A weekend in the Newcastle area was on the agenda, Saturday was totally booked (family wedding).
We decided to make long 8hr drive Thursday,get a good rest, then do a little sight seeing Friday, we had researched our Gigs info for the nights entertainment, Belmont 16fters Club they had a band called the "Roadhouse Rockers" we've never seen them before so it was probably a bit of a learning curve,our research on the net gave all indications that they where ok.
We had arrived at the 16'S early by taking convenience of their courtesy bus, which to our amazement was right on time for the pick up.
Very nice club, placed on the foreshore of beautiful Lake Maquarie, the club rooms actually extend out over the water. It's a sailing club, the food was a gourmet delight, lots of seafood & a large selection of roasts, steaks, delicious salads & vegies all very reasonably priced.
The dance floor is medium size probably holds about 40 people at a pinch.
"The roadhouse Rockers" 5 piece very experienced rock& roll band
they kept the dance floor full all night, too full in fact, rather stressful, saw plenty of people kicked & stepped on. In the true form of all good gigs they played various line dance background music in the short breaks, this of course kept the floor warm,a cold vacant dance floor is rather boring. It was interesting to note after talking to a few people that almost all of the gigs music up that way finish around 11-11.30pm.
Sunday 2pm it was a short trip to Caves Beach Hotel and basically right on the ocean beach.Wow! what a pub, most modern pub I've been in I think, the amenities areas were out of this world and spotlessly clean.There were literally 100's of people in this pub. We of course were on a mission, no, more like looking for our passion, were is the music, then we heard the faint sound of the Trumpet & the beat of the Double bass. We entered the Music room specially set up for lounging around on soft soafas and bed couches, for listening to lively Jazz whilst enjoying a soft red a white or any other beverage you might choose. A small Dance floor was available for the more active, of course we took full advantage of the floor, maybe to get rid of some stress built up from the night before.It poured with rain and blew a gale that afternoon, we had a wonderful time.
Anybody thinking of travelling up that way can be assured that Swing and R&R lives, so take your dancing shoes,the bands are good.Don't forget to do your research, or you might be disappointed, there's plenty of stuff on the net.