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Remembering the Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle’s iconic live music venue
It’s widely regarded as a cornerstone of Newcastle’s live music scene but after more than a half-a-century, The Cambridge Hotel is coming to an end.
Last year, the pub announced it would be shuttering to make way for student accommodation as part of a multi-million dollar, multi-story property development.
Since opening in 1958, The Cambo (as the locals call it) became a cultural hub for local bands, instrumental in launching the careers of Silverchair and The Screaming Jets and hosting Aussie royalty such as Tame Impala, Archie Roach, The Presets, Sarah Blasko and more.
The venue also helped make Newcastle a must-visit stop for touring acts, from punk legends Buzzcocks and Misfits through to Blink-182, and even one controversial Childish Gambino performance.
A legendary part of the city’s live music scene, the venue’s walls are soaked with the sweat, spilled beer, and memories that come with being ground zero for countless bands in New South Wales and beyond.
The end of an era
This weekend, the venue will go out with a bang, hosting a three-day ‘Farewell Festival’ that brings together some of Australia’s best live acts, many of which have ties to the Cambridge Hotel.
Among them is The Gooch Palms, who have a deeper history with The Cambo than most.
The Novocastrian punk duo have a reputation for rowdy shows where crowd-surfing and nudity is encouraged, sometimes simultaneously.
They’ve released three studio albums, played some of the country’s biggest venues and festivals, and toured the UK, US, Europe and Canada. But it all began with The Cambo.
Leroy McQueen, one half of the duo, met their bandmate and partner Kat Friend while working behind the bar and has spent more than of their life at the venue.
“I started playing there when I was 14, dragging my parents down to this seedy pub on a Wednesday night, playing to absolutely no-one. But that’s the opportunities that they give locals,” they tell Double J.
“We were just a Silverchair rip-off high school band and to be able to play at a pub and not an all-ages event? It grew us up very quickly.”
Speak to anyone regarding The Cambo and you’ll quickly understand its importance to the many bands and fans that passed through its doors. It was more than a venue, it was a community.
“Every Wednesday night, without fail, the place was ram-packed because it was $2.50 schooners, and about 20 times a night someone would put ‘Cherry Pie’ on the jukebox,” McQueen says.
“And that was just life in Newcastle. Nobody wanted to work on Thursdays I can tell you that!
“There was that sense of community and everyone played together. Some people would be in six Newcastle bands and occasionally you’d put on shows in Sydney with other Newcastle bands to try and get out and have a crack.”
McQueen called The Cambo their “spiritual home” in a loving social media tribute. They’ve played “easily hundreds” of shows at the venue, from their earliest groups to the debut of their recent solo project.
“I would’ve played there 40 times before I was 18,” they say.
Their proudest performance was playing a sold out Gooch Palms show in 2016 “where 800 people turned up. It was absolute mayhem. It’s top two best shows we ever were a part of… It was a real turning point.
“Being a crappy local punk band that probably didn’t deserve to have 800 people. But they turned up. I remember seeing the pre-sales, ‘600 tickets!?‘ I didn’t even know there was that many people in Newcastle that knew who we were!”
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Their story reflects those of many. The venue went from being a teenage hang-out to proving grounds for their own career.
“Kat and I met there 17 years ago, I might never have met the love of my life and The Gooch Palms might’ve never happened.”
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In 2008, the pair began a weekly DJ night that became so popular it became a rolling fixture from Wednesday to Saturday.
Later, they booked the venue’s old function room, launching it as an additional bar and gig space (which hosted one of Thee Oh Sees’ earliest Australian shows, alongside Straight Arrows).
Forming The Gooch Palms in 2010, Leroy and Kat’s mission was to proudly fly the flag for their hometown. “It’s time to put Newcastle back on the map and rep it from a DIY punk sense of the word.”
Their 2013 debut album Novo’s set day-to-day accounts of Newcastle life to playful, garage rock gems.
“Some positive, some negative,” Macqueen says of the subject matter.
“We definitely didn’t hide anything… just told it exactly how it was to live and grow up there. We’ve made some lifelong friends from all around the world just from being in Newcastle. We never felt we had to leave.”
“It’s the lifeblood of that community”
In addition to being an incubator for local bands, The Cambridge Hotel became a go-to spot for national and overseas bands.
For out-of-town acts, making the two-hour trip from Sydney to Newcastle became a romantic “rite of passage… a ritual,” according to British India drummer Matty O’Gorman.
