Monday, September 28, 2026

rem the venetian room

Rem the Venetian Room? I say 'rem' because I am still entranced by something I read over a decade ago from a woman I went to school with who wrote about her recollections of schooldays by saying 'I rem...' this and that. Meaning she remembered it. At the time I thought, she's probably using some hot new terminology where people say they 'rem' things instead of that they 'remember' things. But I have never seen it used again. 

Anyway, do you rem the Venetian Room? It was actually a really great venue, and it was in this building. From the newspapers I get the strong sense that it opened on the 2 October 1982. The first few bands that played there were solid indie bands for the time. Dorian Gray, 5:15, New Five, Little Murders. 

There was an article by Rebecca Batties, Matthew Stevens and Matthew Bolton called 'And the people wore blue shirts and the band played on', in the Weekender 24 June 1983. It had this in it:

It lasted about three years, and why did it die? Well, one possible reason is that the Hotel Australia also had a Venetian Room, and while the two coexisted in 1985 apparently unproblematically, perhaps ultimately it got too much for the Hotel Australia. 

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