About Newcastle Upon Tyne

Newcastle has a reputation for being a fun-loving city with many bars, restaurants and nightclubs. More recently, Newcastle has become popular as a destination for Stag and Hen parties. Newcastle was in the top ten of the country's top night spots and The Rough Guide to Britain placed Newcastle upon Tyne's nightlife as Great Britain's no. 1 tourist attraction.

There are notable concentrations of pubs, bars and nightclubs around the Bigg Market, and the Quayside area of the city centre. There are many bars on the Bigg Market, and other popular areas for nightlife are Collingwood Street, Neville Street, the Central Station area and Osborne Road in the Jesmond area of the city. In recent years "The Gate" has opened in the city centre, a new indoor complex consisting of bars, upmarket clubs, restaurants and a 12-screen Empire multiplex cinema.

Focused on the Times Square area near the Centre for Life, the "Pink Triangle" is the centre of Newcastle's gay scene and hosts many bars and pubs and two clubs.The community has seen much expansion in the past five years, with further growth planned in the future.

The city has a wide variety of restaurants such as Italian, Indian, Persian, Japanese, Greek, Mexican, Spanish, American, Polish, Malaysian, French, Mongolian, Moroccan, Thai food , Vietnamese, and has a Chinese village with many Chinese restaurants on Stowell Street. There has also been a growth in premium restaurants in recent years with top chefs.

Significant changes in the last ten years have been increased opening hours, more upmarket bars, a greater range of clubs and some of the older traditional pubs closing, although many have been revamped and remain very popular.

The music video for Pet Shop Boys 1990 hit "So Hard" shows Newcastle's nightlife around various parts of the city on a Friday night. The extended mix of the track also shows even more shots of the city's nightlife, clearly late on a Friday night.

Theatre

The city contains many theatres. The largest, the Theatre Royal on Grey Street, first opened in 1837. It has hosted a season of performances from the Royal Shakespeare Company for over 25 years, as well as touring productions of West End musicals.The Journal Tyne Theatre hosts smaller touring productions, whilst other venues feature local talent. Northern Stage, formally known as the Newcastle Playhouse and Gulbenkian Studio, hosts various local, national and international productions in addition to those produced by the Northern Stage company.Other theatres in the city include the Live Theatre, the People's Theatre, the Round and the Jubilee Theatre. Newcastle Gateshead was voted in 2006 as the arts capital of the UK in a survey conducted by the Artsworld TV channel.

Poetry

Newcastle has a strong reputation as a poetry centre. The Morden Tower, run by poet Tom Pickard is a major venue for poetry readings in the North East, being the place where Basil Bunting gave the first reading of Briggflatts in 1965.

Festivals and fairs

In February, Newcastle's Chinatown is at the centre of a carnival of colour and noise as the city celebrates the Chinese New Year. In early March there is the NewcastleGateshead Comedy Festival, this event makes a return to the region since the last event in 2006, it is hoped it will now continue as an annual event.The Newcastle Science Festival, now called Newcastle ScienceFest returns annually in early March.

The Newcastle Beer Festival, organised by CAMRA, takes place in April.In May, Newcastle and Gateshead host the Evolution Festival, a music festival held on the Newcastle and Gateshead Quaysides over the Spring bank holiday, with performances by acts from the world of Rock, Indie and Dance music.The biennial AV Festival of international electronic art, featuring exhibitions, concerts, conferences and film screenings, is held in March. EAT! Newcastle Gateshead, a festival of food and drink, runs for 2 weeks each year in early May.[55]. Also held in late May is the North East Art Expo, a festival of art and design from the regions professional artists.

The Hoppings, reputedly the largest travelling fair in Europe, takes place on Newcastle Town Moor every June. The event has its origins in the Temperance Movement during the early 1880s and coincides with the annual race week at High Gosforth Park.Newcastle Community Green Festival, which claims to be the UK's biggest free community environmental festival, also takes place every June, in Leazes Park.The Northern Rock Cyclone, a cycling festival, takes place within, or starting from, Newcastle in June.The Ouseburn Festival, a family oriented weekend festival near the city centre, incorporating a "Family Fun Day" and "Carnival Day", is held in late July.

