I didn't see this thread when it first started.

There was an historic hotel/pub in Newcastle which for many years was a music venue. It was a strange eclectic mix of a place. The front bar was mostly hard drinking sailors and wild women. (Cigarettes Whiskey And Wild Wild Women .) I never went into that bar.

The middle bar was where the drag queens used to perform and it was a hang out for LBGTQI people and their friends. I used to go there sometimes with my friends when I was a poor student.

Then the back bar used to have jazz or rock bands playing. I used to go there too.

It was fairly run down but it was possibly the most popular music pub in Newcastle, until the brewery decided to shut it down and try to re-open it as a classier joint.

Star Hotel riot

The riot made history in our town. I was living about a mile away on a hill and I could hear the noise from there.

The pub remained closed for a long time. It was just an abandoned building but then I think it was opened as a cafe or something, and then a few years ago someone decided to re-open it as an upmarket place. Never been there. Don't know. I'll probably never go there.

It was a fantastic place to go because of the music and the people who went there. It was a sense of community, and the different bars catered to different clientele.

While I would not have taken part in the riot, I still thought the closure of the pub and it's intended reinvention as a classier venue was a travesty.