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Newcastle Herald
Newcastle Herald
Business
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New owners reveal 'top secret' rebranding of former Lizotte's music venue

Wayne Rogers and James Hingston have a new name for Lizotte's. Picture by Marina Neil

For 15 years, the name Lizotte's has been synonymous with live music in Newcastle.

Now it's time for the new owners to put their own stamp on the venue, revealing the renowned local venue is now called "Flamingos Live".

The venue unveiled its new moniker in a widely shared social media post on Thursday and followed up Friday with another post, thanking those who attended the first show under new ownership "Pure Imagination".

"Thank you for all the beautiful messages of support, encouragement & love we have received on social media. We greatly appreciate your support," the venue posted. "To those that don't like the name, the business was up for sale for over 12 months before we closed the deal, so you could have purchased it yourself and named it whatever you wanted.

"We can assure you that the heart of the business hasn't changed, will we still be serving delicious food with live entertainment from all the great acts that have been here before, as well as some new acts."

The Newcastle music dinner club bore the name of its previous owner Brian Lizotte for more than a decade.

But the time came for new owners Wayne Rogers and James Hingston to give the name back.

"Oh my goodness it took a long time [to pick the name]," Mr Rogers told the Herald earlier in May.

"We kept throwing things around, the name we have come up with is very suitable.

Since the venue was sold in 2023, both Mr Rogers and Mr Hingston have made an effort to keep the heart of it the same, with their own twist.

"I think the formula that's there works," Mr Rogers said.

"There's a lot of different types of shows coming in, Bryan had his genres he really liked so didn't stray from those very much.

"I'm different from that, I'm willing to try anything and if it doesn't work then we don't do that again.

"But the main heart of the business, it will still be the same, you'd be silly to change something that works."

Mr Hingston said at the end of the day, they want to be a venue that's all-inclusive, and he hopes the new name reflects that.

"People's biggest fear is that we're going to be changing things but it's the same business, the same format, it works," he said.

"It's still the same, we're just expanding on it."

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