'Cherry Bar will never die': Beloved Melbourne bar has to find a new home - The Age

So Cherry Bar is moving with negotiations already under way with 10 potential locations.

"While there was no urgent need to move tomorrow, knowing what we do know now, the smart, right and savvy business thing to do was to announce it now so we can find the perfect new home," Mr Young says.

"Nobody is more upset than I am.

"It really is the end of an era. I was hoping I'd be standing at that bar every night for the rest of my life."

When Mr Young took on Cherry Bar more than a decade ago it was on the cusp of financial ruin.

But now it has live music seven days a week.

"When it comes down to it, it's just a basement with bars on the window, but somehow, it became home to so many Australian and international musicians and music lovers," he says.

"We've operated in the shadow of Collins Street ... which is filled with bankers and stockbrokers. I like to think of us as the pimple on the corporate cheek of Melbourne. We've always punched above our weight."

Over the years world famous musicians have poured into Cherry Bar, which has long been regarded as the pounding heart of Melbourne's live music scene.

Noel Gallagher, who used to front British band Oasis, once offered to buy the bar, while rock legend Bruce Springsteen has played at venue numerous times when touring in Australia.

"Axl Rose once spent five hours here," Mr Young says his voice filling with nostalgia.

"His bodyguard told me later he hadn't spent that long in a bar in years. But more than the glamorous stories, the thing I have always loved most about Cherry Bar is the live local music."

Such was the bar's devotion to local talent, that Mr Young once famously turned away Lady Gaga and her entourage's tour after-party in favour of Mildura blues-rock two-piece Jackson Firebird.

"We always honour our local acts," Mr Young says.

News of the relocation follows the demise of Swanston Street club, The Lounge, which closed in April after almost 30 years.

While the move is bittersweet, Mr Young says the future is bright for the fabled rock 'n' bar, which is also home to one of longest running soul nights in the world.

"Cherry Bar will never die," he says. "Over my dead body. It's the best rock 'n' roll bar in the world and we're moving so we continue to live on for years to come."

But there is one thing Mr Young won't miss about the beloved old Cherry Bar.

"The smell in the bathroom was more a difficult problem to solve than the Da Vinci Code," Mr Youngs says. "But, people have just come to accept that was part of the charm."

Music Victoria chief executive Patrick Donovan said while it was sad to see Cherry Bar leave the hallowed AC/DC lane, there was still strong demand for live music across the city.

"Rock 'n' roll has made the street very cool and lifted rents," he says. "But we're heartened that Cherry will continue to support live bands at a new location."

He listed off King Street's Geddes Lane Ballroom, which was recently restored, the reopened Esplanade Hotel in St Kilda and Stay Gold in Brunswick as being part of a new wave of live music venues.

Melissa Cunningham reports breaking news for The Age.