News

Newport TJ's Venue Set To Close

• 21st Apr 2010

Newport venue TJ's is to be sold due to financial difficulties, it has been confirmed. The venue, famed as the location of the late Kurt Cobain's proposal to Courtney Love according to rock legend, has been facing mounting financial difficulties since the death of its owner, John Sicolo (pictured), last month. Writing on the venue's official Facebook group, Sicolo's daughter Leanne Jones confirmed that the legendary South Wales club will close. “It breaks my heart, but after many, many meetings with my dad's solicitors, they have advised me to sell TJ's,” she wrote. She added: “I have done everything in my power to try and keep my dad's pride and joy open, but unfortunately TJ's was in more financial difficulty than we all thought.” TJ's had been suffering from cashflow problems, causing Sicolo to pour thousands of pounds from his pension fund into the venue in a bid to keep it from closure.
An open-air memorial concert for Sicolo scheduled for July 10 will continue as planned. The TJ's venue became a nightclub in 1973 when Sicolo bought it, with acts including Manic Street Preachers, Joe Strummer, Oasis, Green Day, Catatonia and Primal Scream going on to play gigs at the venue. It is claimed that Nirvana's Kurt Cobain proposed to Courtney Love on the night her band Hole played the venue in 1991.