THE TIKKI bar immortalised in the Cold Chisel song The Backroom is up for sale, and comes with a certificate of authenticity signed by songwriting legend Don Walker.
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The bamboo bar originally came from Cosmo’s Rock Lounge, Sydney.
After the venue’s demise it was spirited away by Newcastle musician Dougie Bull to his Mayfield East man-cave.
The bar has since been leaned on by many a musician of note after performing at the adjoining Sunset Studio venue.
On Thursday, Don Walker dropped in to Newcastle for one last cocktail at the tikki bar and to bid it farewell.
Walker first visited the Sunset Studio in 2014 with his guitarist Roy Payne, a regular at the bar.
Walker was immediately taken with the venue, with its burled walnut piano, parquetry floor and Bull’s anarchic workshop out the back.
“I came here to pick up Roy and he showed me over the place,” Walker said.
“This workspace, where Doug at the time was chopping motorbikes for clients, has a certain ambience.
“And Roy, being an artist by nature, had said to Doug ‘what we need to complete this place is a tikki bar’.
“I walked in and there was the tikki bar and I thought it was magic.
“I fell in love with the whole idea of the building, so I sat down and wrote a song.”
The result was The Backroom, released on the 2015 album The Perfect Crime. Walker was also to perform at the venue
The tikki bar has been listed for sale on ebay, as the part of the building it once occupied has been sold.
Walker will be back in Newcastle to perform at 48 Watt Street on April 6, with his band The Suave F****.
The gig is part of a national tour to promote the release of Black Top, a boxed set on vinyl which includes a musical catalogue of six albums.
When the moonlight hammers on the railway bridge And the whole world’s lookin’ for a beverage And you ain’t got nothin’, nothin’ in the boot a the car Time for the backroom at Dougie and Gleny Rae’s tikki bar
- The Backroom, Don Walker
