Compared to La Campana, its Spanish Cabaret front room neighbour, walking into GOODGOD Small Club is a pretty incongruous experience. You must first negotiate a sea of intimate diners who could be extras in a Pedro Almodovar melodrama but once you cross the threshold it’s all Tropical party jams, Krautrock inspired wig outs and hands in the air vibe.
Small Club makes perfect sense. After running Sydney’s most beloved record stand Jimmy Sing knows a thing or two about putting big ideas into tiny spaces – we spoke to Goodgod’s main man about the perils of running a venue, breaking chairs on cops and putting the fun back into Sydney nightlife.
P: Jimmy can you explain what Goodgod Small Club is and how is started?
JS: It started from myself trying to find unique spaces to put parties on in Sydney and we discovered this little Spanish restaurant slash nightclub space down in the Spanish Quarter in the city about two years ago. We started putting on one off things down there. We put on Kid Cudi and different Ro Sham Bo events and started the Goodgod party down there which was just sort of a disco sort of sound and brought through a whole bunch of people, all different ages or backgrounds and got a nice cult following going for a while.
We continued it for a year and a half until 4 weeks ago when we decided to go into partnership with the Spanish restaurant and set up our own little autonomous club that’s called Goodgod Small Club, it’s a lot broader then what Goodgod initially was as a club night. We’ve spend 2 weeks racing around, staying up all night, just scrubbing the place down and building a whole lot of features; a stage and that sort of thing… doing the bar again and Hana Shimada she did all the design for the club, she did wall murals and the design for all the flyers.
So basically 4 weeks in already we’ve had some cracker parties, we’re still working off a word of mouth basis at the moment and you guys at Pedestrian are the first ones we’ve spoken to in terms of media. It’s an independent club which is about music and not drinking at places that are brash and over designed…
P: And also pushing different music as well…
JS: Yeah for sure, we’ve got a pretty broad music policy if you can call it that. It’s about getting music with soul back into clubs. It ranges from throwback disco and psych rock to new reggae and hip-hop – music which isn’t like banging electro but music you can talk over that will keep you dancing for a long time. So we’ve had a few nights continue on down there and we’ve built up a relationship with a few clubs such as Siberian Nights which is run by the Midnight Juggernauts dude so they always play kind of rock and disco stuff with bands that they’re interested in. And Jingle Jangle which is old rockabilly and rock’n’roll. But, we’ve kept the Goodgod sound down there with people like Spruce Lee and this weekend the Canyons are coming back again with the launch of their big DFA single which is really exciting.
P: Obviously the back room has a completely different vibe to the front room. For people who haven’t been down yet can you explain what goes on in the front room and have any interesting challenges or conflicts popped up as a result?
JS: Yeah Ash, the fact that you’ll only find Goodgod Small Club if you walk through another club is providing people with a bunch of entertainment! La Campana Spanish Cabaret Restaurant and Nightclub, the space you walk through, ranges from serenaded dining to some very intense laser-lit trance-reggaeton-R&B excursions so your arrival into Small Club can often follow one hundred metres of other worldly experiences. And this is something we’re embracing for sure. People’s feedback has been that the little discovery mission for everyone’s first time at Goodgod is only making the space feel more surprising, more special and more utopian.
P: What have you learned in the four weeks since this kicked off?
JS: There’s a lot to learn. There’s a big gap between being a promoter of club nights, which I’ve had a lot of experience in and being an owner of a club – the vision for a venue is very different from a vision of a space you can transform for only one night. It’s something that we’ve been really embracing and just trying to give those sensitive touches to the space which make it more memorable than most of the clubs in Sydney. We’re trying to find consistency with that and make it a safe, social space.
Like when clubs close at 2 or 3am we’re open until 6am, we want people to come down there and have it as a nice late night drinking spot that isn’t totally drugged out. So that’s just one part of the vision which we want to keep some consistency around but I guess i’ts just about involving a whole community of people who are passionate about different sorts of music and about creating lively events. We’re just juggling at the moment to make it roll on as a club rather than just a one-off night.
P: You mentioned that you’ve had experience as a promoter – do you have now have empathy for venue owners you may have dealt with as a promoter who were stressed out and perhaps didn’t have time for you?
JS: Yeah, that’s a great question. Yeah I have some insight into that already but I guess as the venue owner you have a lot more responsibility for anything that goes wrong, and lots can go wrong in nightclubs obviously, so I guess that’s why lots of club owners or their managers are stressed out or can be a bit hostile. But I have to say that the police can often be unrelenting in terms of the hassles that people try to cause in night spaces in Sydney.