“You remember every part of the Cambridge gig,” he says. “A lot of bands would agree, it’s not just the gig. It’s the day leading up to it, it’s getting there, soundchecking, hanging out afterwards and seeing people you’ve met along the way.”
“Meeting people who still come to our gigs, who’ve gotten engaged after meeting at our show, having kids. That’s why the Cambridge is so special. It’s not just a gig, it’s everything around it.”
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British India also play the Cambo’s Farewell Festival – their last performance in a storied history, including a stretch between 2008 and 2016 where the Melbourne rock band played the venue every year.
“We worked out we’ve played over 30 times,” O’Gorman says. “Our ex-guitarist Nic Wilson, it was his favourite venue… mine too.”
One of their first gigs was supporting Tambalane – the side project of Silverchair drummer Ben Gillies.
“Of course, Ben being from Newcastle, it was a big deal.
“It’s always a good show. It always sounds good,” he adds, giving a shout-out to 30-year veteran, “Bert the sound guy.”
“We always prided ourselves on regional touring and The Cambridge was just always just one of those venues that wasn’t a sold out city gig but always felt like it was.”
British India only have fond memories of their headline shows and seeing their support acts flourish. “King Gizzard, Big Scary, Spacey Jane – all those bands that have gone on to have incredible careers.”
One of O’Gorman’s favourite memories is an early headline tour around the success of 2007 debut album Guillotine.
The band were running late and didn’t know what to expect.
“We would’ve been excited playing to 10 or 15 people. On the day we got the word: ‘You’ve sold it out. 600 people!’
“It was just this pure moment of joy because you know the room, you know what people are like in Newcastle,” he chuckles.
“I remember the excitement within the band and getting on stage. It was so fun. One of the first big gigs we did where we got a really strong encore.”
Despite the COVID years providing a crucial reminder of the value and significance of live music, the skyrocketing cost of living combined with the brutal realities of touring in a post-pandemic climate have resulted in a decline in pre-sale ticket sales and especially impacted local venues.
“It’s just really sad, isn’t it?” O’Gorman remarks. “I feel there’s so much great music coming out of Newcastle and not having a venue like The Cambridge, a lot of it won’t get that exposure.
“It’s really concerning… and I don’t know what the solution is with everything being so expensive. People who start these venues are doing it for the right reasons – they want to showcase bands and build a scene in their community.”
For those who grew up with The Cambridge, it became a home away from home.
“It was safer to go there than a high school party,” reasons McQueen, who was a teen in the ’90s when Newcastle had a reputation for being a “super violent town.”
The venue’s stature only increased as McQueen grew up seeing historic venues (such as the Palais Royale) make way for commercial property. A sad but familiar tune.
“Around 2011, Newcastle had a great opportunity to really become something special,” they say. “A little slice of heaven for artists and creatives.
“They tried everything but, when the Liberal government got in around that time, they just opened up the floodgates to developers and green-lit anything and everything.”
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The Gooch Palms lamented the trend on their 2019 song ‘Hi-Rise Lo-Times’, which also eerily presaged the fate of The Cambridge Hotel.
“It’s a huge part of my life getting bulldozed for some apartments,” McQueen says of The Cambo, adding that its owners have “threatened to do exactly what they’re about to do for, like, 15 years.
“It’s sad but the old girl doesn’t look too healthy anymore and I don’t blame them for not putting any more cash into it.”
They say the loss of arguably Newcastle’s most beloved music venue will deal a major blow to the city’s cultural landscape.
“It just won’t be Newcastle anymore,” they say. “I feel like the Cambridge Hotel closing down is honestly the final nail in the coffin. Because it’s just becoming like Sydney’s retirement village.
“The most packed place there now is the Chemist Warehouse in Hunter Street Mall. That just goes to show you where the direction is headed with Newcastle.”
What does Newcastle’s live music future look like?
While some bands have a grim outlook on the city’s music scene, for City of Newcastle Councillor Carol Duncan, “the music industry in Newcastle is alive and well.”
She points to a surfeit of open mic nights, local recording facilities and an increase in support for local gigs from licensed clubs – such as the Adamstown Bowling Club and Newcastle Hotel — as signs of a thriving scene.
“The corner bar of plenty of local pubs in Newcastle is now offering young people the opportunity to play and learn and support people.”
She says “it’s collaborative, it’s collegial” and a welcome change from “20, 30 years ago [and the] social issues with drinking that led to the lockout laws in Newcastle.
“These are younger demographics who want to go and see live music. They don’t want to go and have 400 beers and get smashed.”
