MEMBERS of Newcastle's two most iconic rock bands, Silverchair and The Screaming Jets, have expressed their sadness about the impending closure of the Cambridge Hotel.
The Newcastle West venue will close after Sunday night, but not before hosting a three-day music festival in Wood Street starting on Friday afternoon, which is expected to attract more than 10,000 punters to watch acts like Grinspoon, Peking Duk and Illy.
A limited number of tickets are still available.
Linkcity, part of the French Bouygues group, have lodged plans to demolish and redevelop the Cambridge site into a 19-storey student accommodation tower.
Silverchair bassist Chris Joannou has been heavily involved in the Newcastle hospitality industry over the past decade as an owner of The Edwards, Criterion Hotel at Carrington and restaurant The Flotilla, before moving to the NSW mid-north coast last year.
Joannou will be back in Newcastle on Saturday to celebrate the final weekend at the live music institution.
"It definitely will be missed," Joannou said. "I understand the city is changing for whatever reason, but live music still has its place.
"You just hope that it's part of the greater vision for the town. Once it's gone it's hard to bring it back."
Silverchair played three times at the Cambridge in the 1990s, including a famous June 1995 show, performed just weeks before their debut album Frogstomp topped the ARIA charts.
Footage on YouTube of the concert depicts a then 16-year-old Daniel Johns (vocals, guitar) and 15-year-old Ben Gillies (drums) and Joannou electrifying a packed Cambridge audience with their early hits Tomorrow, Pure Massacre and Israel's Son.
"It was the first time we'd played that kind of show in our hometown, and just the reaction and overwhelming response from people [made it important]," Joannou said.
"It just time-stamps, not only the venue, but a particular time for the band.
"It was all like, 'holy hell, hang on here we go'."
Following the 1995 show, Silverchair's international success - which included sales of more than 2 million copies of Frogstomp in the US - meant the Novocastrian three-piece had outgrown the Cambridge.
However, Silverchair made a final appearance at the Cambridge in January 1999 when they played a secret show to road-test material for their third album Neon Ballroom.
Billed as "The Australian Silverchair Show", they supported AC/DC tribute act ACCA/DACCA and gave the first public performances of Emotion Sickness, Ana's Song (Open Fire) and Miss You Love.
"A couple of the key people knew what was going on and word spread," Joannou said of the not-so-secret show.
The connection Screaming Jets frontman Dave Gleeson has with the Cambridge Hotel dates back to the mid-1980s where he'd regularly attend Funbusters shows on Thursday nights.
Funbusters, fronted by the legendary UJ Neill, famously played the Cambridge every Thursday for 11 years until 1996.
"It was a rite of passage," Gleeson said.
"Once you were old enough you'd go there to see all the shenanigans you'd been hearing about."
Gleeson's first band Aspect, which later morphed into The Screaming Jets, played a 26-week residency in the Cambridge's front bar before graduating to the main room.
"It was integral in learning our stagecraft and learning about pulling crowds and making a crowd enjoy themselves," Gleeson said.
Even after The Screaming Jets found national and international success in the early '90s, the pub-rockers regularly returned to what Gleeson considers a "real rock'n'roll room."
"It's one of those places that will be sad to see go," he said.
"So many bands, not just nationally, but internationally, have played there.
"It's one of those iconic rooms. It has the smell, feel and stickiness of a real rock'n'roll room."
