Newcastle live music venues face familiar COVID-19 tune of postponements and cancellations

The combination of state border closures, the greater Sydney lockdown and expanded restrictions for regional NSW once again left the recovering live music scene to feel the sting of the pandemic.

It was a crushing blow to a sense of optimism that had been slowly growing in the music industry following the economic hardship of 2020.

Major Australian acts like Kate Miller-Heidke, Paul Kelly, Hockey Dad and Archie Roach had recently announced national tours, that included Hunter dates.

Last week Brisbane indie-pop artist Thelma Plum postponed her sold-out shows at Newcastle NEX, the venue's first since the start of the pandemic.

The Cambridge Hotel had Sydney's Odette and Polaris and Wollongong's The Vanns scheduled for Thursday and Friday. The latter was cancelled the afternoon of the gig when Wollongong was added to the greater Sydney restrictions.

The Stag and Hunter Hotel and Lizotte's also had sold-out shows cancelled.

"It was busy week for the arts in Newcastle, last week, and this just draws a line through it," Cambridge licensee Dru Russell said.

"If you put it all together there was probably 4000 tickets sold to live music last week, that all disappeared with no warning. It's just real tough on the industry."

The Cambridge's next fortnight of shows have been pushed back to late August, but Mr Russell said major scheduling issues would be created if the restrictions are extended beyond a fortnight.

"It's just hard work for a live music venue," he said. "I feel for the agents and acts."

The Hamilton Station Hotel has cancelled 11 gigs scheduled for the next fortnight and won't be booking live music until after July 9.

The Stag and Hunter Hotel is persevering with acts from outside greater Sydney and hosted South Coast's Jack Biilmann on Saturday with the audience wearing face masks.

"There's obviously the odd niggle and odd question about whether they're eating or drinking," Stag and Hunter publican Mick Starkey said.

"But from a venue's point of view it's been quite good at the moment anyway, who knows about the next couple of weeks. From an anxiety point of view and a staff welfare point of view, everyone seems to be OK. I know I'm a lot less stressed this time around."

The bigger venues such as NEX and the Civic Theatre have also been forced to cancel upcoming shows.

West Australian band San Cisco cancelled their double-header shows at NEX scheduled for Sunday, while comedian Tim Minchin's return to the Civic Theatre on Monday and Tuesday has been postponed until September 29 and 30.

The July 9 performance of The Sweet Caroline Tour: A Tribute to Neil Diamond has been postponed to September 13 and other Civic Theatre shows The Tap Pack (1 July) and The Rock Anthology (4 July) are yet to be rescheduled.

Dashville's PigSty In July has also felt the cold brunt of restrictions.

Many of the musicians and comedians scheduled for the Lower Belford festival on Saturday are based in Sydney and Melbourne, so Dashville chief Matt Johnston made the decision to postpone until July 31.

"We're just trying to work out whether we can have the same event," Johnston said. "There's gonna be some casualties with a flooded postponement calendar, so it's pretty disappointing."

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