Emily Trott backs live music in authentic theme of Wheatsheaf Hotel in Adelaide's inner west Thebarton
Emily Trott (inset), Wheatsheaf Hotel publican and a member of The Wheatsheaf Ukelele Collective, a regular Fringe festival act at the hotel.
Wheatsheaf Hotel publican Emily Trott, who died of cancer in 2016, was farewelled by a procession of 300 people with a brass band through the streets of Adelaide’s inner-west pioneer suburb of Thebarton.
Trott, with partners Jade Flavell and Liz O’Dea, took over the hotel in 2003 and backed live music with an alternative feel in keeping with other aspects of the hotel theme: “Beer real, wine independent, whisky odd, music live and art public” – and no poker machines.
The daughter of Wirra Wirra winemaker Greg Trott and teacher Joanne Schmidt, Torr went from Wilderness School to study photography at the South Australian School of Art, then in Stanley Street, North Adelaide. She worked for Pip Forrester and Russell Jeavons at McLaren Vale restaurant The Salopian Inn before joining Rundle Street, Adelaide’s, Exeter Hotel where she met and worked alongside Flavell and O’Dea in the mid 1990s.
Music was among Trott's interests. She played her ukulele Honey with The Wheatsheaf Ukelele Collective, a regular Fringe festival performer at the hotel.
Among the packed music lineup at the Wheaty were regular events by Creative Original Music Adelaide, the Songwriters, Composers and Lyricists Association and the Adelaide Blues and Roots Association.
The eclectic range of act appearing at the hotel included Akoustic Odyssey, Wren & The Restless Few, The Yearlings and band, The Young & The Wrestlers, Naomi Keyte and band, Kate Pomery and band, Green Circles, Miss Ohio, Courtney Robb and Snooks La Vie, Almost Evelyn, Don Morrison’s Raging Thirst, Gallowglass, Fiddle Chicks, Sympathy Orchestra, Massey Ferguson and Jen Lush.
The hotel kept its gig series going during the 2020 Covid-19 restrictions by having them livestreamed, building on the back of the pub’s already established practice of streaming on Facebook. During 2020, this was developed with a $10,000 emergency cash grant from the South Australian government’s Music Development Office.