Duncan has seen the worst of Newcastle’s nightlife but also how live music has been the remedy.
Before being elected to Newcastle Council in 2017 – advocating for the city’s Live Music and Night Time Economy strategies – Duncan worked in radio and for CBS Records in the late ’80s (before it was swallowed up by Sony).
“Funny story,” she recalls. “We sent someone up to see this amazing young Newcastle band that everyone was raving about. But CBS didn’t sign them.”
The band? Local legends The Screaming Jets.
“The lads and I still chuckle about that to this day, the time we didn’t sign The Screaming Jets. Oops.”
However, the iconic venue that helped launch the pub rock mainstays is being erased. And Duncan is as sad as anyone to see The Cambo call last drinks.
“My shoes have stuck to the carpet in there as much as anyone in Newcastle.
“I remember the crush of the room when you went in to see huge touring bands, whether it was The Cruel Sea, The Whitlams, Kate Miller-Heidke; the diversity of acts has always been phenomenal. But also the opportunities for younger artists to hop onto those support slots and get given a leg-up.”
However, Duncan believes the city’s love for live music hasn’t changed and is hopeful for a younger generation and the “absolutely incredible opportunities that I don’t recall seeing when I was their age.”
She’s proud of the works she’s done pushing “changes to the city’s planning documents that make it clear that Newcastle loves live music and cultural events. [But] is it perfect? Oh my god, no. We’ve still got so much work to do.”
“Fronting up” and showing support at local shows, reasons Duncan, is crucial but she also welcomes the recent change in federal government.
“Dare I be so bold, that is going to give us at a local government level more of the tools and levers that we need to be able to work with to support live music. Can’t wait, it’s very exciting.”
And in the meantime? “We take our love for live music and the little bit of money we’ve got to spend on it, and we go and support them in the other venues that are still working hard and that are popping up.”
Silver linings
So, where now for bands looking to book a space and size similar to The Cambo?
The Lass O’Gowrie is a local favourite if on the smaller side, while the Newcastle Entertainment Centre is reserved for arena-size shows.
“That mid-range is so important,” says British India’s O’Gorman. “For bands like us, that 300-400 capacity – they’re vital. That’s what so sad about this because bands still want to keep going back to Newcastle.”
The Hamilton Station Hotel has undergone a refurbishment to host 400-cap concerts and becoming a local stand-out, and there’s also the long-promised relaunch of the Victoria Theatre.
Owners Century Venues are restoring the heritage-listed venue after it has laid derelict for over 60 years, hoping to be to Newcastle what the Enmore Theatre is to Sydney or The Forum is to Melbourne.
Councillor Duncan thinks it “will be back online in 18 months or two years. This is a 147-year-old theatre, they have a lot of work to do.”
In the meantime, the operators of The Cambo are looking to fill the void, taking their chances on a new venue a few blocks away, reconfiguring the King Street Hotel into a 600-capacity venue.
Local and interstate bands alike have their “fingers crossed” the new venue takes off. But Leroy McQueen isn’t so hopeful.
“It’s still one of the crappiest nightclubs on planet earth in the grossest part of Newcastle across the road from McDonald’s. I just don’t know if it’ll work,” they say. “But I hope it does, I really do!”
“Co-owner Dru Russell is putting it all on the line — he’s a big supporter of live music and the Cambridge Hotel wouldn’t have lasted as long as it has if he hadn’t taken it over.
“Power to them, and I really hope it is really, really successful because Newcastle needs it.”
The Final Farewell
Despite calling it quits in 2020, The Gooch Palms are reuniting to send off the venue in style as part of the Cambridge Hotel’s final weekend of live music. They’re “chuffed” with the honour.
“We’ve never won awards but I feel like this is what it’d feel like — it feels so special,” Macqueen says.
“We’ll have all our friends and family there. It’s probably the last time we’ll ever play as a band, I don’t see why we would do anything else. It just feels poetic – to end it where it all started.”
And in the true Cambo spirit, many of the bands on the line-up are heading along to support each other.
“Me and my friend BC from Dune Rats are going to come down on the Friday and go to the hip hop night, which will be really fun,” Macqueen says.
British India’s drummer is planning to do the same.
“Get there from the start and really soak it in,” he says.
“It’s going to be fun but a really emotional weekend. That will be the hardest thing, knowing that you’re going there for the last time… playing the last song and walking off stage forever. We’ve grown up there, we’re really going to miss it.”
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