The Saints, Skyhooks, Split Enz and The Sports. International bands which played at the venue include Dr. Feelgood (July 13, 1979), XTC (July 28, 1979), Madness (May 2, 1981), The Stray Cats (October 3, 1981), Echo & The Bunnymen (November 13, 1981), Simple Minds (November 28, 1981 and October 9, 1982), The Clash (February 20, 1982) and The Teardrop Explodes (March 19, 1982). Music for Cloudland functions was provided by Brisbane musicians and Australian bands from the 1950s to the early 1980s, and for much of the 1960s it was the central venue for the Sunshine group. Sunshine was headed by Brisbane businessman Ivan Dayman (originally from Adelaide), who leased Cloudland from Apel around 1963. Dayman's entrepreneurial style had a formula that had proved successful in Adelaide and he applied this to his Cloudland enterprise. He commissioned arrangements of the latest pop tunes (hit parades/top forty) adapted to the dances of the day, headhunted the best of Brisbane's musicians and performing artists and paid for rehearsals and dances were run during the week as well as on weekends. On public holidays and significant dates or long weekends during the year, midnight-to-dawn dances were run, usually with featured guest artists of national fame, for example, the Bee Gees, Little Pattie and Midnight Oil. Dayman also installed a huge mirror ball over the centre of the ballroom's floor. The dance steps comprised 40% old time and 60% modern music. Music for the dancers was provided by resident bands and vocal performers from the time of Cloudland's reopening after the war until its closure. Resident bands included The Billo Smith Orchestra, The Cloudland Big Band, The Rick Farbach Sextet, Jim Diamond & The Lancers, The Hi-Marks, The Sounds of Seven, and The Seasons of the Witch. The dance programs in those times covered old time (barn dance, gypsy tap, Canadian 3-step, Pride of Erin, old time waltz; and in a roped off area at one end of the ballroom, jive), 'Modern' (jazz waltz, quickstep, foxtrot), and later the twist and other popular dance crazes. Cloudland Ballroom was said to be the finest ballroom in Australia. Other functions On 2 September 1948 Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh visited after doing the play School for Scandal for a débutants ball for the "Royal Society of Saint George". The venue was also used for many balls including the Engineers' Ball (1947), Masonic Ball (1949), Pharmacy Ball