"Everyone treats it like a nostalgic thing, but it was s---. You had to build your own stage. Now it's all haloumi and chips in candelabras," Frenzal Rhomb frontman Jay Whalley said when the band returned to perform at the Newtown Social Club in 2015.

His band mate, Lindsay McDougall, was a little more reflective of the live music institution, formerly known as the Sandringham Hotel or "The Sando", where they rocked out during the early 1990s.

The old Sandringham Hotel and Newtown Social Club has been converted into Holey Moley golf course where you can eat, drink and play mini-golf. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

"The toilets at The Sando always smelled terrible," McDougall said.

"When they did it up the final time and turned it into Newtown Social Club I remember getting upset. Because I used to think that I could close my eyes when I got just below Newtown Station and find my way to my house just by the smell of The Sando toilets."