Acclaimed Melbourne indie-jazz band Hiatus Kaiyote are gearing up to perform their first ever Cambridge show.

There's an air of expectation wafting through the crowd. That loud hum of hundreds of indecipherable voices talking at once.

Then the four-piece hit the stage and Hiatus Kaiyote's soulful singer Nai Palm opens with their song Rose Water and those hundreds of voices are suddenly recognisable as they sing in unison.

This isn't a rare night at the Cambridge. This is a scenario that's played out thousands of times at the venue for the past 50 years.

Newcastle might have once housed more prominent music venues such as the infamous Star Hotel, the Palais Royale or Newcastle Workers Club, but if you're talking about the last 30 years, the Cambridge is the musical heart of the city.

Noisy, gritty, and grungy - but charming in it's own raucous way.

The Cambridge has hosted everyone from hometown international success stories, Silverchair, to Australian mainstays You Am I, Grinspoon and Tame Impala to international heavyweights The Black Keys, Blink 182, The Beastie Boys and Childish Gambino.

There's also the thousands of local acts who've had opportunities to learn their craft in front of hometown audiences.

In 2019 - the last year unaffected by COVID-19 restrictions - the Cambridge hosted about 1000 sets, of which 700 were from local artists, according to the Newcastle Live Music Taskforce. Gigs that year attracted around 198,000 patrons.

Yet the Cambridge's days are numbered. In June 2023 the venue is poised to close its doors and undergo a $110 million redevelopment by French-owned company Linkcity, which plans to build a 19-storey student accommodation tower.

This would provide accommodation for up to 500 students close to the University Of Newcastle's inner-city and Honeysuckle campuses, but deprive the city of its foremost live music venue.

The news has been met with an emotional response by music fans and musicians alike.

Grinspoon frontman Phil Jamieson says he was "devastated" and "incredibly upset" when he heard of the Cambridge's sale.

The 45-year-old was 15 when his father drove him down from Port Macquarie to watch Wollongong stoner rock band Tumbleweed at the Cambridge.

"I was watching from outside a chain-linked fence because I wasn't allowed in the venue, but you used to be able to see through from the street," Jamieson says.

"I had seen bands before, but not an Australian act that I absolutely adorned. I actually watched them load in. I was one of those kids that hang around a venue with my old man.

"That's a very personal and real interaction with that venue that will always be with me whether the venue continues or not."

Over the past 25 years Jamieson has played the Cambridge numerous times with Grinspoon and solo, including the venue's first gig in July 2020 after the initial COVID-19 lockdown.

His memories range playing ping pong and Tony Hawk on PlayStation 2 in the green room to "slumming it" in the '90s in the Cambridge's accommodation.

"That's probably best forgotten, because it was filthy," he laughs. "Back then with the Grinners we were slumming it. Which is fine and it's great, but I remember it was particularly dirty up there in that era."

Screaming Jets frontman Dave Gleeson's memories of the Cambridge go further back to the '80s when his first band Aspect played 26 Saturday nights straight in the Cambridge's front bar.

A young Gleeson was also there among the wild and risque Funbusters shows - sometimes complete with wet T-shirt competitions and drinks poured through hoses - which were a weekly occurrence at the Cambridge for 11 years until 1996.

"It was like a rite of passage once you got to 16, 17 or 18, you went to the Cambo and saw The Funbusters on a Thursday," Gleeson says.

But it's not just veterans of the music industry crushed by the planned demise of the Cambridge.

The venue remains one of most important breeding grounds for Novocastrian talent. The smaller Warehouse room regularly hosts local acts cutting their teeth. Bands like Rum Jungle, Camino Gold and Snowfish.

Joey van Lier, who plays drums for Newcastle's two biggest indie bands Vacations and Raave Tapes, was gutted by the news.

"It's sad to see that Newcastle is regressing culture wise," van Lier says. "I don't know who to blame for that.

"I think that's a terrible loss. As soon as we heard, we thought what can we do?"

Music lovers aren't giving up hope that the Cambridge can be saved. Two weeks ago a "Save The Cambridge" online petition was launched by the Newcastle Live Music Taskforce and all three levels of government.

"I genuinely worry about where are the pathways for new and emerging musicians in Newcastle," Labor's incumbent Federal Member for Newcastle, Sharon Claydon, tells Weekender while standing across the road from the Cambridge.

"It's a venue of a really specific size and the idea of losing all the touring acts in Newcastle is unconscionable, really. How does Newcastle, the second oldest city in this nation, drop off the tour list for Australian bands?"

Much of the concern surrounding the proposed demise of the Cambridge exists around the venue's specific size. The main room can accommodate 800 people, while the Warehouse room has a capacity of 200.

