Star Hotel
Star Hotel 2013 - Photo: Carol Duncan
Everyone in Newcastle reckons they know someone who was at the Star Hotel on the night of 19 September 1979 - so far that means some 200,000 people claim to have been there.
Newcastle's Star Hotel is perhaps best known for the riot of 19 September 1979 and the song of the same name by Cold Chisel.
The Star Hotel had never been pretty and by the late 1970s, the owners of the pub - Tooth & Co - had pretty much had enough of trying to improve the reputation of a pub which catered for the seafaring drinkers at the Hunter Street bar, the live music punters at the King Street bar, and Newcastle's LGBTQI community somewhere in the middle.
Star Hotel Riot 19 September 1979. Photo - Ron Bell.
In September, the hotel was given one week's no...