One of the performers in The Castanet Club was Glenn Butcher aka Lance Norton who went on to being in the cast of two of my all-time favourite comedy sketch series, Fast Forward, and Full Frontal. Some of Australia's true comedy greats were in the two series, including my absolute favourite comedian, Magda Szubanski. Glenn B was also in a movie called Young Einstein, the TV comedy Kath and Kim, and more recently in a comedy series called Fisk with Kitty Flanagan.

Another performer from The CC was Mikey Robbins who later became a radio DJ on Triple J, a young progressive radio station which is part of the ABC Network. I used to listen to his shows a lot. Maynard and also Steven Abbott aka The Sandman were on Triple J and later on various TV shows.

John Doyle later became well known on Triple J radio and then TV with the comedy name Rampaging Roy Slaven and with his comedic accomplice Greg Pickhaver aka H.G. Nelson did funny sporting commentaries, including some of the Olympics. My Hubby would watch a sporting game with the TV commentary turned down, and would listen to the radio comic commentary instead. I met John Doyle briefly a couple of times when I was a Uni student.

I also met Penny Biggins and Jonathan Biggins. Their father was one of my English lecturers.

I used to hear Jacqui Amidy aka "Natasha Bassey" sing sometimes at local pubs. She has an amazing voice. It was always a thrill to hear her sing.

Jacqui Amidy sings Wuthering Heights from 1986.

Living in Newcastle, I guess we kind of took it for granted that there were so many amazingly talented artistic and creative performers but it was only much later that I realised just how special the Newcastle creative environment was as an incubator for performers and artists.