By 1981 a final benefit concert to help pay for the printing of the last issue of the New Music magazine was held at the beginning of the year to a thoroughly packed house. April saw the Centre's second meeting: the building's committee had increased the rent from $100 to over $300 per year. It was decided unanimously to adhere to the original unwritten principles of the Centre, but a voluntary donations jar was positioned in the foyer which worked well. Concerts were free until mid-1982 when a $1 donation was requested, and two benefit concerts were held to pay the rent: one in August 1982 and the other in October 1983.

With an increase in the exposure of the Centre's participants in other areas, concert audiences grew more varied and increased in size again. Both Brophy and Chesworth's bands had attracted a punk/new wave audience from hotel and club circuits, and more bands started getting work in these venues. Probably the first major acceptance by the visual arts world of the Centre was through Tsk Tsk Tsk's July 1980 Asphixiation - what is this thing called Disco? installation at the George Paton Gallery at Melbourne University.

In 1981 large contingents of CHCMC performers worked in art galleries in Melbourne, regional centres and interstate. This resulted in an influx of visual artists, filmmakers, critics, gallery administrators and arts bureaucrats to the Centre. Some, like the new wave sector, understood and were at ease with the Centre's modus operandi while others, again like the new wave sector, misunderstood the Centre's pluralism and were disappointed and annoyed to enjoy their "favourite new act" one week and to witness something that was often totally incomprehensible to them the next.

Perhaps as a result of the attention from the visual arts world, derivations of French-based arts theory and criticism began to infiltrate some aspects of the activities at CHCMC. A strange manifestation, it attracted much ardent defense and as much equally ardent abuse from the informed and the ignorant on both sides of the fence. Semiotic labels such as `first degree, second degree, third degree...' were bandied about with great passion and great irresponsibility. Strangely inaccurate stories about the Centre's `militantly rigid ideological thrust' began to filter back to CHCMC from other capitals. It should be emphasized here that none of these events in any way altered the working structure of the Centre.

In August the Centre hosted one of the evening concerts of the 1981 Music and Technology Conference, much to the chagrin of sections of Melbourne's music academia, who otherwise avoided CHCMC totally. Several of the overseas delegates praised the Centre, comparing it favourably with New York's The Kitchen, not only in politics and architecture but also in lack of heating!

In 1982, after four and a half years as coordinator, Chesworth handed the position over to Andrew Preston. Between them they opened the doors to 40 concerts for the year. Statistically this was another successful year for the Centre but, on another level, things had begun to change. Audience sizes diminished and, for the first time since 1976, the coordinator had to ring performers and suggest they do something in order to fill a series. Regulars started forming little one-off bands with each other, sometimes producing innovative results. New people were still appearing: Sue Blakey, Paul Taylor, the tapes of Anti-Music and Sydney musician Louis Burdett were some. In the fourth series, Preston planned four Music Forum events: Brophy, Burt, Adrian Martin and Nagorcka all had an evening each to espouse their musical philosophies, fantasies or foibles and to discuss the ensuing comments, questions and criticisms of the audience. These had mixed results, ranging from voices raised in heated debate to yawning and leaving early, but everything was possible and permissible.

In 1983 to start the year's activities, CHCMC played host to a series of nine afternoon and evening events for the first Melbourne Fringe Arts Festival in February and March. It featured a mixture of regulars and new Fringe performers and filmmakers. From 30 March to 15 June, Preston organized and mostly cajoled material for ten concerts. However, Preston found it harder and harder to fill series and audiences were still dwindling. The altered social and economic climates of the mid-80s, compared to those of the late 70s and even early 80s, led to a marked change in people's responses to experimentation in any artform. This was distinctly noticeable in the increasingly conservative attitudes of tertiary arts faculties and their students.

Disaster struck the Centre in early June when work began on extensive renovations to the building. The last concert was moved to the Living Room in Richmond, and for the next four months the only sounds from the building were those of construction equipment.

During this period, Preston handed the position of co-ordinator over to Robert Goodge, who ran a series of eight concerts in October and November, beginning with a well attended rent-paying benefit concert. The accompanying flier mentioned that the renovations were nearly complete, and that people should put their names on a mailing list for the following year. It also carried the news that the Organ Factory Committee had applied for funding from the Victorian Ministry for the Arts, as well as the standard invitation for performers to present in the usual manner. The last concert for the year was held on 30 November with bands formed by Goodge and Martin, films by Ralph Traviato and Paul Fletcher (Tsk Tsk Tsk and Essendon Airport respectively) and a solo performance by Ernie Althoff.

By 1984 only four people: Robert Goodge, Andrew Preston, Rainer Linz and Ernie Althoff turned up to the Centre's third meeting on 21 March. Many of the Centre's regular performers were still overseas as a result of their participation in the 1983 Paris Autumn Festival. Goodge announced that the application for funding had been successful, but that because of his present commitments, he should resign as coordinator.

Althoff was offered the position but declined, stating that he saw the present coordinator's job as "begging non-existent performers for non-existent material for non-existent concerts for non-existent audiences", and not really in keeping with the Centre's original principles. He said it would be better to disband the Centre at this stage, which was agreed upon by the others and the grant was returned to the Ministry. It is ironic that the only time the Centre received funding assistance was at the point when it was disbanding for other reasons. Later that week, Althoff told Nagorcka of the decision and Nagorcka answered "Yeah, I think you probably did the right thing!"