Manly Vale Hotel: History and Closure of a Sydney Rock Venue

Long before the block of apartments appeared on Condamine Street, the Manly Vale Hotel was a premier suburban rock venue on Sydney’s Northern Beaches — the room where Cold Chisel recorded the set later released as The Live Tapes Vol. 3. The account below reconstructs the hotel’s history, closure, and legacy from gig databases, band releases, and eyewitness memoirs, and is upfront about where the records go silent. It draws on the Australian Music Database, which logs at least 225 documented gigs at the venue.

Last checked: 2026-08-07

Name: Manly Vale Hotel · Address: 250 Condamine Street, Manly Vale, New South Wales · Era as music venue: 1970s–1980s · Current status: Closed (exact closure date unknown)

How we researched this

Last checked: 2026-08-07.

Sources reviewed: music databases (Australian Music Database, Discogs), concert-history archives (setlist.fm), official band releases (Cold Chisel official site, Apple Music), music press (Beat), personal music blogs (Rockbrat), video essays (YouTube), and travel aggregators (Expedia, TripAdvisor).

We did not conduct an on-site visit, interview former staff, or access official hotel records; the exact closure date could not be confirmed from primary documents.

Why the Manly Vale Hotel is still remembered

1 A live album was recorded here

Cold Chisel’s 7 June 1980 set at the hotel was captured on 2-inch 16-track tape (Cold Chisel official site).

2 A band caught in transition

Beat’s review places the performance at the moment Cold Chisel evolved from boogie-blues toward a harder-edged rock sound (Beat).

3 Still streamable today

“Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door (Live at the Manly Vale Hotel, Sydney, June 7, 1980)” remains available on Apple Music as part of The Live Tapes, Vol. 3 (Apple Music).

225+ documented gigs listed by the Australian Music Database
About 24 years from the first logged shows (December 1972) to the last eyewitness gigs (late 1996)
24 km approximate distance from Sydney Airport
A$60–A$80 typical estimated taxi fare for the airport run

Manly Vale Hotel at a glance

These are the verified essentials of the former venue, drawn from the gig archives and music databases cited throughout this article.

Quick facts

Name	Manly Vale Hotel
Address	250 Condamine Street, Manly Vale, NSW 2093, Australia
Region	Northern Beaches, Sydney
Era as music venue	1970s–1980s, with logged shows from December 1972
Later name	Peninsula Hotel, Manly Vale
Current status	Closed; site redeveloped as apartments

Venue details

Documented gigs	225+ (Australian Music Database)
Earliest logged shows	Mississippi, December 1972 (Australian Music Database)
Notable Australian acts	Cold Chisel, INXS, Midnight Oil, The Radiators, Jimmy and the Boys (Australian Music History)
Early AC/DC shows	9–10 May 1975 (Australian Music Database)
International acts reported	Deep Purple, The Cure, Dead Kennedys, Echo & the Bunnymen, Simple Minds, UB40 (Discogs)
Reported bandroom capacity	Around 3,000, according to Rockbrat’s memoir (unverified)
Live album captured	Cold Chisel, 7 June 1980 — released as The Live Tapes Vol. 3
Demolition evidence	Residential units on site by April 1997 (Rockbrat)

When did Manly Vale hotel close?

The most specific account comes from the Rockbrat blog, a Sydney music memoir whose author recalls attending gigs at the Manly Vale Hotel in late 1996, including what he believed was the final show by the Psychotic Turnbuckles. By April 1997, he writes, the building had already been replaced by a block of residential units.

How long the room had been running is harder to pin down. Fan oral histories on YouTube report the pub was built around 1964 and originally operated as part of the Millers hotel chain; the first logged shows — by the band Mississippi — appear in the Australian Music Database in December 1972.

Closure date clues from available sources

Other sources are looser with the timeline. Discogs, which maintains a label page for the venue, records that the hotel “closed in the late 1990s” — a wider window than Rockbrat’s account of the pub being gone by April 1997.

“Closed in the late 1990s.” — Discogs venue label page for the Manly Vale Hotel

A YouTube documentary, “The Manly Vale Hotel: The Golden Years,” suggests that opposition from local residents and the prohibitive cost of required refurbishments helped end live music at the pub. Those claims are anecdotal; no council records or planning documents have been published to confirm them.

The venue’s transition from music venue to closure

Before the end, the hotel changed names. Concert-history site setlist.fm and Discogs both note that the venue operated as the Peninsula Hotel, Manly Vale, even as locals continued to call it the Manly Vale. The booking pattern also shifted: international touring acts such as Motörhead played the room as late as June 1984, while by late 1996 the eyewitness account describes local bands on the bill.

Beyond Cold Chisel, Rockbrat reports that the band New Race recorded part of a live album at the Manly Vale Hotel, reinforcing the room’s role as a recording site as well as a touring stop.

“The Live Tapes – Vol. 3: Live At The Manly Vale Hotel” — the title of Cold Chisel’s 2016 release, and the clearest surviving record of the room’s sound.

