Arc-Up Studios: A History of Newcastle's Underground Music Scene

From a rehearsal room in Mayfield to a network of creative spaces across Newcastle, Arc-Up Studios played a part in the development of the city's independent music community during the 1990s and early 2000s.

Founded in 1994 by Andrew Macdonald, Arc-Up Studios began with a simple idea: Newcastle musicians needed somewhere affordable and practical to rehearse.

What began as a rehearsal facility at 42 Maitland Road, Mayfield, gradually developed into a recording studio and an important meeting place for musicians involved in Newcastle's punk, hardcore, alternative and independent music scenes.

Over the following years, Arc-Up moved through several locations, reflecting a broader involvement in Newcastle's community arts movement and the creative reuse of buildings and industrial spaces.

The Beginnings — Mayfield, 1992

Before establishing Arc-Up Studios, Andrew Macdonald owned a public address (PA) system and regularly transported it to gigs around Newcastle, providing live sound for local bands. Working with musicians gave Andrew firsthand experience of the challenges facing Newcastle's independent music community.

One recurring problem was the availability of suitable rehearsal spaces. In 1992, Andrew decided to do something about it. Andrew rented a building at 42 Maitland Road, Mayfield, and established Arc-Up Studios.

The original facility was modest, reflecting the practical, do-it-yourself approach common throughout Newcastle's independent music scene. There were two principal rehearsal rooms, one large and one smaller, with a makeshift third room sometimes available when demand required it. This allowed several bands to rehearse at the same time.

Most bands booked sessions of one or two hours. Some made occasional bookings, while others established regular weekly rehearsal times.

Although some equipment was available, occasionally including a drum kit or amplifier, bands generally brought their own gear — the same instruments and amplifiers they used when performing live.

Arc-Up provided something relatively simple but important: a dedicated place where musicians could work on their music.

Recording at Arc-Up

Alongside the rehearsal facilities, Andrew established a small recording studio. The original recording room had carpet covering the walls, with a small separate control room immediately alongside it.

The studio initially used a Tascam 238 Syncaset eight-track cassette recorder. This was an analogue multitrack recorder that allowed eight individual tracks to be recorded onto a standard compact cassette.

Recording sessions were generally straightforward. Andrew would set up the microphones and recording equipment, capture the band playing live, and mix down the finished recording. A typical session, from setup through recording to final mixdown, could be completed in approximately four to five hours.

The emphasis was on capturing the energy of the musicians playing together rather than spending days constructing elaborate recordings.

For emerging bands, this offered a practical way to produce a demo without the expense of a prolonged recording session.

The move to 12-track recording

As Arc-Up developed, its recording equipment was upgraded to an Akai 12-track recorder. The additional recording capacity allowed a more flexible production process.

Rather than recording everything live, the band would generally play together to establish the basic instrumental tracks. Additional instruments and other overdubs could then be recorded separately, followed by the vocals.

The recording facilities themselves also evolved. A larger recording room was established with better soundproofing, while a bigger, more isolated control room provided improved separation between the musicians and the recording desk.

These improvements allowed Arc-Up to offer more sophisticated recording facilities while maintaining its independent character.

Innocent Criminals — Before Silverchair

One of the particularly interesting chapters in Arc-Up's history concerns a young Newcastle band called Innocent Criminals, who would later become internationally successful as Silverchair. Before developing their own original material, Innocent Criminals were performing cover songs.

Andrew Macdonald recalls recording the young band at Arc-Up during this early period in 1992. Among the songs they recorded was Gloria, with its familiar refrain of “G-L-O-R-I-A.”

The session was recorded live using the studio's Tascam 238 eight-track cassette recorder. Andrew recalls Danials mum bringing the young musicians to the studio, sometime after the recording session, Andrew personally delivering the completed demo to Daniel Johns's house.

This recollection provides a glimpse into the band's development before their emergence as Silverchair. It also illustrates the role that small independent studios could play in giving young musicians their earliest recording experiences.

This account is based on Andrew Macdonald's firsthand recollections. The exact recording date and the whereabouts of any surviving copy of the demo remain to be established.

