It’s a big day for O2 Academy Newcastle today as the popular city centre music venue marks its 10th birthday.

The Westgate Road gig hotspot will celebrate a decade of entertaining audiences with ‘10 Years 10 Bands 10 Quid’ featuring a stellar line-up of local acts including Little Comets, Hyde & Beast and Du Blonde.

But it’s not just North East music that the Academy has been championing since taking on the old bingo hall and transforming it into one of Newcastle’s premier music venues.

The Futureheads were the first act to grace the stage and many chart A-listers have followed over the years with its guestbook reading like a who’s who of British and world music.

We’ll start with artists born and bred on UK soil.

Who could forget when the announcement of Arctic Monkeys’ first headline tour prompted a queue round the block as people clamoured to get their hands on tickets to see the I Bet That You Look Good on the Dancefloor hitmakers.

And Geordie Adele fans counted themselves incredibly lucky in 2011 when they got to see the BRIT and Grammy award winner at the top of her game.

On the back of the phenomenal success of her 21 album, the Somebody Like You songstress planned to tour the country but illness forced her to cancel a string of dates, with Newcastle one of the few she ended up performing.

Sticking with BRIT and Grammy winners, the late Amy Winehouse was famously nearly an hour late to entertain a packed audience in November 2007 but there was no such delay when current darling of the UK music industry Sam Smith dazzled a capacity crowd last October.

Other British acts to delight include Paolo Nutini, Ellie Goulding, Paloma Faith and Mika, who filled the venue with giant balloons back in 2007.

And while it has welcomed countless indie acts with The Libertines, Manic Street Preachers and Blur just two of the many to hit the stage, the Academy has also hosted its fair share of boybands too with McFly, Blue and more recently 911 getting behind the mic.

Dance fans have been delighted by the likes of Basement Jaxx and Groove Armada while music favourites from decades gone by have also been a hot ticket with Erasure frequent visitors to Westgate Road.

Going global now and huge worldwide stars have taking up residence in the Academy’s dressing room including Jason Derulo, Blondie, Lenny Kravitz, One Republic and Katy Perry.

Happy 10th Birthday O2 Academy Newcastle – here’s to many more!