Nightlife guru’s ultimate Sin
IN the late 1990s a young Melbourne man headed to the Gold Coast for the summer.
Working at popular Surfers Paradise nightspot Melbas, he was soon hooked on what the city had to offer.
Tim Martin started at the Cavill Ave venue – an institution – working behind the bar but quickly moved his way up to nightclub manager before Melbas changed hands in 2008.
“I left school and joined the army straight away. When I left there I moved to the Gold Coast for a working holiday,” Mr Martin said.
“I started at Melbas literally the day I got here. I thought I was going to be here for a couple of months and never moved back.”
Under the eye of night scene fixture and owner, the late Paul Allen – who ran Melbas for more than two decades – Mr Martin learnt his craft before he was asked to run a soon-to-be opened venue called Sin City.
“I was with Melbas for 11 years and at the time it was the biggest place in town,” he said. “It was going off seven days.
“Once that went into receivership I got asked by the guys who had Bedroom to open Sin City. It was the same type of setup as Melbas. We were open seven days a week and once we launched no one could catch us. It became the place to be.”
SINNER A WINNER
Mr Martin had joined a new team – guided by then venue operator and industry veteran Jamie Pickering.
Now the newly formulated Artesian Hospitality – in which Mr Martin recently took an ownership slice – still has the Orchid Ave nightclubs Sin City, the Bedroom Lounge Bar and Havana RnB.
The location Sin City sat on
was formerly the Sugar Shack before being transformed into strip club Cheerleaders.
But Mr Martin’s rebranded nightclub – with VIP hostesses in lingerie – was hugely successful and became the heartbeat for Surfer Paradise’s party precinct by the early 2010s.
“When Sin City opened it was when lots of clubs had been the same for about 10 years. It brought something new. I think the town was looking for something different and Sin came along and exploded.
“You’d go in on a Monday night and think ‘How are there 400 people out tonight?’. It was always like a Saturday.”
The success of Sin City allowed Mr Martin to become the group manager for the three Orchid Ave nightclubs before Artesian more recently added Cavill Ave bar and restaurant White Rhino.
SECRET TO CELEB SUCCESS
Justin Bieber, Amber Heard and Usher have all partied in Surfers under the guidance of Mr Martin and his team.
However, he said it was a link to R’n’B artists that gave Sin City its most memorable nights.
“One night T-Pain smashed a $4000 bottle of Louis XIII that we gave to him for some photos. He was like ‘what do I do?’ and we said to sing. He sang for two hours.”
The celebrity recognition helped Sin City and Surfers Paradise grow its name but it was no accident the touring artists often ended up in the nightclub.
“What we used to do is book their touring DJ, so if they were going to go out they’d follow someone from their crew,” Mr Martin said.
It wasn’t just musicians looking for a good time who flocked to Surfers Paradise. Athletes flocked to the party precinct during the Commonwealth Games in 2018.
“One night we had all the swim teams from different countries in all the booths.”
Usain Bolt practically took up residency in the venue while on the Gold Coast for the Games – he visited six nights straight.
“He rang and said he wanted to come in and he had such a good time he asked to DJ the next night,” Mr Martin said.
LOOK OUT FOR THE LOCKOUT
Clubs on the Gold Coast were already dealing with liquor licence laws to stamp out alcohol-fuelled violence in the late 2000s.
Initially, the LNP Government
had introduced a 5am deadline for last drinks but in 2016 it was brought forward two hours.
Another big change in legislation was the inclusion of ID scanning in party precincts around the same time.
“The majority of incidents that occur would have come from the same people over and over,” Mr Martin said.
“What scanning did was find the dickheads and made them accountable. If you were banned on the Gold Coast, you were banned in Brisbane.”
Mr Martin said the regulations were one of many reasons day drinking has grown on the Gold Coast, especially in older generations.
“Social media has also had a major impact. Before apps like Tinder people had to go out to meet someone.
“No one was able to slide into someone’s DMs. Talking to someone on a night out was the equivalent.”
ROLLING OUT THE WELCOME MATT
Mr Martin and his team were going strong in Surfers Paradise despite the new regulations but they were about to hit new heights when a man with a financial background joined their ranks.
“Five years ago Matt Keegan came on board. He’s our managing partner,” Mr Martin said. “He was the one who created Artesian and branded us as a new identity.
Artesian Group opened Ferny Ave venture Surfers Pavilion in April and is set to open rooftop bar Cali Beach Club.
Although nightclubs still play a major part in the nightlife scene according to Mr Martin, he said the group was expanding to meet the new needs of partygoers.
“By the end of next year we will probably be at 12 venues.”