John Collins: Bass To Business: Pivot Like A Rockstar

John Collins

Bass To Business: Pivot Like A Rockstar

Performing on stage in front of 100,000 people in a band who for twenty years carved themselves iconic status in Australian rock history, Powderfinger bassist, John Collins has enjoyed a career most blokes only dream about.

The band’s breakthrough album, Internationalist, came in 1998 but it was Odyssey Number Five, released in 2000, with the hit My Happiness, that catapulted them to the major leagues, where they remained for the next decade. By Hollie Faye

But, after two decades together, in 2010 Powderfinger announced that they would be breaking up after their Sunsets Farewell Tour, declaring it would be their last ever as they had musically said everything they wanted to say.

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“The end was emotional. I knew I was never going to have that crowd again. I knew for me, I’d never get the feeling of twelve thousand people in the audience. But, we just felt it was the right thing to do,” Collins said.

Once he let the dust settle down, Collins knew he had some big decisions to make. Contemplating starting again and trying to figure out what to create for himself took some time. After exploring a bunch of interests, he not surprisingly came back to where he had begun. The music industry.

“I knew for sure that I didn’t want to work for someone else,” he said.

“Being in the band, I missed weddings and birthdays for years. I even had to ask my manager when I could get married! My aim was to get control of my life back.”

John strongly believed Brisbane needed a great music venue. He knew his credibility would be on the line and it was a risky move, but it also felt like the most natural step in his life to take on a project that would become The Triffid in Newstead.

It took 18 months to transform an old World War II US aircraft hangar into a music venue that hosts up to 800 people, which was not as simple a task as he hoped.

“It was a great idea – a few containers, throw it together. Those containers are now proper full-on bars,” Collins said.

“I had this belief that if I build it they will come. I really underestimated how much work it is and how hard it is to get from your idea to where you start making money.”

“I had to take a book of The Triffid around to agents with a drawing in it. They said they wouldn’t book their bands in it until it was ready to go, so we had to buy bands for two months. I was bleeding money out on buying bands to get it going in the beginning and I just didn’t realise how much I was bleeding.”

“I had to sign off for everything. Everything. It was a constant fight with the builder, nicely over a coffee, but it had to be done. I didn’t know how to do all that sort of stuff, I didn’t even know about P & L at that stage, so I just had to keep going back to what I saw in my head. I had to keep going back to the belief.”

Collins said he was excited about the future but admitted he had no idea what he was getting into when he persuaded Scott Hutchinson from site owner Hutchinson Builders to go ahead with the project.

“I had plenty of doubters and my wife was worried about me being in that type of venue, around the drinking and nightlife. I had mates who thought I was mad, but I just said to them ‘not since Bernie joined the band in 1989, have I felt so sure of something.’”

Collins garnered all the experience he had from being on stage in pub venues for decades nutting out what would feel good for the bands and the patrons coming in to give them the best experience.

Stepping inside The Triffid is like stepping back in time. The shipping container design conjures up feelings of an outdoor Fisherman’s Wharf mixed with Broadie Tavern in Australia 1983. His gamble really paid off and there’s simply nothing else like it in Brisbane.

So, life must feel pretty good now for John, who can still surround himself with live music day and night, in a venue that is straight out of his own head?

“I’m pretty strict with my timetable. I work Monday to Friday and maybe one night a week, if it’s a band I really like. But it’s a balance between family and work, now. I’ve done twenty years of travelling, so I’m done with all that.”

Watching up and coming bands play live would poke most people’s green eyed monsters a little, but John knows he got out of the industry at the right time.

With streaming music as the new norm, we don’t buy albums anymore. A number one record used to sell about half a million copies and a musician could make a living, but these days, it’s a different game altogether.

“Steaming was the beginning of the end for bands. I really feel for young bands trying to make it these days. You have to tour or get your songs played on ads to make it. Things are so different now and we got out just before all this happened.”

“Creating and nurturing young talent is one of the most rewarding things about a venue. It’s The Triffid’s thing - to always have new artists. I want to see bands starting out at The Triffid and making it at Boondall. Supporting new talent is so important,” he said.

In July 2019 John partnered up with Queensland builder Scott Hutchinson to launch their latest venture, Fortitude Music Hall. This 3000 person music venue just up the road from the Triffid sits at the top of the Brunswick Street Mall and hosts bands, comedy, cabaret, dance, exhibition and gala performances in the largest ballroom/

theatre styled venue in Australia. Inspired by some of the world’s most loved live music venues – from classic art deco theatres to larger clubs, while still paying homage to the iconic venues of Brisbane’s past.

Does he miss it? Well, Collins never really stepped off the stage entirely. His three piece rock band featuring original Powderfinger drummer Steven Bishop and guitarist and current ‘The Church band’ member Ian Haug have been gigging for the last decade.

“And, I still play every day.”