Newcastle has several regular original music venues capable of hosting between 100 to 200 people, like the Hamilton Station Hotel, Newcastle Hotel, The Gal, Lass O'Gowrie, Stag & Hunter and Lizotte's.

But without the Cambridge the fear is musical acts and their promoters would skip Newcastle as they'd be forced to make the leap to larger venues like the Bar On The Hill (1000 capacity), Civic Theatre (1450) and Newcastle NEX (2400).

Weekender understands the Stag & Hunter and Hamilton Station Hotel have plans to expand their live music spaces, but both would be far below the Cambridge's capacity.

"There is no other venue of this size," State MP Tim Crakanthorp says. "It's the right size, it's not too small and it's not too big and that suits a lot of bands that are working their way up through the industry.

"Bands all around Australia know the Cambridge and people that book bands do so as well. They know if you played at the Cambridge we'll take you on because that's a significant sized venue."

Raave Tapes are one recent Newcastle band who cut their teeth at the Cambridge and used the venue as a launch pad to national exposure. The indie-dance duo's Joab Eastley estimates he's played the venue over 20 times, including sold-out shows.

"The Cambridge is so integral," Eastley says. "They bring so many acts to town and such a diverse range of acts across genres and demographics, which provides young artists with a chance to support those acts.

"When you support those artists you make connections with booking agents, the managers, the everything that's involved in the machine and puts your name across their map. If you make enough noise and your name keeps popping up in those circles, people are going to start paying attention.

"If the Cambridge goes, people are just not going to be coming to town, and it's going to make it so much harder for people to get out."

Part of the strategy to save the Cambridge involves convincing Linkcity to shift their plans to another site or to incorporate the hotel and live music into their student accommodation redevelopment.

"I think 500-student accommodation would go really well with some live music in a place where kids could socialise and have a good time," Crakanthorp says.

Last week Crakanthorp, Claydon and Newcastle deputy lord mayor Declan Clausen met with Linkcity's development manager Simon Nesbitt and the Cambridge's owner John Palmieri to discuss the campaign to the save the venue.

"It was pretty robust, but we emphasised the community sentiment about the proposal and they got the message," Crakanthorp says.

The campaign to save the Cambridge appears an uphill battle.

Palmieri has owned the Cambridge for almost 30 years and first listed it for sale in 2017 with a concept plan advertised depicting a 153-apartment tower.

Following an outcry from punters and the Newcastle Live Music Taskforce, Palmieri chose to maintain the venue's current operators until their lease expires in June 2023.

However, Palmieri says the continued redevelopment of Newcastle's west end and growth in high-rise residential apartments means the Cambridge's future is uncertain regardless of Linkcity's proposal.

"I appreciate that it's a loved venue, but the demographics of that end of town have changed significantly," Palmieri says.

"The amount of development surrounding the hotel is predominantly residential and that has, and will have, serious impacts on the business, particularly live music, in the next two or three years once the residents start moving in."

Linkcity's student accommodation proposal does feature an area on the ground floor for live music called the "sound lounge", but at a much smaller capacity than the Cambridge's current offering.

The Cambridge's sale is conditional on Linkcity's development application being successful.

Several developers bid for the site, but Palmieri says Linkcity was the most favourable option due to the social and economic benefits of the plan.

"One of the factors I had in my mind was that I believe it has a very significant positive development for that end of Newcastle," he says. "Student accommodation and the improvements it would create in terms of people in that end of town would be a dynamic mix.

"It was consistent with what the current planning and zoning requirements are, where they're seeking to increase the level of resident population at that end of town. It would also, I think, significantly improve the level of accommodation for students and also allow for inner-city business traders to have the benefit of having students there living and generally enjoying themselves."

Nesbitt says Linkcity will keep consulting stakeholders about their plans.

"As the developer, we are definitely not experts in live music venues or the live music industry and we look forward having a continuing dialogue with the current Cambridge Hotel operators, the vendor of the building and the Live Music Taskforce about our proposal and live music venues in Newcastle," Nesbitt says.

Cambridge licensee Greg Mathew declined to comment.

If the Cambridge Hotel's last drinks are called with a wrecking ball in June 2023, expect the venue to go out with a bang.

Gleeson says The Screaming Jets would certainly be back for a farewell show.

"I'll be doing everything I can and talking to our agents to get us in there," he says. "I don't know if there's any saving it, I don't know if the developers will just say, 'We don't care what you do, we're gonna knock it down and build apartments', but I'd love to play there as a farewell to the Cambo if that's what ends up happening."

Jamieson promises he will be there on the final night, either on stage or off.

"I'll do whatever they want me to do," Jamieson says. "It's part of my life that place.

"If they want to get The Veronicas I'll go there and cheer on The Veronicas. If they want me to sing some songs, I will. I'd just want to be a part of it."

To sign the petititon to Save The Cambridge head to change.org.