Live from the smouldering ruins: Triple M’s legendary, spontaneous O.B

It was famous for its cheesy TV ads, cabaret floorshows and smorgasbord.

The buffet spread was legendary. The bartenders wore bow ties. It was 1980s sensory overload at its finest.

So iconic was Melbourne’s Swagman Restaurant that when – 34 years ago today – it burned to the ground, it was front page news.

It also became the scene of one of Australian radio’s most unique and memorable (not to mention spontaneous) outside broadcasts, with Triple M’s Kevin Hillier and the D-Generation doing their Breakfast show live from the Swagman car park, in front of the smouldering ruins.

As radio legend and former D- Gen member Tony Martin tells Radio Today, they’d already forged a special connection with the Swagman.

“A few months before the fire, The ‘D-Generation Breakfast Show Live from the Swagman in Ferntree Gully’ was probably the high point of our five years in that slot,” Martin says.

The show was a spin-off from Tommy G & the Fat Man’s popular ‘Dag Quiz’ segment.

“Hard to imagine now, but making fun of the seventies was a relatively novel idea in the eighties,” says Martin. “We decided to turn an entire morning over to the idea by broadcasting live from the Swagman’s main stage.”

Listeners were invited to come along and dress up in full 1970s regalia. But the D-Gen got more than they bargained for.

“What we didn’t expect was that nearly 3000 people would do so, queuing in dazzling flares and Daryl Braithwaite-style silk gear from 4.30am!” says Martin.

“I recall that the door of our dressing room had a handwritten sign still selloptaped to it from the night before: ‘Reserved for Bucks Fizz.’”

Molly Meldrum was among the many guests.

“My highlight was singing a retooled version of Barry Manilow’s melodramatic ‘Copacabana (At the Copa)’ entitled ‘At the Swagman’.”

So successful was the show, the D-Gen went on to stage an even bigger event – the ‘Dag Dance’ – at the Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton, where the likes Marty Rhone, John Paul Young, Les Gock from Hush and William ‘My Little Angel’ Shakespeare joined them on stage.

But just a few months later – around 4.30am on May 27, 1991 – there was a shockingly unexpected turn of events.

The Swagman was no more.

As Martin recalls “We arrived at Triple M to hear that, during the night, the Swagman had burnt to the ground in what were already being described as ‘mysterious circumstances.’”

“I think it was Tom (Gleisner)’s idea that we immediately make our way out there and do that morning’s show from the smoking ruins, or at least as close to them as we could get.”

What followed was a hastily organised but nonetheless unique O.B.

“I’m afraid can’t recall much about the show itself, except that John Blackman was doing his one from a car yard across the street,” says Martin.

The restaurant was never rebuilt and so – twenty-odd years after the Swagman first opened its doors – the chapter was closed on a decidedly daggy piece of Melbourne’s history.

Subsequently, jokes about the Swagman have been part of Tony Martin’s comedy routine ever since.

Photos: Australia Remember When Facebook page