Out on the town

Andrew Mathieson
THE man who is the cornerstone of the city nightclub industry is almost over the ubiquitous features of the Geelong scene.
Darren Holroyd struggles to bare the long lines, the security checks, the confrontations, the intoxicated patrons.
But worse still for the 46-year-old is the doof-doof music.
That explains why his Lambys nightclub is a favourite with the older crowd.
Theirs are tunes of a retrospective nature; the pace a little more laidback and chilled.
“By the nature of the hours Lambys is classed as a nightclub but I don’t have those full-on DJs and doof-doof type music,” Darren sighs.
“I’m certainly not into the doof-doof music. My DJs are soon told we don’t play doof-doof here.”
The sort of venues Darren has owned is a reflection of his growing, albeit ageing taste.
Starting out as a casual bartender, he turned his hand to running a Highton pizza and pasta restaurant.
Then he bought into the Geelong Hotel in the mid-1990s when the grunge era and flannels challenged conventional dress codes at clubs.
“If you asked me 20 years ago whether I’d own a nightclub, I would have said it definitely isn’t for me,” Darren admits.
“Nightclubs really didn’t exist when I was growing up.
“I went to the Waurn Ponds, the Eureka, just to see pub bands play.”
The Geelong Hotel was also where a young Cameron Ling was first hired to promote the nightspot to late-night revellers.
The partnership has shared a lot in common despite the age gap, which soon became apparent to Darren.
“I remember when Cameron asked whether he could have his birthday party there,” Darren recalls.
“I said ‘That’s fine’ then asked him what birthday was it and he said it was his 18th.
“He’d been working for me all this time and I didn’t realise he was under-age.”
The mates checked out bars, pubs and clubs when catching up at Geelong Football Club’s interstate games prior to launching The Edge on the city’s waterfront recently.
The Geelong Nightlife Association president likes doing things by the book but the new bar was embroiled in a few setbacks on its much-hyped grand opening.
As Darren explains, a council mix-up between an old and a new permit when outdoor decking was extended and a licencing oversight to cater for 70 patrons rather than 700 provided some hiccups in the first few weeks.
“That was just our marketing ploy,” Darren smirks now.
“We thought it might create a bit of interest – and it did.”
Nightclubs can be a shady place and Darren’s seen and heard it all before. From patrons passing their shoes through the door to get someone else inside, to mates ringing him because bouncers said they were too drunk.
“Every night the venue is open and I’m not there I turn my phone off,” he sniggers.
The story of the most determined bid to gain entry was an evicted man who changed his identity to return to Lamby’s.
“He shaved his head during the week so the next time the security guys on the door would not recognise him – and they didn’t,” Darren explains.
“He was only a young guy and had a good head of hair.”
A former Bell Park High student, Darren left school for an office desk job then later resorted to manufacturing lounge suites for major chain stores and even driving taxis.
“I think I drove one shift,” he recollects, “ and it was a Friday afternoon shift, quite a busy shift, actually.
“I quite enjoyed chatting to people but I am not sure how I’d go at three o’clock in the morning taking home some of the people I have helped develop for the night.”