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Inside one of Melbourne’s best-loved live music venues, a group of five people took a free and easy approach to singing Bruno Mars’ pop song 24K Magic at the weekend.
They rapped, howled and laughed through the gently funky tune, making up lyrics while miraculously keeping up with the beat.
In response, the crowd at St Kilda’s Esplanade Hotel on Saturday danced and cheered along, and took snaps with their phones.
This is Rockeoke – a weekly karaoke session where people of all singing abilities get to live out their music dreams on stage with the backing of a live band.
By the end of the night, participants can brag they’ve performed at the Espy, where music royalty such as Paul Kelly, Snoop Dogg and AC/DC have also played.
Singers, who can put their names down either online or at the basement bar on the night, have 65 songs to choose from, including INXS’s Never Tear Us Apart, Wonderwall by Oasis, and Billie Eilish’s Ocean Eyes.
If you request an off-list song such as Enter Sandman by Metallica the band is willing to give it a go, keyboard player Thomas Byrne said.
On Saturday, one group took the “where do we go now?” line in Guns N’ Roses’ Sweet Child O’ Mine literally, missing lyrics and sometimes the melody, but they were laughing.
Guitarist Simon Paparo said “it’s not about singing perfectly”, but the band will guide singers towards a chorus or ending.
Another performer, Eadiella, of Hampton, who goes by one name, smashed Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black out of the park, giving a tune and word-perfect rendition of the pop classic.
Eadiella channelled Winehouse’s growling voice and threw herself into the song’s dramatic tale of romance gone wrong while the crowd swayed and sang along as if this were the Glastonbury Festival in England.
Espy venue manager Dan Lovett said the idea for Rockeoke came after a Gaelic football club held its post-finals Mad Monday party at the Espy, and its karaoke session was a huge hit.
“It went off,” Lovett said.
He said the event blended karaoke with the Espy’s strength – live rock music.
About 36 singers now sign up to Rockeoke each week. The event is free and runs from 11pm for three hours each Saturday.
“Each week the crowd’s getting bigger,” Lovett said. “You never know, in a few months it might be on the [Espy’s] main stage, in the Gershwin Room.”
People aged from 18 to 80 have sung in Rockeoke since it began, he said.
One week, an 80-year-old sang the 1968 psychedelic rock song Fire by obscure British band The Crazy World of Arthur Brown – famous for the line “I am the god of hellfire!”
Lovett said the nice thing about karaoke and Rockeoke is that “even if it’s bad, it’s good. As long as you get up there and have a crack, you’re going to have a great time.”
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