Venue brings the curtain down due to rising costs

A POPULAR Newcastle 1920s entertainment venue is set to close after 10 years of trading as rising costs take their toll on the firm's finances.

- COREENA FORD

Mitch Mitchell first brought a taste of the American prohibition era to the North East when he launched the initial entertainment venue Prohibition - in a converted railway arch in Gateshead, attracting a steady stream of followers with its 1920s and '30s focus on cabaret, vaudeville and music-hall entertainment.

In 2018 Prohibition outgrew its Gateshead base, triggering a huge party when its burlesque balls, bands and jam-packed music events moved across the river to the former Jazz Cafe, the famous Pink Lane venue.

Now, however, Mr Mitchell has announced that crippling costs are making the future of the venue unsustainable, prompting him to bring the curtain down on Prohibition when the lease expires in summer.

The news will be devastating to the region's music scene, as Prohibition has provided a platform for hundreds of musicians, singers and bands from across the North East and beyond.

Two years ago singer songwriter Sam Fender stunned punters into silence when he took to the venue's piano to perform a new track from his latest album.

That piano and other fixtures and fittings at the bar will be auctioned off in a bid to cover costs for the "good old fashioned liquor joint", which Mr Mitchell said he was set to close on July 31 with "the very heaviest of hearts".