Sandpaper — A Band at Home in Arc-Up

Arc-Up was also home to Sandpaper, a Newcastle band featuring Andrew Macdonald, Geoff Mullard and Anthony Dean. The band rehearsed regularly in the basement space affectionately known as “the dungeon.”

Sandpaper recorded demos at Arc-Up, including material released as Greatest Hits Volume 2. Listen to Sandpaper — Greatest Hits Volume 2

The band's recording history also extended beyond Arc-Up. The Sandpaper EP was recorded at the studio of Steve Kilbey, of The Church, with recording undertaken by Tim Powles, the band's drummer. Listen to the Sandpaper EP

Sandpaper's history illustrates how Arc-Up provided both a regular creative home for musicians and a starting point for recordings that could develop into more substantial projects. Sandpaper — triple j Unearthed

Newcastle's Punk and Hardcore Scene

During the 1990s, Arc-Up became closely associated with Newcastle's independent punk and hardcore music community. Bands could rehearse regularly, develop their material, record demos and meet other musicians using the facility.

Among the groups connected with Arc-Up were Found My Direction, Pitfall, Sandpaper, The G Spots and Arms Reach to name a few

These connections are documented through recordings, artist histories and recollections published by musicians involved in the scene.

Found My Direction

In a retrospective interview published by Rest Assured Zine, members of Found My Direction recalled recording at Arc-Up.

Drew remembered:

“We went to the only place there was that had guys who were, at least interested in punk and hardcore and that was Arc Up. It was where we practiced as well. It was like a dark and dingy cave. That was part of its charm but I use that word very loosely.”

He also observed:

“A lot of the early Newcastle stuff came out of Arc Up.”

Jon recalled:

“We recorded the demo over a weekend at Arc Up studios in Newcastle. Arc Up is a small studio run by guys who played in bands in Newcastle. Geoff Mullard recorded it with Andrew Macdonald.”

These recollections are significant because they provide an independent account of Arc-Up's role within the Newcastle music community. The musicians remembered not only the recordings, but also the atmosphere and the people who operated the studio.

Read the Found My Direction retrospective — Rest Assured Zine

Pitfall and other local bands

Other retrospective accounts, including interviews with members of Pitfall, provide further evidence of Arc-Up's connections with Newcastle's hardcore and independent music scene. Read the Pitfall retrospective — Rest Assured Zine

The studio's significance was not necessarily measured by commercial success or recording sales. Its contribution was in making rehearsal and recording facilities available to musicians who might otherwise have had limited opportunities to develop and document their music.

Life Inside Arc-Up — The Dungeon

The original Mayfield premises were not a polished commercial recording complex. They were practical, makeshift and, by the recollections of musicians who used them, sometimes dark and dingy.

But the building developed a character of its own. Walls became covered with band posters, newspaper clippings, stickers, graffiti and drawings.

Musicians left their marks on doorways, pillars and walls. The building's visual character reflected the music and the people who passed through it.

Photographs surviving from the Mayfield period show the interiors, graffiti-covered surfaces, posters, equipment and informal social areas.

They provide a valuable record of a creative environment that existed largely outside formal cultural institutions.

Arc-Up was somewhere bands came to rehearse, but it was also somewhere musicians encountered other bands, exchanged ideas and participated in a wider musical community.

For many of the people involved, the atmosphere was as memorable as the recording equipment.

Moving Beyond Mayfield — 1999

Arc-Up operated at 42 Maitland Road from 1992 until 1999. In 1999, the operation moved to the Newcastle Community Arts Centre in Parry Street, Newcastle West.

This marked a new stage in Arc-Up's development and placed it within a broader community arts environment. The move was part of an ongoing process of finding and developing spaces suitable for creative activity.

Arc-Up was no longer simply associated with its original Mayfield premises. Its history was becoming connected with Newcastle's wider community arts infrastructure.

Defining Art in the Community — 2000

In April 2000, Andrew Macdonald produced Defining Art in the Community, published through Realtime Publishing, with contributions and editing by Catherine Croll and Vicki Newman.

The publication explored community cultural development, participation, identity and the importance of facilities and projects that enable people to work together.

