Melbourne’s newest music venue The Hummingbird has changed its name after being threatened with legal action by millionaire real-estate developer Albert Dadon (aka Albare) for referencing a bird in their name.
Albare owns music venue Bird’s Basement on the other side of Melbourne and is using his legal muscle and deep pockets to attempt to make life difficult for the small business owners of the new venue.
In their ‘To Kill A Hummingbird” statement to media the owners of the venue formerly known as The Hummingbird inform music punters that “the letter states that Bird’s Basement is the only jazz venue in Australia that can claim rights to use the word “bird” in relation to the operation of a venue for the performance of jazz music and related entertainment services”.
The founders of the venue formerly known as The Hummingbird have no issues changing the name. In fact, they are happy to distance themselves from Dadon’s venue.
Venue co-founder Heather Para (and a former associate Dadon) says, “we are not in fact a jazz venue, but rather an entertainment venue of varied genres. However having booked artists alongside Mr Dadon at Birds Basement for two years I can now understand how this may have been misconstrued. We are agreeable to changing the same on this basis to alleviate his concern and assure that we have no wish for our venue to be confused with Bird’s Basement”.
The venue formerly known as The Hummingbird will now be known as The Fyrefly.
Upcoming events are:
May 17: Phileas Fogg trio
May 18: Sammy J
May 19: Grand Wazoo – Kings of Soul
May 24: Jackie Bornstein
May 25: Soul Cupcake
May 26: Alma Zygier & Emilia Schnall
May 31: Monique Di Mattina with Shannon Bourne
June 1: Renee Geyer
June 15: Sarah Maclaine
June 21-22: Paul McDermott & Steven Gates
June 23: Jack Howard
July 13: Ross Wilson & the Peaceniks
Aug 16: Deborah Conway & Willie Zygier
“We guarantee that everything else including our delicious food, promise of friendly service, excellent entertainment and the creature comforts that our patrons have already enjoyed will remain unchanged,” Heather says.
“We will continue to be the venue with a commitment to integrity and a big heart and we look forward to welcoming many more friends to our community.”
The Fyrefly is downstairs at Newmarket Hotel, St Kilda.
For news as it happens follow Noise11 on Facebook
Listen to the Noise11 Music News channel now at iHeartRadio
