Perth venue The Sewing Room puts on marathon music fundraiser for Telethon

Sew far, sew good — city venue The Sewing Room will celebrate its fourth birthday with a music marathon fundraiser for Telethon next month.

Co-owner Martin Black said that while highlights of the past four years included performances from Spacey Jane, Tame Impala member Jay “Gum” Watson and Melbourne indie pop star G Flip, — who had an impromptu jam session with his teenage son during soundcheck — the real point of the 320-capacity basement bar on Wolf Lane was to provide a stage for up-and-coming local bands.

The venue have tapped some of Perth’s most promising talent for their epic Telethon weekend event, running from 5pm to 5am on Friday, October 15, and for 10-plus hours from 5pm the following evening. All ticket sales will go to this year’s Telethon.

Local neo-soul outfit Sago headline the Saturday night shindig, joining 10 other bands across the two nights, including Project Bexx, Pot Plant House Party, Bluo and the Keane St Band.

Singer Lily Morgan met her band mates studying contemporary music at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts before they played their first gig at The Sewing Room in June.

The fast-rising group, which takes inspiration from D’Angelo, Erikah Badu and Melbourne’s Hiatus Kaiyote and their name from Morgan’s love of bubble tea, plan to record their debut single before the end of the year.

“We were super excited when we got offered a position on the (Telethon music marathon) line-up,” Morgan said.

Mr Black, who also co-founded the Margaret River Chocolate Company, said the charity gig would offer entertainment as diverse as a box of choccies.

“We tried to mix it up with a variety of genres so that we circulate the audience through over the whole weekend and get as many people here as we can,” he said.

“When I was a kid and I’d watch Telethon, they’d have these music marathons where several bands would play over the course of the night and you’d stay up late to watch it.”

Due to operating on a nightclub licence, The Sewing Room has only recently returned to full capacity for the first time since March last year.

While the pandemic has adversely impacted his business, Mr Black said WA’s borders has given promising Perth bands great opportunities to strut their stuff.

“The thought is that one day people will reflect back and go ‘Wow, I saw Sago when they played to 30 people at The Sewing Room’.”