Mushroom bar is another one of Newcastle’s “trebles bars”. You can get a treble for only £1.95, be aware this doesnt include a mixer and you have to purchase one.  They do sell bottles of wine, but you wont find many people drinking that at this bar. It is more of a party style bar, with a dancefloor which is quite small, and modern decor. The bar streches all the way along the back wall and there are many drinks available including draught beer and bottles.

The music on offer is everything from chart to old skool pop, it is open until 1AM at weekends. If you dont want to dance there are lots of seating areas or standing room, but as mentioned this place does get packed at weekends so be prepered to be standing shoulder to shoulder with people.

This place gets packed at weekends, if you like this kind of stuff you will like it here. Most the crowd is younger people, 18-22 year olds come here and it is not too far from the bigg market.

The Mushroom bar is a typical music bar, which offers cheap drinks, and offers everything you would expect.

If you want to go you will need to set your GPS to:

82 Grainger Street
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 5JQ

Nearby Clubs: Blu Bambu
Nearby Bars: The Vault, Boom!

Blu Bambu is still not good. The quality of people in here and the atmosphere says it all, it is not a top night out, and is falling behind other places.

I had not been for a while and decided to go back in for another try. The place has not changed, and that is not a good thing. It is still stuck in the past, it feels so drab, it has nothing new to offer. Clubs in Newcastle are constantly changing, keeping up with the times, constantly updating their presence. Blu Bambu however feels like the same place it did in 2002. It was not that bad back then, as it had a decent crowd at times, but now the crowd have gone on to better places, i cant say i blame them. Them, just like me, did not like the place because of its own sense of self importance, the door staff were unfriendly not letting people in for no reason, and now those people have moved on to better places like Tiger Tiger only up the road, or Tup Tup Palace just 5 minutes walk away.

The one and only thing going for Blu Bambu is the music. They do play a nice selection of club bangers, from House to Hip Hop, it is good. But that comes at a price with paying on the door and paying club prices for drinks. I recommend going to a good late bar, Newcastle has a huge number of these now, and they are better value and a better place to be than Blu Bambu.

They now seem to get a huge number of theme parties, stag/hen parties in the place. They are clearly trying their best to get business, and any business possible. They also do a student night through the week, to draw in the students. Unfortunatly the student season is now over, and when it is on there are alot of options, all of which are better.

I would recommend you go elsewhere for a night out. This place is good for stag and hens. If you are 20 something – 30 something i do not recommend this place. Instead i would try Tiger Tiger near the gate complex, or go to the central station area and go to a late bar such as Revolution, or Perdu, which is open till 3AM on Saturdays.

Chase Bar is located down the quayside. It is quite a nice space, had a refurbishment not so long ago and has a nice outside area aswell as three bars (sometimes only the main bar is open) inside. It is split level, and also had a downstairs area to chill in.

They sell a range of beer and bottles, and is pretty friendly for letting in hen and stag parties, in fact if you go on a Saturday night and dont see at least one there must be something wrong.

The music on offer is pretty much the standard thing, chart, pop, rnb dance kind of stuff; It can get pretty full in this place and sometimes it can take a while to get served, although i have to say the staff are better than they used to be.

There are 2 things which i hate about this place. One is the person in charge of pricing the drinks. I went in and got a double vodka and energy drink (they’re cheap, no redbull here) and they will sell you one for £2.50 but you do not get the can. They will give you half the can, if you ask for the can, the bar person will tell you “oh its over £6 if you want the can aswell…” OK, its fair enough if you dont get the can, you cant complain here as its only £2.50, if it were £5> than you could complain……However, i could buy 2x of the drinks for £5.00, and they’d have to use 1 can for 2 drinks. So i can get 2 double vodkas and a can of redbull for £5, but if i want one double vodka with a full can of Redbull its over £6?!?! The Management at Chase need to get back to school i think!

Now i dont bother getting that drink here. They use the cheapest vodka on the planet along with whatever energy drink happens to be the cheapest.

The thing which is the worst of all is the shot girls. If you dont know what they are, some bars have girls which go round everyone in the bar asking if you wanna buy a shot. This is the most annoying thing in the world!!! You are out to have a good time, and someone is coming up to you trying to sell you something….Havent i already bought something from the bar? I cant tell you how much i HATE this on so many levels. I have chosen to come to your bar and you have someone bothering me to buy shots?

Not only that but the girls try their BEST to get you to buy them. That means there is not much they wouldnt do to sell you a shot. They will give you some free if you buy enough, and they will bug you and put pressure on you to buy one from them.

