FOR devoted live music fans, the King Street Hotel has never been a place that's held great appeal.
Known widely as "Ping Street", due to its focus on electronic dance music, many people - this writer included - wouldn't have been caught dead lining up on the corner of King and Steel Streets to enter its darkened dens.
But the King Street we've all known has changed.
As reported in the Newcastle Herald on Thursday the revamped King Street will reopen on July 28 and will aim to fill the gaping live music void left by the closure of the Cambridge Hotel two weeks ago.
US rock band The Eagles Of Death Metal will headline the grand opening of the venue's new 650-capacity bandroom, built on the neighbouring site in Steel Street.
I must admit when I was first told last year of the Cambridge owners' plans to build a new live music space at the nearby King Street, I held doubts.
But after receiving a tour of the site, which is in the final stages of construction, it's impossible not to be impressed.
The bandroom is narrower and significantly higher than the Cambridge's main room, and the mezzanine balcony provides a unique bird's eye view of the stage.
The bandroom is also fitted with a state-of-the-art D&B audio system, LED screens and more than 40 lighting fixtures suspended on motorised trussing. That is three times more lights than the Cambridge.
"We'll have the ability to change it each time you come to a show," King Street licensee Dru Russell says.
"You might come on a Friday and Saturday and see two totally different looks, which is what we're really excited about."
King Street's old third floor function room has also been reconfigured into a 250-capacity warehouse room for emerging and local bands.
Joab Eastley from Newcastle dance-rock duo Raave Tapes, says the warehouse room would give the venue an edge over other competitors in Australia.
"We go around to a lot of venues in Australia like this smaller [warehouse] room and you don't get lighting rigs and sound systems like this that are purpose-built for the venue," Eastley says.
Russell says it's important that King Street adopted the same ethos as the Cambridge in valuing local original music.
"What it does is it makes the bands feel like they're on a bigger stage and shows them that we find it important and are really invested in it," he says.
"The PA and look for them is really a big upgrade."
Of course King Street isn't completely ignoring its previous life as a nightclub.
The first floor nightclub has been revamped, along with the front bar and the Broken Hearts Club lounge.
Punters will enter the same main entrance, turning left for the bandroom or right for the nightclub. It'll potentially bring together an eclectic mix of patrons.
"We have the potential to have five different rooms working for us," Russell says. "You could have country, metal, electronic, acoustic all at the same time."
Following The Eagles Of Death Metal, Sydney indie band Stumps will break in the warehouse on Saturday, July 28.
From there it's a steady stream Cambridge favourites and international acts.
There's metal band King Parrot on August 5, followed by alt-country showman Henry Wagons (August 11), US skate punks Unwritten Law (August 12), folk-duo Winterbourne (August 18), Wollongong indie heart-throb Tyne-James Organ (August 19), US post-hardcore band La Dispute (August 20), alt-rock legends Magic Dirt (September 15), folk-pop duo Busby Marou (September 16), punks Slowly Slowly and Stand Atlantic (September 22), Kiwi pop act Mitch James (September 29) and indie-rockers Teenage Dads (October 14).
The overwhelming love and nostalgia many Novocastrians feel for the Cambridge after 50-plus years of live music was abundantly clear during the venue's three-day farewell festival.
The new venue will have the challenge of convincing many of those old Cambridge punters to leave any preconceptions about King Street at the door to create new musical memories.
