Kennedy’s Nightclub Memories
In 1984 in Wollongong, occasionally on a cloudless evening you could hear music tracks like Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s “Relax” flowing over the escarpment from Sydney’s Triple J radio station. Nothing like this could be heard on Wollongong’s own local radio stations at the time that were firmly fixed on their mainstream top 40 and middle of the road mix.
Wollongong in the 80’s felt Catholic, conservative, and sports obsessed. Not everyone felt they fitted into the macho rugby league and surf club culture that dominated its society and culture. Even the night life and its clubs seemed to be either owned or managed by men who were brought together by rugby league or surf clubs.
If one wanted to hear different music and experience an alternative or queer friendly night life, you’d imagine one would need to make an hour and half drive to Sydney’s Oxford St in Darlinghurst.
Some friends at high school though told me there was a “different” nightclub in town on top of the Piccadilly shopping centre. The Piccadilly shopping centre was always associated with the grisly murder that had occurred their years before. My parents had told me the story of this dreadful crime when I was young.
One night I ventured to this little night club with my much cooler friends. I’ll never forget that entering it felt like entering another world. The music playing was the hypnotic “I love you” by Yello. Many patrons were wearing black and were dressed like I’d only seen on Countdown in new wave music video clips. Gin and tonics glowed in the fluorescent lights and many different types of people danced together on a small dance floor in the middle of the space. This little club was called Kennedy’s.
When we talked about this place the following week, we were told by some fellow school mates and even our fathers that Kennedy’s was “where the poofters went”. It seemed unfair that such a fun place where you could be yourself was held with such disregard by so many people.
This little club played the music I loved such as Dead or Alive, Bronski Beat, Depeche Mode and New Order and I became a regular patron. Pinned on the wall just inside the entrance to the club was a Polaroid taken of Molly Meldrum and Micheal Hutchence who had visited Kennedy’s for a drink after a local INXS gig at a local Leagues club (football again). It was obvious that the location of the club was chosen to provide discretion (the car park was on the rooftop of the town’s most neglected shopping centre and could not be seen from the street.) Discretion was important to many of the club’s patrons who knew they could only be relaxed about displaying their sexuality here. They could not comfortably share this secret about themselves within their occupations and mainstream Wollongong society.