The Tote Hotel is a pub and music venue located at 71 Johnston Street, on the corner of Wellington Streets, in Collingwood Australia.
The first hotel was built in 1870 on the site of a grain store and opened briefly as Healy’s Hotel, then in 1873 as the Ivanhoe Hotel and remained operating until the name changed to “The Tote” in 1981 when the venue began hosting local bands. It quickly gained a reputation for staging original punk, post-punk, heavy metal and hardcore bands gaining the moniker of Melbourne’s home of Rock.
The Tote has hosted so many famous and infamous bands, and launched the careers of so many legends of the Australian music scene that a list of who has not played at The Tote would be easier to compile. However, some local and international notables would include:
Paul Kelly, Jim White, Spenser P Jones, Ed Kuepper, Kim Salmon, Ron Peno, The Dacios, Penny Ikinger, The White Stripes, Lydia Lunch, Fred and Tutti (Dead Moon), Gary Clarke Jnr, The Powder Monkeys, Le Hoodoo Gurus, The Johnnys, Olympic Sideburns, The Moodists, The Scientists, The Drones, Magic Dirt, The Beasts of Bourbon, The Meanies, You Am I, The Beasts of Bourbon, The Datsuns, The New Christs, GOD, The Hard Ons, The Dirtbombs, Mudhoney, The Troggs, Courtney Barnett, Erica Dunn, The Peep Temple, Peeping Tom, The Spazzys, Mach Pelican, Rocket Science, The Dirtbombs, Legends of Motor Sport, High Tension, RVG, Violent Soho, The Stabs, The Breadmakers, Gold Class, Endless Boogie, Church of Misery, King Parrot, Bat Piss and on it goes.
The Tote is no stranger to controversy. Its 2010 temporary closure by the Liquor Licensing Commissioner sparked the 20,000 strong SLAM (Save Live Australia’s Music) rally stopping the city on a Tuesday and likely contributing to the fall of the Brumby Government. Also, the spontaneous flash mob protest that closed the junction of Wellington St and Johnson St at The Tote’s 2010 ‘Last Drinks’, the surrounding of the venue by the Victorian Police because the Aboriginal Warriors of Resistance burnt the Australian flag on one Australia/Invasion Day, its random fire bombing, the early Rock Against Work shows, the campaign launch for the successful election of the Green’s Adam Bandt, plus the odd wedding, wake and funeral. These are all part of The Totes rich social history that punctuate its seminal contribution to Australian culture that transcend its extensive musical legacy and longevity.
The very fact the Tote exists at all today is against all the odds, reflecting its name-sake’s reference in both fact and fiction: Frank Hardy’s protagonist character in ‘Power without Glory’, John West’s Tote which is based on the actual illegal betting shop of Collingwood’s infamous figure John Wren, purportedly located a short stagger down Johnston St. The irony and folklore seep up from the mythical Tote tunnels, up through the sticky carpet and is whispered by the Tote Ghost into the ears of the musicians singing and playing on The Tote’s four stages.
Before the pandemic hit in March 2020, The Tote was staging 2,500 bands a year making it the busiest and most active music venue in Australia.
The Tote today remains committed to staging original contemporary Australian Live Music.
Written by Jon Perring – Tote publican (2022).