Screaming Jets honour 'lovable rogue' Paul Woseen at launch of music grant

The Newcastle pub-rock legends returned to one of their old stomping grounds, the Stag & Hunter Hotel in Mayfield, on Friday to launch the Paul Woseen Memorial Music Grant.

The band performed acoustic versions of classics October Grey and Helping Hand, as well as an emotional rendition of new track Second Chance, "the last song" Woseen wrote with Gleeson.

Woseen died suddenly in Melbourne on September 15 aged 56.

Two weeks after Woseen's death, the Screaming Jets released their ninth studio album, Professional Misconduct, which peaked at No.3 on the ARIA charts.

The band, with new bassist Paul Elliott, returned to live performance in November and on Friday night they will perform at the Toronto Hotel.

"Every night, all of us are cognisant of the fact that he's not there," Gleeson said.

"It's different every night. We all have different moments of sadness when he comes into your head.

"Having said that, the celebration of the music and having us all together has helped us all out immensely.

"If we called it all off and were sitting around moping it would have been much harder for us."

Gleeson and Woseen first became bandmates in Aspect in 1988 before forming the Screaming Jets, who became one of Newcastle's most successful musical exports through hits like Better, Helping Hand and October Grey.

Gleeson, who is the only founding member of the band remaining, admitted he came close to disbanding the Jets after Woseen died and will reassess the future following their latest tour commitments.

"If anyone said they didn't want to go ahead with it I was ready to say, 'let's knock it on the head'," he said.

"Obviously a lot of work goes into getting tours ready and albums recorded, so we didn't want to sit the album on the shelf and have it never come out."

The Paul Woseen Memorial Grant is an initiative by the Australian Hotels Association (AHA) Newcastle Hunter and supported by the City Of Newcastle.

Annually the grant will provide a Hunter-based band or act with $5000 as well as the chance to record an original single at Hunter TAFE's $2 million studio.

The grant also comes with promotional assistance, guaranteed airplay on Triple M and spot on the line-up of the New Annual festival, which begins on September 27.

Gleeson said the grant was a fitting way to honour Woseen as he was always generous in helping younger musicians.

"If someone wanted him to do a show he would be there," he said. "He helped out a lot of young bands in Victoria over the last 10 years playing gigs and writing songs.

"I don't think he understood how respected, as a muso, he was."

Away from the stage and band room, it's Woseen's humour that Gleeson misses most.

"He could say the most atrocious things in front of people, but because of the way he said it, nobody would really get offended," he laughed.

"He had that gift, that lovable rogue-type of thing. He was one of a kind, no filter, a classic bloke."

Stag and Hunter publican and AHA Newcastle Hunter president, Mick Starkey, said his organisation got behind the grant to help promote the Woseen of the next generation.

"We look at this grant in the hope it takes a bit of pressure off an up-and-coming artist," Mr Starkey said.

"It's a tough world and if we can assist someone in any way to reach the heights that they desire, that's a win for all of us."