There were a plethora of nightclubs in Preston back in the day. There was No No’s on Heatley Street with the mini dance floor and tasty pizzas (now a Chinese restaurant), the Piper opposite the bus station, Gatsby near the Playhouse, the Manxman down on the Docks and the Bull in Royal in town where it used to cost a paltry £2 to stay till 1am, to name but five.
The one I frequented most that I must pay homage to was Raiders (latterly known as the Warehouse) off Church Street in the centre of town. It was primarily the only indie club in town, so suited me down to the ground and I was a regular attendee from college days in 1985 through to the end of the millennium. It was just one floor initially and was gradually renovated up to a three floor capacity. Big Bill was on the door and a regular tipple was Murphy’s and occasionally somewhat foolishly 20/20 Mad Dog! It was a somewhat dingy venue and the music was fabulous, and I recall Euro 96 and PNE promotions were celebrated in the establishment.
Remarkably and I am not altogether sure why I never saw a gig there, however there are three tales that spring to mind about the venue. Joy Division played one of the last gigs there where a live recording was captured for posterity and rather quaintly within the recording there is an announcement that the midnight bus to Burnley will be departing shortly. Black Flag also famously played a gig there (sadly never managed to catch them) and Henry Rollins still tells the tale of being beaten up at the gig. He once recapped that story to Terry Christian on an edition of The Word. The third story being when Discharge cancelled a gig there at short notice and it all kicked off and became known as the ‘Warehouse Riot’ portrayed in colourful detail in a song of that name by my good mate Jez Catlow’s band Deadwood Dog.
https://dumbdownrecords.wixsite.com/deadwooddog
Continuing the nightclub theme there was a joint nightclub off Orchard Street. One side being the Soul/Dance side named Squires, which I have visited only once as a group on Gill’s 21st. The other venue via an interlocking door was the marginally more indie Snootys club. It had seen better days with ripped seats, but it had a ragged charm about it. I saw my mate’s band Purple Turtles there in 1986 in a stage in a corner of the venue. From memory I guess you could quantify them in the psychedelic pop genre. Snootys/Squires went through various derivations afterwards and closed permanently in 2016. Useless trivia again- Snooty’s entrance is near the Black Horse pub which apparently holds the distinction of one if not the only pub in Britain that has entrances onto three separate streets.
Around that time, I also saw the Turtles at the Bodega Bar which I think was at the bottom of Cannon Street. It was a home crowd with lots of school and college colleagues in attendance and I recall enjoying that gig.
There was for a short-lived period a decent venue located down Avenham St called the Paradise Club linked to the Maguires pub next door. I saw one gig there in 1985 which was a John Peel fave the Three Johns who to be honest were pretty dull and disappointing. The venue captured some good bands for a spell, the Rain Parade played there but one of my regrets was missing the Pogues there in front of a very sparse attendance. I was in town that night but foolishly declined to attend. One other memory was one night me and my brother being in there on our own and having a free reign on record requests and the dancefloor to ourselves!