REVIEW: Refurbished but quiet

EXCLUSIVE where2sing.com KARAOKE GIG REVIEW

We now drive down the freeway from Brisbane to the Gold Coast, but it wasn't always this way.

Logan Road used to wind through Brisbane's southern suburbs, a tortuous route that made the trip into a marathon, and I used to judge Eight Mile Plains as a sort of last marker of Brisbane. And often recognised by a large hotel sitting on the side of the road: The Glen Hotel.

I know it's had karaoke here for a long time, but I've never been quite sure of the demographic targeted by this venue - always slightly wary that it is the twenty-something lout and girlfriend set, and presenting pricey beers and untrained bar staff to match. But hey, it's Sunday evening, and it might be a good stop on the way back from the coast.

It's easy to find - just drop off the highway and onto the old Logan Road when you see the signs, and pretty soon you're skimming along an almost deserted Logan Road where it's impossible to miss the sprawling Glen Hotel with its large neon sign. The car park is big, and there's a choice of entrances into the venue.

I had already seen people sitting out the front, and heard singing, and now as I walk into the bar from the car park, I can hear the music in the far section. I duck my head around the corner to see, and I recognise the host. He doesn't see me.

This is an extensively renovated pub, nice modern decor and a spacious feel with areas opened up to the outside, and the food servery in the middle of it all. Opposite is the main bar, and I go there for my beer - being served by a tall and charming girl but one who struggles to get access to the taps because of a short mean-faced girl who is being as purposely awkward as she can manage (I think they call this behaviour 'passive-aggressive'). My girl is delightful, good eye contact, smiles, says 'thank you' and looks like she means it, and even puts a coaster on the bar on which to position my beer; the little mean-faced girl shoots me a look that says 'I hate working here and I want you all to know it'.

The karaoke is in the large room with the high ceiling, and which on the far side is open to the road. The road is still some way off, but it's a great place for a pub which has open windows, but in which music played loudly must not disturb any neighbours. In fact, the karaoke can be heard throughout the pub due to the way in which the bars interconnect, and although there would be less than twenty people directly watching the karaoke, many more are lounging in groups throughout the other areas.

There's a large screen at the front of the room, and the karaoke is set up underneath this but slightly to one side. The singer stands in front, with the monitor to one side which encourages him to stand side-on to the audience, and the host must walk either in front of the singer or around and behind him in order to escape.

The host does escape, regularly, starting off a new singer and waiting long enough to adjust the sound, then disappearing for the course of the song and making it back in a rush that doesn't always beat the ending of the song. Where does the host go? I don't know, and he later tells me he is mingling with the crowd - someone... somewhere...

I like this host, for he is energetic. He's one of those who claims his training in radio, but without a traditional 'radio' voice, and he keeps his patter going no matter what. No matter whether he's inserting a disc, no matter whether he's looking it up in the songbook, locating it, and cuing it up. This host talks. He also sings, and seems to do so when there's a genuine need to inject life into the proceedings - and it is therefore successful. And, whilst he is singing, he's looking up songs, locating discs and cuing them - this is a multi-tasking and ever moving host.

He talks about the 2,800 song list; of all the facts and figures I recall about this karaoke, it is this one number of 2,800 that must be remembered by all, because the host mentions this over and over again. It's a smart move, because it seems like a heck of a lot of songs (but of course isn't really), and he uses it to encourage people to sing. I see the rationale - encourage people to look at the songbook on the expectation that there will be something they love, notice who is actually looking at the songbook, and then target these people as singers - a very neat sales process, and one that other hosts in quietish establishments would do well to observe.

The singers are good here, and I suspect are regulars perhaps sought out by the host. This is a newly started Sunday night karaoke, whereas Wednesdays here have been running for some considerable time. The host is building his core of regular singers, and even though a few who are struggling to hold a note do get up and sing, we keep coming back to good ones. Bearing in mind that the karaoke is the central entertainment here, I like the business plan of encouraging these good singers and thus providing genuinely . . .(full story on where2sing.com)

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