The Alleyway Crew

Since it's beginning, there has been a lot of talk about Alleyway shows Australia wide. Well here in Adelaide is where it all begun. Around 2000-2001, an Adelaide band at the time called St. Albans kids formed and started the movement of secret location shows. A secret location show is where there is an advertised meeting spot, people gather at the designated time and then they are escorted to a location where the band has set up and is ready to play. St Albans kids played in places from car parks to parklands, to the middle of Rundle Mall. The energy and vibe at the shows were amazing and they were really fun and thrilling to experience. After a couple years, St Albans kids became based in Melbourne and later broke up, so secret location shows came to a halt and not much was really happening in the scene at the time.

Myself and my good mate Dougy had a band happening at the time called "The Greatest Band Ever". We were finding it very hard to try and get our first gig because of the lack of shows happening at the time. We decided that we would give the secret location shows a shot. We thought that it might be viewed as ripping off someone else's idea, but we believed the shows would do more good then harm and that they were started for a reason and that's to inspire people to continue the DIY ethic within the scene. We decided to run with the idea and we decided to call them Alleyway shows. We scouted the city for as many power points as we could find and in August 2002 we put on our first Alleyway show. From that time we dedicated a lot of time to Alleyway shows and put them on frequently from Alleyways to car parks. They started out pretty dodge because we hadn't put anything like that on before, so the sounds were generally terrible. But through out time we learnt all the tricks of the trade and now they are pretty decent.

After a while we started to run out of ideas and spots and where to have them, so we decided to go out and buy a generator. Now with a generator, we could have shows anywhere we wanted to.

Alleyway shows are always a treat and there is such a good vibe to the shows and as time goes on more and more people come to the shows. Best thing about them is that you can check out bands for free and it's always at a different venue. Its also pretty good when authority figures turn up to the shows, it always adds a little spice to the shows. On one occasion 12 cop cars including paddy wagons and 3 motorbikes rocked up to an alleyway show, it definitely added to the night.

From putting these shows on, we also got known as the alleyway crew and till today the legacy continues. Lots of different bands have had experiences in playing alleyway shows in some of the best locations in the Adelaide CBD. Our goal with alleyway shows is to take them interstate and possibly do an Australian tour to show people in different cities how we do it in Adelaide.

To get a history of the actual shows that have happen, check out the past gigs section to read about the bands that have played and where they have been.