One passage captures the philosophy underlying these activities:

“Community facilities and community projects give people a structure, a focus, and a way of doing things which allow communities to build unity through action, not by talking ideals or abstracts.”

This was more than a theoretical position. By that time, Andrew had spent several years establishing and operating facilities that allowed musicians and artists to participate in creative activity.

Arc-Up and ArtsHaus were practical examples of the principles discussed in the publication. They demonstrated that cultural development does not necessarily begin with major institutions, large budgets or formal programs.

Sometimes it begins with someone identifying a need, renting a building and making space available for others to create.

Read Defining Art in the Community — ArtsHunter

ArtsHaus — 744 Hunter Street, Newcastle, July 2001

Around the same period, Andrew Macdonald established another creative facility: The The ArtsHaus.

Located at 744 Hunter Street, Newcastle, in the Bank Corner area, ArtsHaus provided 20 artist studios, offering working spaces for people involved in visual arts and other creative activities.

While Arc-Up supported musicians through rehearsal and recording facilities, ArtsHaus addressed a similar need within the broader arts community: affordable, accessible space in which creative work could take place.

The Fatosphere was located around the corner from ArtsHaus. Although they were separate facilities, both formed part of Andrew's broader involvement in developing creative infrastructure for Newcastle.

The progression from Arc-Up to ArtsHaus demonstrates how an initiative originally concerned with music rehearsal could be accompanied by wider activity supporting cultural participation.

The Fatosphere — 2002

Following the Community Arts Centre period, Arc-Up moved into a large, disused warehouse known as the Fatosphere.

The warehouse was located near ArtsHaus in the Bank Corner area of Newcastle. The Fatosphere was remembered not only for music-related activity but also for the parties held there.

The move reflected a sense of progression — an attempt to develop and expand the possibilities of the spaces being used.

As Andrew recalls, it was a process of “moving on up, in theory.”

The Fatosphere belonged to a period when Newcastle's independent arts community was making use of former commercial and industrial buildings as creative spaces. The precise street address and operating dates remain to be confirmed, although Andrew recalls the period as approximately 2000–2001.

The Sawtooth Railway Building, 2003

Arc-Up subsequently relocated to the Sawtooth Railway Building in central Newcastle, a former railway-related industrial building associated with the site later occupied by Newcastle Museum.

This represented another stage in the movement through Newcastle's repurposed industrial and cultural spaces.

The exact dates of Arc-Up's occupation of the Sawtooth building have not yet been established.

Further historical records, photographs and recollections may help reconstruct this later period.

Arc-Up's Legacy

Arc-Up Studios began in 1993 because Newcastle musicians needed somewhere to rehearse. Over time, it provided rehearsal rooms, recording facilities and a place where bands could develop their music. Its recording equipment progressed from an eight-track cassette machine to a more flexible 12-track system.

Its premises developed from small, carpet-lined rooms into more substantial recording facilities. Its activities became connected with some of Newcastle's best-known independent bands, including the early Innocent Criminals, later Silverchair, and musicians involved in the city's punk and hardcore scenes.

But perhaps Arc-Up's most enduring contribution was not any particular recording. It was the provision of creative infrastructure.

The rooms, equipment and opportunities it offered enabled musicians to participate in Newcastle's music community. That same principle extended into Andrew Macdonald's establishment of ArtsHaus and his work in community cultural development.

Looking back, Arc-Up was part of a wider story about how communities create their own cultural opportunities. It was not built around a grand cultural strategy.
It began with a PA system, a need for rehearsal space and a decision to rent a building. From there, it grew through the musicians, artists and communities who used the spaces.

Arc-Up Studios was ultimately about giving people somewhere to make things happen.

Historical Timeline

References and Further Listening

• Sandpaper — Greatest Hits Volume 2

• Sandpaper EP

• Sandpaper — triple j Unearthed

• Found My Direction — Rest Assured Zine

• Pitfall — Rest Assured Zine

• Defining Art in the Community — ArtsHunter

Historical account compiled from the firsthand recollections of Arc-Up founder Andrew Macdonald, surviving photographs, recording links and published musician interviews. Some dates and details remain subject to further archival research.

© Andrew Macdonald — ArtsHunter