The Newcastle Crew is the name given to the loose band of occult experts who battled Norfulthing and Nergal at The Casanova Club in 1979. They were not a formal group prior to the event and did not gather together in their entirety ever again.
Members[]
- John Constantine, magician and musician.
- Gary Lester, summoner and musician.
- Frank North, biker.
- Ritchie Simpson, computer expert and quantum magician.
- Judith, tantric magician.
- Anne-Marie, psychic.
- Benjamin Cox, teenage occult expert.
History[]
What we know of The Newcastle Crew comes from Hellblazer issue 11. In 1979 punk band Mucous Membrane performed at Newcastle's The Casanova Club, the same place they had debuted two years earlier. Owner Alex Logue failed to pay the band so the next day members John Constantine and Gary Lester went around to collect the money. They were joined by Frank North, a Californian biker who lent them his muscle, and a team of occultists who were intrigued by Logue's dabblings in the dark arts.
Upon breaking into the club the group found the bodies of Logue and his followers, all of whom had been butchered by an unseen force. After hypnotising the only survivor, Logue's daughter Astra, they discovered that the girl had been forced to take part in orgies and has unconsciously summoned a demon, Norfulthing, to protect her. The demon raped Ben but fled after Frank unloaded a barrel of buckshot into its face. Realising that they were in trouble, John and Judith summoned a demon to destroy the creature. However they failed to name and bind it properly, letting it run loose.
The new demon, Nergal took on the form of Constantine and seduced Anne-Marie before scarring her with acid. It then took on Astra's form and beheaded Norfulthing. Constantine tried to banish it, but instead it dragged the real Astra down to Hell, leaving behind only her severed arm. The crew escaped the building shortly before Frank North torched it.
Aftermath of The Newcastle Incident[]
John Constantine was driven mad by the events of that day and committed to Ravenscar Secure Facility, which he would flit in and out of over the next two years. He would eventually encounter Nergal a number of other times in the coming decades.
Ben Cox never really recovered from being raped and spent the rest of his life with a pronounced stutter. He moved back in with his mother in Wisconsin. (Swamp Thing issue 37)
Anne-Marie became a nun and would not speak to Constantine again for several years. (Swamp Thing issue 37)
Judith went away and joined a cult, The Brujeria, that would eventually consume her. (Swamp Thing issue 49)
Gary Lester became a hopeless heroin addict. He eventually released a hunger demon on New York by accident and was ultimately consumed by it. (Hellblazer issue one-two)
Only Richie Simpson and Frank North escaped relatively unharmed. Frank went back to biking while Richie developed his hacking skills and became employed by a major corporation. (Hellblazer issue six)
In 1983 Frank, Judith, Anne-Marie and Ben all joined forces again to fight an oncoming apocalypse at the behest of Constantine. None of them survived. (Swamp Thing issue 49)