Ben Lummis was a little taken aback. Paul Ellis had promised him that at least his mother would be there.Because the hip young team mem­bers go there for things like Nick Cave con­certs, and the team mem­bers who are in the fam­ily way go there to see The Wiggles, we thought it was about time that Wel­ling­ton­ist paid a small trib­ute to the lovely ven­ue that is The Wel­ling­ton Town Hall.

Opened on Decem­ber 7th, 1904, the Town Hall is con­sidered a fine example of late Vic­tori­an muni­cip­al archi­tec­ture – although it has under­gone many makeovers, includ­ing hav­ing its 150 foot bell tower removed in 1934 as a con­sequence of the 1931 earth­quake in the Hawkes Bay. More import­antly, for those amongst us who are more inter­ested in music than archi­tec­ture, it is a fant­ast­ic ven­ue.

With a capa­city for con­certs of just 2000 people, the Town Hall is smal­ler than both the Michael Fowl­er Centre (2430) and the Events Centre (5050), which is one of its many charms (as long as you are organ­ised enough to get tick­ets to events before they sell out). We love the Town Hall because unlike the Events Centre, it really is a Des­tin­a­tion (with a cap­it­al D) instead of just a glor­i­fied gym­nas­i­um. Con­certs just feel more cul­tured with the fancy ceil­ings. Unlike the Michael Fowl­er Centre, it’s not all seated, so dan­cing is pos­sible. Because it had doors on two sides of the main hall, it’s quick­er to get in and out of, and fresh air can fil­ter through. Plus, it’s not at the arse end of town either.

As we at Wel­ling­ton­ist have seen so many shows there over the years, from dance parties to Tool and Soundgarden, to high school Stage Chal­lenge pro­duc­tions and an assort­ment of tri­umphant home­com­ing gigs for Wel­ling­ton legends Shi­had and Trin­ity Roots, we just want to say that we love you, you big 101 year old pile of brick­s’n stuff. Cheers for all the memor­ies and here’s to many more.