The people at cross kings on york way are trying hard to change its reputation from the awful backpacker (hint get rid of the neon thumb sign) – they have a band on tonight and their publicity blurb is below.  I notice in the gazette that the landlady has been doing some welcome campaiging to improve safety on the canal – which is the sort of community invovlement everyone likes to see from a local business.

Reviews of the bar here and here their own website is here

blurb starts
>>>The Kings Cross Hot Club – a 7 piece jazz band in the tradition of Django Rheinhardt – is playing tonight, Friday 9th February 2007, at the ‘Cross Kings’ public house on York Way. The Cross Kings is the large pink pub formerly known as the Walkabout. It is on the right as you go north up York Way, some 600 metres from Kings Cross station.

As a friend of the area, you may recall the ‘Walkabout’ pub. It featured large bouncers outside wearing black t-shirts and large numbers of inebriated antipodeans inside, with a special feature of a dentist’s chair set on springs, an unusual device which tremendously shortened the elapsed time from drinking to chundering.

The Cross Kings is a welcome upgrade from the Walkabout, featuring plenty of space, wooden floors, large wooden tables, rapidly improving cooking – the features required for a rough-pub-making-good.

The Kings Cross Hot Club, playing tonight, should be heard by anyone interested in fine music: their playing is excellent and fun. I’d love to see them playing regularly in Kings Cross at a pub which sees the benefits of hosting them. Hence this message.