Newcastle Mela, held on the late August bank holiday weekend, is an annual two-day multicultural event, blending drama, music and food from Punjabi, Pakistani, Bengali and Hindu cultures.NewcastleGateshead also holds an annual International Arts Fair. The 2009 event will be in the Norman Foster designed Sage Gateshead Music and Arts Centre in September.In October, there is the Design Event festival-an annual festival providing the public with an opportunity to see work by regional, national and international designers.The SAMA Festival, an East Asian cultural festival is also held in early October. [64]

Music

The 1960s saw the internationally successful rock group The Animals, emerge from Newcastle night spots such as Club A-Go-Go on Percy Street. Other well-known acts with connections to the city include Sting, Bryan Ferry, Dire Straits and more recently Maxïmo Park. There is also a thriving underground music scene that encompasses a variety of styles, including Drum and Bass, doom metal and Post-rock.

Lindisfarne are a folk-rock group with a strong Tyneside connection. Their most famous song, "Fog on the Tyne" (1971), was covered by Geordie ex-footballer Paul Gascoigne in 1990. Venom, reckoned by many to be the originators of black metal and extremely influential to the extreme metal scene as a whole, formed in Newcastle in 1979. Folk metal band Skyclad, often regarded as the first folk metal band, also formed in Newcastle after the breakup of Martin Walkyier thrash metal band, Sabbat.

The predominant record company in Newcastle is Kitchenware Records (circa 1982), previously home to acclaimed bands such as Prefab Sprout, Martin Stephenson and the Daintees and Fatima Mansions, the management of The Lighthouse Family and home to recent successes Editors as well as other bands of varied genres.

The 1990s boom in progressive house music saw the city's Global Underground record label corner the market in the mix CD market with the likes of Sasha, Paul Oakenfold, James Lavelle, and Danny Howells recording mix compilations. The label is still going strong today with offices in London and New York, and new releases from Deep Dish and Adam Freeland.

Metro Radio Arena

The largest music venue in the city is the 11,000-seat Metro Radio Arena, which is situated in the south of the city centre near the Centre for Life. The 2,000-seat Newcastle City Hall holds a number of music events every month, particularly featuring solo artists. Both of the city's universities also have large performance venues (each holding around 2,000 people).

On 14 October 2005, the 2,000 capacity O2 Academy Newcastle opened, providing a new music venue in the city centre. The opening night was headlined by The Futureheads and the profile of the venue has attracted a greater variety of bands to play in the city. The O2 Academy Newcastle is the newest in a string of Academies to be opened across the UK.

Other popular music venues in the city include The Head of Steam, which is near Newcastle Central railway station, and Trillians Rock Bar at Princess Square. The Cluny and the Cumberland Arms are both situated in the Ouseburn Valley between the city centre and Byker.

Museums and galleries

There are a number of museums and galleries in Newcastle, including The Discovery Museum, The Great North Museum, Gallagher & Turner Gallery, Laing Art Gallery, and the Newburn Hall Motor Museum.

Sport

The city has a strong sporting tradition. Football club Newcastle United has been based at St James' Park since the club was established in 1892, although any traces of the original structure are now long gone as the stadium now holds more than 52,000 seated spectators.

The city also has two non-League football clubs, Newcastle Blue Star and Newcastle Benfield. Also based in Newcastle are Guinness Premiership rugby union side Newcastle Falcons and 1996 Pilkington Shield winners Medicals RFC.

The Metro Radio Arena is home to Newcastle Vipers ice hockey team and Newcastle Eagles basketball team. The city's speedway team Newcastle Diamonds are based at Brough Park in Byker, a venue that is also home to greyhound racing. The Brough Park promotion entered a team in the 1929 English Dirt Track league. The team known as the Diamonds operated before the war and, after an open season in 1945, the Diamonds operated from 1946 to 1951. In 1949 the team were known as the Magpies. The track reopened in 1961 and has operated, with a few breaks, since then. The first track to open in Newcastle was at Goforth Stadium but this only operated from mid 1928 until 1930 on a regular basis and a single meeting was staged 1931. The Gosforth promotion entered a team in the 1930 Northern League. Newcastle Racecourse at High Gosforth Park holds regular meets, including the prestigious race for the Northumberland Plate, first run in 1838, which takes place in June each year.

Newcastle also hosts the start of the annual Great North Run, the world's largest half-marathon in which participants race over the Tyne Bridge into Gateshead and then towards the finish line 13.1 miles (21.1 km) away on the coast at South Shields.Another famous athletic event is the 5.7-mile (9.2 km) Blaydon Race (a road race from Newcastle to Blaydon), which has taken place on 9 June annually since 1981, to commemorate the celebrated Blaydon Races horse racing.

Newcastle Upon Tyne Directory