Get ready to feel really ancient, as it was some 20 years ago now that a certain bar on the banks of the River Tyne was packed out every single weekend and many week nights too, as it established itself as a firm favourite with locals, students, stags and hens alike. Which makes it all the more upsetting that the once thriving Buffalo Joes is now just an empty shell and a tragic shadow of its former self.
In the same era that Baja Beach Club had queues outside the door pretty much every Friday and Saturday night, as revellers waited to step underneath the shark's head and into the land of dancing nuns, falling balloons and an upstairs diner; Buffalo Joes more than held its own on the Newcastle (well, technically Gateshead) nightlife scene, as Baja's raucous neighbour.
Who needed the real Cayote Ugly when you could belt out LeAnn Rimes' Can't Fight the Moonlight perfectly well from the Gerodie answer to the famous nightspot? Buffalo Joes was a place where air guitars were always encouraged, as was plenty of fancy dress.
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In the days when you could get a few bottles and a shot for a fiver, the party bar was one of those places that no visit to Tyneside was the same without. While, of course, we have to come to the terms with the fact that times change, seeing the popularity of Baja and Buffalo Joes was a bitter pill to swallow for those drinkers who had been in both so often.
The once bustling venues soon saw their footfall die off, as people's going out tastes and habits changed and more inviting and apparently 'sophisticated' alternatives popped up around the city.
Baja's iconic shark head has long since disappeared from its exterior, with the club being turned into the swish Pipewell Quay office complex, while, just over the road, there is a sight that cuts like a knife every time for anyone with fond memories of Buffalo Joes' party past, as the building might be still standing, but it's in a total state of disrepair.
Later rebranded Viva at Buffalo Joes, there was talk that it could be transformed and re-opened but, sadly, that was all just talk and now what is left is just the memories of once was.
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