Timeline of the venue’s rise and fall

Date	Event	Source
Around 1964	Reported construction as part of the Millers hotel chain	Fan oral history via YouTube
December 1972	First documented shows, by the band Mississippi	Australian Music Database
9–10 May 1975	AC/DC plays two shows at the hotel	Australian Music Database
28–29 January 1977	Cold Chisel plays early Manly Vale dates	Australian Music Database
7 June 1980	Cold Chisel’s set recorded; album East released the same week	Cold Chisel official site
June 1984	Motörhead appears on the No Remorse tour	setlist.fm
Late 1996	Eyewitness attends late gigs, including the Psychotic Turnbuckles	Rockbrat
By April 1997	Pub replaced by a block of residential units	Rockbrat
2 December 2016	The Live Tapes Vol. 3 released	Cold Chisel official site

Editor’s note: No official closure date has been published. The evidence converges on a shutdown between late 1996 and the redevelopment visible by April 1997, but the exact final night is unconfirmed.

The bottom line: the Manly Vale Hotel’s bandroom operated for roughly a quarter of a century, and the most specific records place its demolition between late 1996 and April 1997.

Where is the Manly Vale hotel?

Address and exact location

The Manly Vale Hotel stood at 250 Condamine Street, Manly Vale, NSW 2093, on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. The Australian Music Database lists the hotel at that address, and the concert-history site setlist.fm confirms the same location for logged shows.

Neighbourhood character of Manly Vale

Manly Vale is a residential area adjacent to Manly, sitting slightly inland from the beachfront. The former hotel site is now a block of apartments set back from Condamine Street; no working pub occupies the address. Retrospective music histories describe the hotel as part of a wider circuit of Sydney suburban rock pubs that carried the city’s pub-rock scene through the 1970s and 1980s.

Going today: there is no Manly Vale Hotel to check into. The site is residential, so visitors trace the history through the street address and gig archives rather than a working venue.

What this means: the location is easy to pinpoint, but the venue itself survives only in records and recordings.

How far is Manly Vale hotel from Sydney Airport?

Distance and travel options

Sydney Airport to Manly Vale is roughly 24 kilometres. There are seven ways to travel between the two, ranging from public transport combinations (train plus bus) to taxi, rideshare, and driving.

Estimated travel time and cost

Travel time depends on the mode and the time of day; the sources reviewed here do not fix a single journey time. Taxi fares for the route are commonly estimated at A$60–A$80.

The pattern: a modest 24-kilometre trip, but a taxi from the airport will run to roughly A$60–A$80 — a useful planning figure for anyone combining a concert-history detour with a Sydney stay.

Is Manly a nice part of Sydney?

Overview of Manly and its attractions

Manly is a coastal suburb on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, known for its beaches, its dining strip, and a passenger ferry that connects to Sydney’s CBD. Manly Vale sits adjacent to Manly, a mostly residential pocket with a quieter character than the beachfront.

Why Manly Vale’s location is appealing

For visitors tracking the Manly Vale Hotel’s history, the former Condamine Street site is a short drive from the Manly ferry terminal and the beach. The area is now overwhelmingly residential — the block of units built on the old hotel site is visible from the street.

Why this matters: Manly remains one of Sydney’s most visitor-friendly coastal areas, but the Manly Vale Hotel belongs to its past rather than its present-day accommodation stock.

Comparable venues and stays in the same orbit

Because the Manly Vale Hotel no longer operates, the practical entry points to its world are a hotel stay and a live-music pub that still exist. Manly Pacific Hotel is a five-star beachfront property in Manly, the closest accommodation equivalent for a Northern Beaches base. For the pub-rock thread, the Prince Alfred Hotel in Port Melbourne is a modern point of comparison — a hotel that still programmes live music today.

Our pick

For music-history enthusiasts and nostalgic locals, the fullest way to experience the Manly Vale Hotel today is to stream The Live Tapes Vol. 3 — recorded inside the room in 1980 — then take the short drive from Manly’s beachfront to the former Condamine Street site. For tourists wanting a place to stay while doing that, the Manly Pacific Hotel is the closest equivalent accommodation in the area.

Tip: queue up “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door (Live at the Manly Vale Hotel)” as you drive from the ferry terminal to the former address.

The implication: the hotel’s legacy is now carried by recordings and by other live-music hotels, rather than by any structure on Condamine Street.

Additional sources

youtube.com, youtube.com

For those interested in a more detailed history of the venue, including its role in the local music scene, detailed history of the venue offers a comprehensive account of its rise and fall.

Frequently asked questions

What was the Manly Vale Hotel known for?

As a premier suburban rock venue on Sydney’s Northern Beaches in the 1970s and 1980s. The Australian Music Database logs at least 225 gigs there, with acts including Cold Chisel, AC/DC, INXS and Midnight Oil.

What is the address of the Manly Vale Hotel?

250 Condamine Street, Manly Vale, NSW 2093, Australia. The site is now occupied by apartments, not a hotel.

Is the Manly Vale Hotel still open?

No. Eyewitness accounts place gigs at the venue into late 1996, and the building had been replaced by a block of residential units by April 1997.

How many ways to travel from Sydney Airport to Manly Vale?

Seven. Options range from public transport (train-and-bus combinations) to taxi, rideshare, and driving; the route is roughly 24 km.

What is the distance between Sydney Airport and Manly Vale?

Approximately 24 km. Taxi fares are typically estimated at A$60-A$80 depending on traffic.

What is the Manly Vale Hotel’s connection to Discogs?

Discogs maintains a label page for the venue that documents its history, lists international acts including Deep Purple, The Cure, Dead Kennedys and Simple Minds, and dates the closure to the late 1990s.

What is the legacy of the Manly Vale Hotel?

Its legacy lives on in recordings. Cold Chisel’s 7 June 1980 performance became The Live Tapes Vol. 3, released 2 December 2016, and “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” from that show is available on Apple Music.