THE crew at the Adamstown Bowling Club drive a hard bargain, especially when it comes to live music.
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It's not often that a suburban club or pub is able to squeeze one of the multinational beverage companies that dominate Australia's beer taps.
But in what's believed to be an Australian first, or at very least a rarity, Adamstown Bowling Club negotiated a beer tap contract with Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) that includes a social media collaboration.
Under the arrangement various unplugged music sets and interviews with artists performing at Adamstown Bowlo will be filmed for content on the social media channels of CUB's craft beer brand, 4 Pines Brewing Co, as part of their, "You drink the beer, we'll do the good stuff" campaign.
Across Facebook and Instagram 4 Pines boast an audience of more than 54,000.
The bowling club's financial controller, Natasha Kelso, and venue manager, Matt Field, negotiated the new beer tap contract that had been previously held by CUB rival, Lion, owners of popular brands Tooheys New and XXXX Gold.
"We were so adamant that we would be offering the majority tap share to the beverage company that would impress us the most with a digital collaboration offering through social media," Field says.
Field says both Lion and CUB initially refused to incorporate the promotion of a venue through their social media channels, before the 4 Pines deal was agreed to.
"It's a huge win for the live music industry to have that big corporate beverage commitment to the promotion of our live music," he says.
Field expects the 4 Pines deal will also make Adamstown Bowlo a more attractive option for artists planning their east coast tours.
"Having that network available to us at the bowling club will be a good incentive when we want to approach one of the loved east coast bands, whether it be Ocean Alley, Sons Of The East or Kim Churchill," he says.
"Those kind of acts that would benefit from having that digital promotion."
Another element of the beverage deal are the four venue "activations" or micro music festivals.
The first festival, Live With The Pines, is scheduled for Sunday from 1pm to 10pm.
The indie-rock and punk-flavoured festival will be headlined by Sydney's Crocodylus, Brisbane's Radium Dolls and psych band Le Shiv.
A heavy local contingent will also be performing across the venue's outside and indoor stages, including Fungas, Finlay Ross, Elestial, Woofer, Catpiss, The Crap, The Cheaks, Square, Poltergeist 9000, Taki and Low Definition.
Patrons will need a $25 ticket for entry.
A electronic micro festival is scheduled for October known as Rhythm At Dusk and an alt-country event is planned for later this year.
It will be another step in the Glebe Road venue's transformation from a struggling suburban bowling club before the COVID pandemic, into one of the most popular entertainment spots in Newcastle.
People in the city want somewhere they can come with their dog, with their kids, celebrate their birthdays, catch up with friends after work and bowling clubs offer this sort of space.
- Natasha Kelso, Adamstown Bowling Club financial controller
It's one of the only venues in Newcastle you'll readily find university hipsters perched at tables next to young families, tradies and your typical old-school lawn bowlers.
Last year the bowling club also opened its purpose-built live music space, the Locker Room, situated in the former lawn bowls change room.
"It's the re-imagination of a space," Kelso says.
"People in the city want somewhere they can come with their dog, with their kids, celebrate their birthdays, catch up with friends after work and bowling clubs offer this sort of space.
"When they were traditionally just bowling clubs, they were starting to die."
The club's transformation into a entertainment hub hasn't been necessarily popular with everyone.
Noise complaints from neighbours initially dogged the club's live music program.
The issue reached crisis point in July last year when the club decided to temporarily halt live music after a female staff member was allegedly verbally abused by an irate neighbour while conducting a decibel check on the venue's boundary.
In January Liquor and Gaming NSW chose not to impose any further licensing conditions on the club after investigating the noise complaints and commended the venue for its steps taken to minimise impact on the local community.
"I'm very confident that we've got a lot of support behind us in terms of the noise," Field says of Live With The Pines.
"Having said that, we're actually wrapping up the noise outside at 7pm and moving the last three bands inside and the inside music finishes at 10pm."
Live With The Pines kicks off at 1pm on Sunday at the Adamstown Bowling Club.