A mezzanine floor, eight viewing areas and five bars are among the new additions which music fans will discover this week as NX Newcastle opens its doors for the first time.
Following months of work, which has involved a total refurbishment and construction of new levels inside the city 's former 02 Academy in Westgate Road, the music venue and club is set to show off its new attractions - with more to follow. A first look behind the scenes on Tuesday revealed the stylish design and reconfigured space which brings the audience far closer to the stage.
Workmen were still busy throughout the building, pulling out all the stops for a first night taster for students on Tuesday before NX focuses on Friday's FarFetched launch party night with Codec to follow on Saturday featuring dance music favourite Sub Focus. Following the closure of the Academy, it is Electric Group which has taken over the venue and brought it a new lease of life - at the cost of £2.7m - which includes state-of-the art production equipment, an LED wall and a sound system classed among the best in the world.
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The independent music venue group already operates the likes of Electric Brixton and SWX Bristol and its chief executive officer Dominic Madden, currently up here to oversee the launch, said he had never expected to be able to take it on. "It was a bizarre situation really," he says of the start of the process about five years ago.
"I found out about it from a friend one Thursday afternoon, saying it was coming up for auction on the Monday. I saw the details and thought 'I'll never be able to buy this' but I came up, bought a coffee, had a wander around, and thought this is great." He went along to the auction, expecting a rush of interest, but "there was nobody else there".
"So I bid, kept bidding - and managed to buy it!" he says. " I then thought 'what happened there'! It was bonkers." Fast-forward to this week and he has created - having elisted designer Stuart Trett, of Design At Source company - a similar look in Newcastle to that of the popular Electric Brixton.
It's been a huge undertaking but the changed space - which, with the old balcony removed, can accommodate around 1,500 on live music nights and around 2,000 on club nights - now offers a range of viewing areas, including the new mezzanine level in the former Majestic Ballroom which brings the audience so close the experience will feel like an intimate gig. Other options include curved booths where groups of friends can chill out with drinks and the top-most bar area which gives the widest view of all of the stage.
There is a separate Room 2 with its own bar - and more to come, with a new staircase being built for a first ever roof terrace which is due to open in October. "That's a substantial project in its own right," says Dominic, adding that it requires the likes of steel supports under the exisiting roof.
Despite all the changes, the redesign has kept original features, such as the ornate ceiling of the building which - originally a cinema - dates from 1920.
The revamp, first delayed by Covid and then ongoing since Febraury, has coincided with a particularly busy time for the Electric Group following a fire which gutted its SWX club in Bristol. Work to rebuild that has been only recently completed and it reopened earlier this September.
With NX Newcastle now following hot on its heels, Dominic and his team can look forward to exciting times, with an events programme set to feature emerging talents alongside some of the biggest touring music acts and DJs around plus that upcoming new roof terrace which, says Dominic, will be offering customers a whole new experience. For more details about what's coming up at the venue see here.
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