art Factory Australia’s best live music venue? Well, it’s certainly at the top of the crop. Since 2007, some of the most respected musicians and up-and-comers in the world have graced the stage of this legendary venue, which sits proudly amongst the gay bars on Sydney’s Oxford Street. Inspired by Andy Warhol’s Factory in New York during the 60’s, the venue creates a cultural focal point for international and local artists. The main action goes down in the 500-person Main Room, but don’t write off the smaller 120-capacity Gallery Bar either.
Did you know that Lady Gaga played her first Australian show here in 2008? Or that Dave Grohl still wears his Oxford Art Factory shirt that he got playing a gig here in his covers band, Chevy Metal? It's also where G Flip played their first ever solo gig in 2018. The OAF even hosted a Bret Easton Ellis book launch – Ellis came on stage after The Models performed, and he spoke for two and a half hours to a standing crowd and as OAF boss Mark Gerber recalls, “You could have heard a pin drop.”
Countless great bands have started their musical journey on the small stage in the narrow gallery bar next to the bandroom, too. “We saw the rise of The Jezebels, Chet Faker, The Rubens, and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard in that small room,” says Gerber. And although Tame Impala played for about 25 people at one early show, you could “almost smell it in the air, when someone’s got greatness written all over them”.
The OAF has survived lockouts, lockdowns, and the worst of what’s been thrown at the live music industry over the past couple of decades while other venues have withered and died. But Gerber believes that it’s his venue’s unique place in the ecosystem of live music that has ensured its survival in an environment increasingly hostile to late-night entertainment.
“People seem to forget that in order for someone to play Laneway Festival, they need to do the hard yards and play the whole circuit to get from the small spaces like the gallery bar to the Lansdowne, and then back here on the main stage, and then The Metro Theatre – there’s a ladder you need to climb.
“All artists start somewhere, and governments need to recognise that it’s equally important to support the new artists coming up as it is to support the established art forms. You need to support every spoke on the wheel, otherwise you won’t be listening to the music that came out of this time in 100 years. We need to do everything to try and create a new Beatles all the time, or a new Janis Joplin or Courtney Barnett.”
Of course, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing and sell-out shows. But Gerber sees resilience in Sydney: “The thing you can’t suppress is the feeling in people that they want to go out. I don’t see live music going away, and I would imagine that in ten years’ time the Oxford Art Factory is exactly as it is now. Whatever you do has to be for the long haul, so what I’ve done here is create something that can be around for another ten, 20 years.”
(Note: the above interview between Mark Gerber and Emily Lloyd-Tait was originally published in 2018.)
How to get to Oxford Art Factory
By train, the OAF is an 8-minute walk from Museum Station or a 16-minute walk from Central Station. If you're catching the Metro, it's a 6-minute walk from Gadigal Station. Various bus routes strop nearby along Oxford Street. Find out more about the venue, including accessibility, at oxfordartfactory.com.
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