Huge Hotel and quite a decent explore, mostly all stripped due to work going on to make the former Hotel into a Care Home.
Staircase was very nice and also a couple of things in the rooms to make up the explore.
Was in here for about an hour and had seen everything.
There was a nightclub connected to the side but access was sealed.
Apparently was the local hotspot for the homeless at one point.
I'm surprised I haven't seen reports of the place before.
Found a bit of History on the place and now popular it was with musicians.
The Rex Hotel, an impressive looking Victorian building on the sea front at Whitley Bay, was a popular venue for both local and national bands from the mid sixties through to the late seventies. I first played there in 1968 with a band called the Village and for the next three years or so it became one of my favourite venues, both as a performer and a punter. I remember seeing the late great Robert Palmer singing at the Rex sometime in 1969 with the Alan Bown Set just after he had replaced Jess Roden.
Local bands were booked at the Rex for a weekend or for one night only. Sometimes you got to support a named band. I recall supporting a couple of chart bands there in 1969 – Love Affair and Simon Dupree and the Big Sound who had charted a couple of years earlier.
In 1969 a lot of top named acts were booked at the Rex, usually supported by a local north east band. Some of the bands that appeared at the venue in 1969 were: Status Quo, the Troggs, the Foundations, Vanity Fair, Chicken Shack and Family.
North east promoter, Ray Grehan began put on gigs at the Rex Hotel in 1970. Ray was the owner of the nearby Crescendo Club. Although the Rex was a licensed venue it drew in a much younger age group than the Crescendo. Perhaps hoping to draw teenagers into the Rex and an older crowd into the Crescendo on the same night, he booked some top named bands to appear at The Rex and later the same evening at the Crescendo. Some of the bands that appeared at Ray Grehan’s “dual” venue were: the Coasters (from the USA), Gebo Washington and the Ram Jam Band, Zoot Money & Dantallion’s Chariot, the Herd and Edison Lighthouse.
In his memoirs “Beats Working”, Keith Fisher, the drummer with 70’s band Beckett describes what it was like to gig at the Rex.
Thanks for looking.
Staircase was very nice and also a couple of things in the rooms to make up the explore.
Was in here for about an hour and had seen everything.
There was a nightclub connected to the side but access was sealed.
Apparently was the local hotspot for the homeless at one point.
I'm surprised I haven't seen reports of the place before.
Found a bit of History on the place and now popular it was with musicians.
The Rex Hotel, an impressive looking Victorian building on the sea front at Whitley Bay, was a popular venue for both local and national bands from the mid sixties through to the late seventies. I first played there in 1968 with a band called the Village and for the next three years or so it became one of my favourite venues, both as a performer and a punter. I remember seeing the late great Robert Palmer singing at the Rex sometime in 1969 with the Alan Bown Set just after he had replaced Jess Roden.
Local bands were booked at the Rex for a weekend or for one night only. Sometimes you got to support a named band. I recall supporting a couple of chart bands there in 1969 – Love Affair and Simon Dupree and the Big Sound who had charted a couple of years earlier.
In 1969 a lot of top named acts were booked at the Rex, usually supported by a local north east band. Some of the bands that appeared at the venue in 1969 were: Status Quo, the Troggs, the Foundations, Vanity Fair, Chicken Shack and Family.
North east promoter, Ray Grehan began put on gigs at the Rex Hotel in 1970. Ray was the owner of the nearby Crescendo Club. Although the Rex was a licensed venue it drew in a much younger age group than the Crescendo. Perhaps hoping to draw teenagers into the Rex and an older crowd into the Crescendo on the same night, he booked some top named bands to appear at The Rex and later the same evening at the Crescendo. Some of the bands that appeared at Ray Grehan’s “dual” venue were: the Coasters (from the USA), Gebo Washington and the Ram Jam Band, Zoot Money & Dantallion’s Chariot, the Herd and Edison Lighthouse.
In his memoirs “Beats Working”, Keith Fisher, the drummer with 70’s band Beckett describes what it was like to gig at the Rex.
Thanks for looking.
