Cellar Folk - three floors down

Until the 1980s the Sydney YWCA Building stood in Liverpool Street facing Hyde Park. It was demolished to make way for the Connaught Apartments. Located on a steep site this building had three floors below street level. On the very lowest floor was The Cellar, one of Sydney's premier folk clubs. Cellar Folk hosted folk stars like Jon English, Ross Ryan, Ray Brown (of Ray Brown and the Whispers), the John Curry Folk Review and many more.

During 1975 Donga Dan's Derelict Band were a regular Friday night act at Cellar Folk. Like all other performers at the venue the band was paid the generous performers' fee of $10.00. I guess that was OK given that admission was $2.00 per head and the place could only fit about 50 people!

We actually made it into Rolling Stone Magazine! 17 July 1975. Peter Combe is in the same ad!

Performances at the Cellar were always publicised in the Sydney Morning Herald and on Radio Station 2JJ. Donga Dan's performances attracted a regular crowd of devotees. One Friday Bob Hudson (of Newcastle Song fame), who was an announcer on 2JJ at the time, was announcing the weekend's music offerings in Sydney. When reading the performance list for Cellar Folk he stopped and raved for about 10 minutes about how impressed he was with the name 'Donga Dan's Derelict Band'.

Sydney Morning Herald 12 July 1975.

That night the Cellar was packed with customers who had come to see this great new band. Unfortunately for Cellar Folk and Donga Dan's Derelict Band we had cancelled our booking for the evening. Cliff Atkinson, Cellar Folk's operator, had forgotten this and not removed us from the performers' list. Red faces all around.