Newcastle City Hall (Australia) structure clad in Sydney yellowblock sandstone ashlar with rusticated quoins. The City Hall was reported to be in good physical condition as at 3 May 2013. The concert hall, stage and upper gallery is frequently used by a wide range of community and commercial groups as a platform for staging choirs, orchestras, plays or other musical performances. Additional function rooms cater for civic receptions, community gatherings, weddings, national and international conferences, trade shows, seminars, corporate meetings, product launches and social functions. Newcastle City Hall is of historic and aesthetic significance to the State of NSW as an imposing civic building
Newcastle, New South Wales Conservatorium of Music which is part of the University of Newcastle. It continues to support local bands and has a large underground music scene. The members of Silverchair, the highly successful Australian band, hail from Newcastle, as does the Australian band The Screaming Jets. It has a fertile punk rock and hardcore scene, which has spawned successful local acts and national acts. Newcastle was also home to the short-lived band Velvet Underground which featured future AC/DC guitarist Malcolm Young. Notable modernist artists associated with Newcastle are seascape sketcher Shay Docking (1928–1998), the cubist influenced abstract painter William Rose (1929–1999), landscape