Remembering the Sticky-Floored Party Paradise of the Abercrombie Hotel

Lead image by Flickr user Dunedoo.

The formative memories of generations of Sydney partiers were birthed on the dank, sticky floors of the Abercrombie Hotel.

Before it shut down in 2013—a victim of gentrification—the former old-man pub was the home of scene-defining parties like indie icon Purple Sneakers and Sunday arvo house and techno kick-on S.A.S.H. It played host to underground parties by crews like HAHA, Picnic and Strange Fruit. It served cheap jugs to generations of uni students, and its couches facilitated more hook-ups than Tinder (my former housemate even met his future wife in the queue).

On Friday nights at Sneakers, it was a place where you could play The Datsuns followed by Three 6 Mafia, Donna Summer and Justice and the dancefloor would stay jammed. Where girls wearing Dangerfield would pick their way through a heaving dancefloor to request Death Cab for Cutie at peak-hour. Where frat bros in fluro would squeal with delight when you dropped "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." It was a special time and a special place.

The good news is that the 'Crombie is set to reopen sometime in the next two years, but no one's quite sure what form it'll take: early reports suggested a fancy gastro pub. But even if it returns as a music venue, it'll never have the same shabby charm as in its well-scuffed peak years hosting parties like Purple Sneakers—which is celebrating a mammoth tenth birthday this Saturday June 18, at the party's second home, the Gladstone.

To pay tribute to those halcyon days of $10 jugs, rave juice in a bag and Bloc Party remixes, we put the call out to a bunch of crews who used to put on parties at the Abercrombie to hear their favourite memories of the sticky-walled den, from flooded dancefloors to bands on the roof.

Photo by Maya Baska via Purple Sneakers

"If I'm completely honest, my time as the promoter of Purple Sneakers is a bit of a blur. The club was so ridiculously jam-packed every week that crazy shit tended to go down more often than not. I oversaw some epic nights there, especially when the likes of Foals, Bloc Party, The Presets and Vampire Weekend came down to DJ. One memory that does stick out was our fourth birthday celebrations back in 2009. We decided to have Philadelphia Grand Jury perform live on the roof overlooking the beer garden.

"The backline had to be put on the roof through a window on the second floor, and anything too big was lugged up a shitty old ladder and manoeuvred over the rusty tangled barbed wire that surrounded the space. As was my of event management back then, I had put more thought into the idea than its actual execution. We soon found out that we would need to run the entire backline for the performance from one single power outlet located in the old kitchen of the Abercrombie.

"Now, the Abercrombie's power supply was pretty dodgy at the best of times, but this night we really pushed its limits. We had eight plugs stacked on top of each other running with multiple extension cords out onto the rooftop. I'm pretty sure the power blew about three times through their performance —one time after a punter dropped a glass of beer on the shoddy electrical setup. But somehow we managed to pull it off, and it was definitely one of the biggest/loosest nights we ever had… I also need to mention that I ended up marrying one of our amazing door girls who worked at the club, however that's a sappy story for another time!"

Photo from S.A.S.H via Facebook

"I remember one day during S.A.S.H on a Sunday about five or six o'clock in the afternoon it started pouring with rain. Some people scurried inside to avoid getting wet (most didn't move) but those that did were certainly surprised when they entered the Abercrombie to find the entire downstairs dancefloor flooded. Not only was it flooded, but it was full of people dancing in ankle high water! No one left and it only added to the atmosphere of the day… God bless our Abercrombie."

Photo by Maya Baska via Purple Sneakers

"I don't think about the past very much, but when I do think about the Abercrombie, I think of all the good people who were congregating together there and later went on to do amazing things. Do you know how many people got married from Purple Sneakers? People keep just coming out of the woodwork like, 'my cousin just got married…' My sister and my cousin both met their partners at Purple Sneakers.

"I could talk about bands jumping off the roof and singers breaking their arms, or the artists we had play at the Abercrombie, like RUFUS, The Rubens… But to me, it's more about the people who were involved, some absolutely amazing people who made it what it was and have now gone on to become integral parts of the Australian music industry.

"People like Alastair Green, who ran Purple Sneakers for years and then went on to be an agent, went on to start his own agency Maker and represent artists like Anna Lunoe, Nina Las Vegas and Erin Flanagan, who also DJ'd at Purple Sneakers in the early days as Hoops.

"Then also people like Nick Findlay, who was a weekly resident DJ at Purple Sneakers for years and who's now the Assistant Music Director at triple j and has been for years. Amazing people like Gerry Bull who ran our door for years, who's now the publicist for triple j, or Bec Young, who was also working the door with us for years and is now an agent looking after artists like Chet Faker.

"Josh Kellett at Sweat It Out, Chris Rigney who A&R'd at Modular and now Greco Roman, they all partied with us. Both Levins and Linda Marigliano used to DJ at Purple Sneakers on a regular basis in the earlier days, and they're also playing our Purple Sneakers 10th birthday this weekend. So many people graduated from this relatively small scene."

Photo from Facebook

"It's interesting to see the Abercrombie, chameleon that it is, changing its appearance yet again. It always manages to keep itself alive and vibrant. We always had a bit of a love/hate relationship with it, like being annoyed with people climbing over the fence and roof and into the courtyard to avoid the cover charge. Initially it annoyed us—now we look back on it fondly.

"HAHA started with two massive house parties, and the similarities between the original house itself and the Abercrombie were striking. Both were old and dilapidated and very worn in, creating a warm and inviting nature—despite the stank, sticky carpet. At the same time, though, the Abercombie had something else that made it special: the dark vibes of its inner catacombs of hidden back stairwells and unused floors and balconies, that drew out the wildness at each party.

"Like the guy that lived up on the third floor… Yes, it had a third floor, and yes it was far more stank than the carpet downstairs and yes, it even had a resident! A young guy in his late 20s, maybe early 30s, rarely ever seen in daylight… He looked identical to Gollum from Lord of the Rings. Dean nearly had a heart attack when he ran into him in the stairwell in the haze of one late afternoon as we were creating the art gallery on its second floor.

"It was certainly a weird relationship we had with the place. From the epic task of hauling the TVs and vintage bars and all the gear down each month; to endangering our lives by precariously setting up tarpaulins and nearly slipping down the roof in the pissing rain; the 'quick task' of gluing the HAHA wallpaper we made to both of the wretched male and female bathroom walls…which ended up taking two whole days—and trust us when we say, the smell was quite unpleasant.

"Amongst all the crap, there was an immense amount of good that came from the negative bits. The enjoyment of watching folk playing the vintage games we'd set up, interacting with the art that we curated in the second floor gallery, and sinking cold beers on the rarely used balcony, wondering how a punter's foot print ended up about eight feet up one of the white gallery walls…

""None of it would have been possible without the pub's initial licensee Alex, and the friendly 'manager' Vasco, who was always there to open the doors for our crew at all horrible hours of the day and night. Alex was a truly lovely guy who allowed art and music to flourish in a city that doesn't often enough provide culture a true foothold - none of it would have been possible without his support. There was a lot of love given and received in that place. Long live the Crombie! In whatever form it decides to take on next.""

Nick Jarvis is on Twitter over here.