‘The Gold Coast saved my career’
LIKE many of his musical mates, Melbourne entertainer Issy Dye’s enduring love affair with the Gold Coast was born during the golden era of entertainment – the ‘60s and ‘70s.
The evergreen showman and former TV star credits the city with saving his career in the late 1970s, when the rise of disco saw some of the country’s most feted rock and cabaret acts struggle to pull crowds and get gigs.
In fact, some of the best years of Dye’s life have – and continue to be – the ones he spends working and playing on the Coast.
“I’ve got a unit in the Q1,” the Melbourne-based local at heart said yesterday.
“I still come up here all the time. I’ve still got my connection with the Goldie.”
Dye has been singing on and singing the praises of the Coast for decades, performing for sold-out crowds as himself and in tributes to vocal greats such as Al Jolsen in long-lost local live music venues such as The Skyline Lounge, Tiki Village, The Patch and The Playroom.
“The ‘70s was all about the beaches and coming to see the best shows – big stars like Johnny O’Keefe who played The Playroom many, many times,” he said.
“I have to say, the Gold Coast saved my career in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. The disco scene had become really big by the late ‘70s and we were struggling to get work.
“Coming up here, we found that the club scene had really started to boom and a lot of my friends were coming up to work here.”
Dye will be back on the Coast from June 6-10 for one of his favourite annual events – Coolangatta’s signature celebration of cars and culture, Cooly Rocks On.
Dye was a star attraction at venues including the fabled Chevron Skyline Lounge and the Broadbeach and Surfers Paradise Beergardens during the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.
“Then disco came in and a lot of entertainers like myself frealised if we didn’t move with the times, we were going to be left behind,” he said.
Like many of his “show circuit’ contemporaries, Dye realised the Coast was still dancing to its own beat – and it wasn’t disco.
“I was still living in Melbourne in the 1970s but I was coming up to work on the Coast all the time,” he said.
“The Coast was where the music scene was. The Gold Coast was able to survive because people were coming here from around the country to be entertained.
“We had all the Maori bands coming from New Zealand. They changed the music scene with their audience interaction and choreographed shows and lifted the bar.
“It was a fun time.”