Save Our St James: Here’s The Story!

Dedee1Here’s Dedee with a report on what went down at the recent Save Our St James event:

On Friday December 11th 2015, eight months after the St James had reopened its doors, a few hundred of us gathered to watch a stellar line up on a small stage in the foyer. It was called ‘Save Our St James’ – a free show to let people know that the theatre is not yet safe from closing next year.

SSJ7Apart from being a great night out, with great music and likeminded people, we got to walk around the theatre with the house lights up, and get a view from the stage. We took photos, swapped stories, and got a real sense of the place. It’s a grand old theatre that’s for sure, but you can see it’s pretty run down. Bits of plaster had crumbled away, large chunks of wood were missing from the base of the proscenium arch, and there were holes in the opera box balconies.  Taking in these details as I looked around, I was glad this was happening now, that people come in and see the damage first hand. I think it’s important we spread the word, to create more awareness and urgency around the issue.

SSJ4The night before the show, I talked to Tina Plunkett, spokesperson for Save The St James, who’s been working on this project for the past six years. A lot had happened in the weeks leading up to this last minute event, there’d been some thorough and enlightening media coverage (from Cheese on Toast, TimeOut, and Newstalk ZB), then just days earlier, it was announced Auckland Council were stepping up with $15 million in funding, to be matched dollar for dollar by the developers, Relianz Holdings. Great news, but it still wasn’t enough.

Regarding the recent boost in funding, Plunkett explained:

“You could almost say, the St James has been saved. Now we need to open the St James.”

So close, and yet so far.

SSJ1On Friday night they rolled out red carpet into the foyer, where we gathered to watch a fitting line-up put together by musical director Karl Steven. Hopetoun Brown played first, joined by guests Will Wood and Tami Neilson, then Karl Steven and Caiomhe McFehin played a few tunes before emcee Michele A’Court took to the stage. She gave a comprehensive overview of the theatre’s history, from when it first opened in 1928 – the big names who performed there over the years, and the various rumours of why it closed in 2007. This was followed by eight years of nothing, when the doors remained closed.

“We’ve been very patient,” she said. Too patient, one might add.

She was able to add “in breaking news” that Arts and Culture Minister Maggie Barry had now committed to come and see the building in January. (This is a first)  It’s a small but significant step forward.

But, she added – what’s still needed in order to reopen the St James, after it closes for development in March, is a further $10 million from central government.

“…and they haven’t said no, but they haven’t said much else either.”

SSJ9This got a few groans from the crowd. It seems unthinkable that such a beautiful well-loved theatre, with such a rich cultural history could be “mothballed”. But the reality is, it’s a heritage protected building so it can’t be demolished. It would just remain there, doors closed.

On reflection, it almost seems like they were messing with us with the ‘grand re-opening’ back in May, followed by a run of big shows. We thought ‘Great! The St James is up and running again!’ It was enough time for us to get comfortable again, before the truth came out last month. I wondered if they’d re-opened a bit prematurely when I heard about the lack of refurbishment, but didn’t think the news would be this bad.

As Save Our St James was a free event, focused on raising awareness, I asked Plunkett if there were future plans for fundraising events.

Yes, she assured me – next year.

“We don’t own the St James, so we can’t be raising funds until [the government funding is confirmed] cos if we don’t get it, and it doesn’t reopen, there’ll be the question of – what’d we do with the money?

“If we do get the government funding, there will be public fundraising with the trust Bob Kerridge has set up. [with the St James Saviours ].   We’ve had a lot of offers from people who want to help. We’ll be taking everyone up on those offers next year.’

Tonight’s special show was a reminder of the warmth and beauty of this place and how well it’s served us, but also the possibility of so much more. To not reinstate it would be a crime.

SSJ6As we took another walk around the theatre and up onto the stage, we looked up at the ornate ceiling centrepiece, and the two closed balconies with its rows of faded seats. My friend remarked how beautiful it was. She’d been to a few dance parties back in the day (probably the likes of Oonst and Deep Hard ‘n’ Funky) and I’d seen to countless shows here, from James Brown, to The White Stripes, to De La Soul, and Neil Finn’s Seven Worlds Collide show that sold out an entire week. Neither of us had ever walked the stage before so we took a good look around. We even ventured up a spiral staircase in the far corner, which lead to a mysterious ladder right up into the roof. All part of the massive lighting rig perhaps? I can only imagine.

SSJ5Back in the foyer, there were great moments in every set  – Tami Neilson was in fine form as always, belting out her signature country tunes with effortless style and sass, her Mum was there watching too, all the way from Canada. Karl Steven and the Hopetoun Brown boys also joined her band on stage for a few numbers.  Lawrence Arabia played an intimate solo set, playing many crowd favourites and inviting Hopetoun Brown up for a haunting rendition of ‘The Bisexual’.

SSJ3Between bands, we were urged by our emcee to send emails and letters, and tweet photos of the theatre to Arts and Culture Minister Maggie Barry. Voom then rounded off the evening with a bunch of their best tunes that had us older kids dancing like it was 1999. Songs like ‘Jimmy’s Boner’ and ‘Isn’t That Good’ still sound great all these years later. I’m glad we still get to hear them.  (This also drew comments afterwards that Buzz doesn’t seem to age. “He still got all those high notes, right there,” someone added. I had to agree.)

I took away more great memories that night, and was back to see Unknown Mortal Orchestra at a sold out show the next. Let’s hope these shows won’t be some of the last. If we still want to save this place, the time is now.

Dedee

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(At time of publishing we are awaiting a media release with the updated response from the Minister. We will post it here when it arrives.)