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One-time navy cook, John Sicolo, opened Cedars Rest - a bistro specialising in steak and seafood - in 1971. Christened El Sieco’s and renamed TJ’s Disco, music-lovers loved TJ’s and TJ’s loved music. Here, any musician – a start-up band or a group hitting big time – were given a chance. About 50,000 bands took to TJ’s stage including Primal Scream, Echo and The Bunnymen and The Manic Street Preachers. Poets, painters and fashionistas flocked here for the atmosphere. |
Artists came from around the world to play in the town’s no.1 nightclub. The club’s international acclaim caused The New York Times to label Newport the ‘Seattle of the UK’.
Sadly, the club closed after Sicolo died in 2010.
Music and Culture