Riverside, Melbourne Street

The early Eighties indie kids had ample places in Newcastle to buy their records and clothes, but there wasn't a suitable venue where they could gaze at their shoes while their idols played. A couple of dozen of them formed a collective, and with help from Newcastle Council they opened Riverside in 1985. It was at the heart of a circuit that was independent of the rest of town, where men and women could flaunt their self-inflicted haircuts between Riv and the nearby Barley Mow and the Egypt Cottage, without fear of ridicule.

The club had a suitably grimy and lived-in look about it, although it's anyone's guess what lived in the carpet, a vast quagmire with its own climate and ecosystem that consumed many a pair of Doc Martens. This was icing on the cake for lovers of grungey and low-tech music, and for every Oasis and Nirvana, there were dozens of obscure John Peel bands. Riverside's gig list stands comparison with any venue in the north, so it was a huge loss to Newcastle when it closed down in 1999.

It reopened as a nightclub called Foundation after a massive refit in which the swamp was drained, but didn't last very long.