And if one girl isnt bugging you enough, her mate will come along and ask you the same thing! Bars listen up, ITS FUCKING ANNOYING! STOP IT!!!! I love shots, but if i want one, i will go to the bar and buy one.

The worst part about the whole ‘new look’ chase is the signage outside. What a joke! What were they thinking?! It looks so cheap its unreal. They must of done the inside of the bar and ran out of cash, basically black and yellow boards above the door, it looks terrible!

To get to Chase set your GPS to:

Chase Bar Newcastle
10/15 Sandhill
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 3AF

Hoko 10 is a bar located on the way down to the quayside. Located at 16 Dean street, it is just down the road from The Lodge, on the opposite side.

They play a mix of music, it is usually house/dance or old skool kind of music. It is a decent bar, of a fairly small size, with an upstairs which is quite contemporary and intimate, with sofas and cubbie holes to chill in which is cool. On selected nights they have live music, and is usually open until 2am. As for drinks, they do a large selection, with bottles, cocktails and draught beer.

The price of drinks is quite moderate, however the last time i was in this place i wanted a coke, some places charge just as much for a soft drink as an alcoholic drink so i was amazed when the girl said…50p!!

If you are looking to chill, have a relaxing drink then i would recommend this place.

The venue which claims to be “the only nightclub on the diamond strip” even though its not on it, is Tup Tup Palace. If you are not familiar with where it is, it used to be Bar M (yes the very same charva bar) however it had a change of ownership and they decorated the place. It is now a nightclub, and hosts a few nights such as Musica Mundo and Lovedough. At the weekends it is a normal club, well, i say normal…..

Tup Tup Palace has got a name for itself by being a V.I.P kind of place. Celebrities have been there, which means vain people go in the hope they might see someone famous even though you probably wont. The place itself is nothing special, as mentioned before it is Bar M with a facelift, it doesnt really offer anything different than somewhere like Tiger Tiger. The only difference is this place is alot smaller.

The crowd is terrible. The place is filled with pretentious kids who think they are VIPs because they are in this place. Its not even like its full of the “rich kids” because they dont go there, its full of the people who aspire to be one of the rich kids, which says it all. The only thing which are more pretentious than the clientele are the staff. These are probably the most miserable unhelpful staff in Newcastle’s nightspots.

We were there on Friday night and wanted to enjoy some champagne in style so asked for a VIP booth so we could chill with our Champagne. Well what can i say? Firstly they more or less demand we pay cash (hmm wonder why) and convieniently their credit card machine was broke so we couldnt pay off a card if we wanted to. OK, we could pay with cash, so how about a bottle of Cristal; £350! This is a complete rip off!!!! I know how much it is at wholesale, but that is not the point here….I see in other clubs and bars in Newcastle the going rate is £270-£300; the majority of top nightclubs in London will sell you a bottle for £300 as i know

The music was so bad! I dont know who the DJ was, but if i had of known beforehand i would of took my Decks, Mixer and CDs. If i had of done i know i would of had a much better time anyway! It was so bad! There was no club bangers, nothing to make you think you were in a good club. The music was that bad, they should of bought an ipod and speaker dock and played a playlist, maybe that is what they did….

We left after around 30 minutes. £5 in and £5 of my hard earned money i will never see again! But at least now i know, and i know never to set foot in this place again. When they have events like Lovedough and Musica Mundo i would go, i imagine those nights will be alright in comparison.

Friday nights are called “dirty little secret”…Well that is one secret i wish they kept to themselves!

Verdict

DON’T GO!!! One word to describe this place would be overrated. So many better places to go than here, i’d even go to the Attic before i’d go here!!

Newcastle Last weekend

 

Lovedough gives you Kano this Thursday at Tup Tup Palace. Mark it down in your calendar, 18 June Kano at Tup Tup Palace.

Tup Tup Palace is hosting a White party on Friday 12 June. This could be great! I doubt as good as this pic suggests, which was not supplied by Tup Tup so dont expect it to look like that!

The event is the After Party for Gusto in Newcastle, in aid of the NSPCC and it all kicks off at 1AM until 3AM.

Get yourself to Tup Tup and wear white. Lets see how many people they can get to wear all white I do like the ladies in White In their promo pics however the girls are wearing black shoes, which doesnt follow the ‘white’ rules.

Tickets cost a massive £20, which seems to be pricey to me. This gets you a priority wristband to Tup Tup.