P: So you can understand their pain now?
JS: Yeah absolutely, but I think its high time there ought to be some night spaces in this city that are a bit creative and don’t follow the same sort of interior design and music and door policies. There’s just not that much diversity in terms of city nightclubs.
P: I don’t know if you’ve seen this but we recently did a retrospective on Bang Gang, did you see that at all?
JS: Yeah I did spot that.
P: They touched on a lull in Sydney clubbing in the past 3 or so years since they stopped throwing weeklies, and they said there wasn’t a weekly in Sydney that you’d want to attend religiously. Why do you think that is?
JS: I think the Bang Gang guys are amazing having run a really successful weekly, I think its one of the hardest things to achieve. You know having the same format and you have to keep reinventing it every week and that’s a challenge. So I think lots of club promoters have gone for the safer option of a monthly format to keep people interested. So I guess the way we’re going about it is to try to make a space and a sense of reliability with the type of people you’ll find down there and a surprise of whatever music is being played there that night.
P: So that sense of community is imperative…
JS: Yeah absolutely, so when you feel that your options are dry you’ll find that sense of a few surprises. And like I said, Bang Gang did really well to keep their weekly fresh and also they were on the rise for a bit of a new sound for Sydney and its definitely good to be part of a new sound. I guess what we’re looking at now is creating a really eclectic space where people will pop down more than once a week. What’s been great the last few weeks is that people are starting to come down a few times a week now so people are definitely responding.
P: Obviously as a DJ and promoter you’ve had lots of experience in clubs, what’s been your craziest moment?
JS: My craziest moment in a club would be…let me think. This actually illustrates what I don’t like about some of the Sydney clubs, I’m originally from Melbourne so I can’t imagine this happening where I grew up. But Sounds On Sunday out at the Greenwood it’s crazy all the people there were pilling off their heads from the Saturday night before, so its 9.30 at night and Dave Nada was playing and two girls started fighting, then two guys tried to break it up then like 10 dudes just saw the action and started getting in. We were standing in the DJ booth with Dave Nada just watching this bloody brawl and only 4 people actually knew the reason why it started in the first place. Then cops came in and got belted with chairs and Dave Nada being a DJ from Washington and Baltimore wasn’t fazed at all – he just started playing Ludacris ‘Move Bitch Get Out The Way’ so yeah that was pretty crazy but its kind of standard.
P: That’s pretty hectic for a lazy Sunday…
JS: (Laughs) Yeah totally, that just kind of spun me out and now that I think about it’s probably why Sounds on Sundays closed down.
P: So now a bit on your background – you used to run a record stand in Sydney yeah?
JS: Yeah I did Jimmy Sings Record Stand. I guess I was just noticing a gap of real specific regional sounds from around the world that you couldn’t get in Sydney and at the time wasn’t available online either so yes Jimmy Sings as a record shop was the first stop for getting songs from Brazil and Reggaeton and Baltimore club and I guess house and Ed Banger French electro stuff. It was about really specific sounds and that tapped into a great network of people. I guess when you start networking with people you create a niche and you start to attract people who are also really passionate. It brought people together, Ro Sham Bo was one of the parties that came out of that, it just started with a bunch of us meeting in the record stand.
P: So did the internet kill Jimmy Sings Record Stand?
JS: Well (laughs) yeah it did really, it’s not in a way I feel angry about I guess it’s just one of those things. The record stand had its purpose and I guess the conditions changed. We closed up last December it was hard to get any vinyl before it was easily available online.
P: Finally do you have any recommendations for our readers music wise? What’s been ruling your world recently?
JS: Oh man this is going to sound like a plug but – the Canyons “Fire Eyes” twelve inch is phenomenal. I was surprised when they had a record coming out on DFA but when you hear these two tracks “Fire Eyes” and “Dancing On Silk” they’re two of the most unique dance records I’ve heard in ages.
HOLE IN THE SKY, DFA & GOODGOD PRESENT
CANYONS LAUNCHING ‘FIRE EYES’ SINGLE ON DFA
SATURDAY OCTOBER 10
10pm – LATE
$10 before midnight, $15 after
GOODGOD Small Club
55 Liverpool St, CBD.
Entrance through La Campana.
Thurs 6pm – 2am
Fri 9pm – 4am
Sat 9pm – 4am
Available for functions all other nights of the week.
