IT was back in the blissfully less complicated days of January 2020 that homegrown music festival Sound Station was first announced.
The free event, scheduled for April 4, 2020 was the biggest move yet from the Newcastle Live Music Taskforce in their mission to re-energise the entertainment industry in the CBD.
Colourful pop-punk duo The Gooch Palms were to headline Sound Station along with acts like Jets Play Jets, DV8, Grace Turner, Eat Your Heart Out and The Porkers to cater for multiple generations of music fans.
The City of Newcastle enthusiastically jumped on board, becoming major sponsors of the event to the tune of $43,000 from their Special Business Rates Levy grant program.
The Newcastle Herald also signed up as a sponsor.
Of course, a little bat in China had different plans. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled Sound Station.
Along the way The Gooch Palms announced their break-up. Frontman Leroy Macqueen has since re-imagined himself as an alternative-western solo artist.
There were other changes to the Sound Station line-up and the event was forced to become 18-plus, but the Newcastle Live Music Taskforce remained committed to making the festival a reality.
Finally two and a half years after its original scheduling, Sound Station will pull into Newcastle's The Station on Sunday, August 28.
Newcastle's most iconic pub rock band, The Screaming Jets, headline the festival, alongside contemporaries Spy vs Spy, DV8, The Blues Bombers and ska legends The Porkers to offer a nod to the city's golden rock past.
Sound Station is also delivering a view of the present, and the future, in pop-punk favourites Eat Your Heart Out, who are preparing to release their second album Can't Stay Forever on September 9.
Other red-hot emerging acts on the bill include Kookshill, Well?, Turpentine Babycino, Piper Butcher and band competition winner Trashed Again.
Amy Vee, House Of Refuge and Phoenix Pritchard round out the line-up.
"Newcastle is such an iconic centre of live music through the '70s and '80s, in particular, and now as well," Newcastle state MP and Taskforce chairman Tim Crakanthorp says. "We're at the crucible of live music and young artists.
"The Taskforce really wanted to showcase the great local talent we have here, and remind people that they can go out and have a great time and listen to live music here in Newcastle."
The pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns had a disastrous impact on the live music scene with ticket sales still struggling to recover pre-COVID demand.
The anticipated closure of the Cambridge Hotel next June and the impending sale of Lizotte's has cast further uncertainty.
Crakanthorp says it's made Sound Station even more important than it was in 2020.
"It's really brushing the cobwebs off and saying, 'here we are near the harbour in the middle of the city on the foreshore at The Station and we're presenting wonderful local acts'," he says.
Sound Station will be of particular importance to young Newcastle indie-rock band Kookshill.
After four years the four-piece of Sam Haigh (vocals, rhythm guitar), Brock Ross-Munro (lead guitar), Riley Newton (bass) and Lee Clement (drums) is expected to call it quits after Sound Station.
Kookshill's 2018 self-titled EP made an impact in the indie scene and their single The Ride has been streamed in excess of 1.4 million times on Spotify.
But Haigh says the band lost momentum during the pandemic and several members were moving on to concentrate on work commitments.
Haigh is planning to launch his own solo project, Samuel Thomas, in the new year.
"I think during COVID everyone was doing their own thing and got other interests and everything got pushed back of the mind," Haigh says.
"Then when everything started up again, everyone was like, 'I can't commit myself as much as I did before'."
Sound Station will be Kookshill's first major festival appearance and a high point to potentially finish the band.
"We're really keen for Sound Station and it's a great line-up," Haigh says. "It'll be really good to see the Screaming Jets."
Sound Station comes to The Station on August 28. A limited number of tickets will be made available before the date.
