DESCRIPTION: The Thumping Tum WAS Melbourne's premier music venue from the mid 1960's through to the early 1970's. Every great band played there, and many got there start at the Tum, only to go onto becoming iconic groups in the Australian music scene.
As David Pepperell (aka Dr. Pepper -- well know Melbourne Music Journo) recently wrote on Facebook. "OK lets talk about Venues. To me the Thumpin' Tum was the premier venue in Melbourne's 1960's discotheque scene. Although it had live bands and was thus not striclty speaking a discotheque, records were played over a sound system in the band breaks and it was copied from the venues so popular in France in the mid 60's. The Tum opened in 1965. First group on Saturday night was The Groop of course, Melbourne's coolest band. I was there and was astounded by the wonderful kind of Victorian (Queen not State) look of the place with the outstanding feature the upside down umbrellas hung from the roof in the main room, creating a false low roof that made the whole place feel like a magic cave. It was not licensed but eventually a coffee lounge was established on the first floor. Founders were Ken Moate, who lives up north these days and Ron Eden, who designed the umbrella roof and who now lives in Port Melbourne in unfortunately poor health. The Tum over the next ten or so years hosted every major band in Australia including incredible showcase gigs by Jeff St. John & The Id and Python Lee Jackson which will never be forgotten by anyone who was there, including me. Second Owner was David Flint, manager of Cam-Pact who kept it going in the brilliant manner it had beocme known for. I was there to see the Spinning Wheels play the second Saturday night and performed with my band The Union on the third. We wrote a song for the Tum called "Thump" which was released by John Morrison, sound man for the GTV9 Tonight Show and partner in the Sunbury Pop Festivals, on his own label Trend where it sank without a trace except in the hearts of 60's pop single aficionados. It was however filmed for the Go Show on played on 3UZ.
