New lease on life for a legendary venue

IF WALLS could talk, the walls of Kinselas in Surry Hills would no doubt have a lot to say. Perched on the corner of Bourke Street overlooking Taylor Square, it was opened as a glamorous funeral parlour in 1933 by the undertaker Charles Kinsela.

A florid art deco ''vestibule'' known as the Kinselas nightclub and restaurant replaced it in 1983, where the head chef Tony Bilson and a young Japanese apprentice by the name of Tetsuya Wakuda served ''smart'' French food until after midnight.

That same year Kinselas helped the Sydney Dance Company pull out of liquidation by performing Flashbacks to generate cash flow.

In search of a broader musical audience in the mid-1980s, Kinselas - then considered a high-class cabaret venue - presented Deadly Sins (1984) and Sirens (1986). Later it was a venue for big names such as the Beastie Boys, the Lemonheads and Public Enemy.

Romance was also seen between the walls. In the early 1990s, the venue provided the location for dalliances between high-profile musicians such as Kylie Minogue and Michael Hutchence.

Yet for the past 15 years the third level of the history-ridden building has lay dormant - until this week. Now owned by the adman John Singleton, the third level is set to be reinstated to its former glory as a multi-performance space called The Standard.

One of the creative directors behind the new venue, Andy Zammit, knows only too well what Kinselas can offer as an eclectic performance space, having snuck into the place when he was a 17-year-old to watch the band DIG.

Twenty years later, Mr Zammit said he wanted Kinselas to again be a leading force in reinventing Surry Hills as a ''cultural, music hub''.

''This will become a cultural centre point, not just an end point,'' he said.