Magazine disruption

HERCANBERRA.COM.AU
there was good music but you could still
sit down and have a cocktail,” explains
Troy, who took over the bar in 2014.
While Knightsbridge might not sport a
declaration of freedom quite like Mr Wolf’s,
it’s easy to see from the clientele on any
given night that Knightsbridge welcomes
all, which Troy sees as a progression of
Canberra’s evolving nightlife.
“So many other places are similar in
what they do and what they offer—club
beats, house music—we always wanted
to keep it classy.”
But one of Canberra’s industry
heavyweights, Ashley Feraude aka
Magnifik, doesn’t think that Canberra’s
nightlife has changed so much after all.
“I haven’t really seen a gigantic change [in
music], the only thing that really changes
is the technology people use,” he says.
“Clubs come and go and they may
change their style—Mr Wolf is a very good
example of that—but I don’t know if I would
call it disruption as much as evolution.”
He would know, too. Across a career
of more than 10 years, Ashley has
deejayed almost everywhere in
Canberra. Starting out in now-defunct
venues like Heaven Nightclub and Lot
33, he enjoyed a five-year residency at
Academy—now organising the music for
many of Canberra’s biggest nightspots.
He does admit, however, that there has
been a recent change in which venues
are popular and puts down the current
shift towards bars down to people
having to “revaluate” what they wanted
from a night out after the closure of many
of Canberra’s clubs.
“They had to ask themselves; did they
really want to be into mad dancing, or
whatever else, or did they want a more
upscale experience?” he explains. In
Ashley’s opinion, they chose the latter.
I realise there’s something comforting in
Ashley’s concept of circularity—the idea
that Civic’s empty shopfronts and spaces
might one day be filled again with
thriving nightspots. Perhaps ones with
positive, purposeful atmospheres. •
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