Author: jimmyc1968

Preston Venues 13 to 14

At the bottom end of Friargate lies the Lamb and Packet which has been in situ since the early 1800’s. I remember it having a main room and a very small vault before it morphed into a one room pub. It is a traditional Thwaites house and for 20 odd years I thought it was a fine boozer and I frequented regularly before it started to go downhill about 10 years ago.

It was not a pub that ever embraced any musical content apart from a jukebox in the corner. However, when a Half Man Half Biscuit gig was cancelled at 53 Degrees at short notice on 02/10/10 we wandered past the pub and there was a racket emanating from the establishment.

We wandered in and the place was packed and what I surmised to be a local band were on a makeshift stage on the small elevated area by the door. I think they were called Section 7 Spell 7 and they were highly energetic with a rather drunk crowd in attendance. I can only think the gig was a one-off event as I never heard of any other bands playing there. The last I heard was that the pub had now closed.

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Lamb and Packet. Image Credit Prestonblog.co.uk

Nearby on Marsh Lane was the Fighting Cock pub (previously the Boatman Arms). I never saw a band, but I witnessed a local landmark sporting event there. In 1991 for their first time in their history PNE were chosen for a live game on Sky away at Mansfield in the FA Cup, our first national live TV game since the 1964 Cup Final.

The slightly wide boy landlord in residence at that point set up the function room for about 30 of us upstairs for the Saturday evening kick off. An exciting start had the game locked at 1-1 after 22 minutes before unprecedented fog caused an early postponement. Sky, to their credit honoured their arrangement and we all gathered again to watch the replayed game 11 days later. It was a double celebration as we won 1-0 with a last-minute John Thomas goal and I also had him in the sweepstake!

The pub closed its doors for the last time in 2004 and turned into student accommodation and then into the International Hotel.

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The Fighting Cock Pub. Image Credit Whatpub.com

Located a couple of hundred yards away on Heatley Street is the New Britannia. Before my time, there used to be an Old Britannia on Friargate but that was demolished in the mid 60’s to build the Ring Road.

I used to love the New Brit and had many lively nights in there, they had a lounge on the right and a games room on the left with a fine noisy jukebox in the middle. They had an arcade driving machine we used to play regularly, and they had some of the best beer in town with Castle Eden and my favourite Hartley’s on tap, the latter brewed in Ulverston at that stage.

We used to catch the 6.50 No 180 bus from Woodplumpton and land at the pub door for 7pm opening on a Friday. One night when I was about 18 my brother and I wanted to achieve a jolly status prior to a meet up with another group at 8pm. A personal best of 6 pints in 57 minutes were supped and a jolly status was summarily achieved!

There were very rare gigs there and I only attended one catching local band Mog Stanley on 04/02/12.

Nottingham Venues 9 to 14

For my 50th Blog entry I return to Nottingham. While in attendance at my first Hockley Hustle on 17/06/07 I caught a couple of bands in Dogma. Hockley was a suburb in the centre of town with a swathe of venues within its boundaries. The venue was located on Byard Lane and had three floors with a main ground floor bar and a restaurant located upstairs. The music stage was in the nightclub setting downstairs.   

I have always found venues such as this metallic sparsely populated basement nightclub layout to be in stark contrast to a daytime gig, especially on a sunny June day.

I don’t recall the first band Arias Ashes, but the second band Dust Collectors were a peculiar seven piece infused with Victorian jazz influences.  

The venue closed in 2014 following a stabbing and reopened as a Tapas restaurant called Barasca.

Lee Rosy’s Tea Café was situated on Broad Street. As it was a little café its musical direction was strictly in the acoustic mode. I visited there twice, the first witnessing Ying and Herbidaceous in June 2007.

My other attendance was to see Alun Parry at the 2009 Hustle. He was a traditional folk singer with a social conscious streak in the mould of Woody Guthrie. He was also a community music festival organiser and resided in Liverpool.

The physical café closed in 2018 but the business is still alive and kicking as an online entity.

Nottingham Lee Rosy’s Tea Cafe. Image Credit Yell.

On my second Hustle in 2009, we visited Browns on the corner of Park Row and East Street Circus. It was a rather pretentious brasserie and a bar where the bands were playing. First up were Tasty Morsels with their melancholic keyboard tinged vibe.

We also witnessed Free Control and The Amber Herd. We only caught the final two tracks of the latter, but they had a promising presence about them complimented by lead singer Neil Beard’s soothing vocals. They were at that stage obtaining some decent support slots with The Delays and That Petrol Emotion and appear to be still active.

Escucha on Fletcher Gate was another plush late-night bar and we saw the five-piece Matt Chandler Band who sat strictly in the jazz mode and was a bit too sleepy loungecore for me. Matt Chandler was originally from Derby and appears to be quite renowned in his genre playing regular London gigs and working with luminaries such as Youth from Killing Joke and Polystyrene from X Ray Spex.  The venue now appears to be closed.

Situated right next to Broadway cinema on Broad Street is Shaw’s, a small tapas restaurant and bar. We saw a Nottingham soul singer called Natalie Duncan. A couple of years later she appeared on Jools Holland alongside Muse who she must have impressed to the extent that they asked her to appear in the support slot on their upcoming tour.

At the tail end of the 2009 Hustle we were heading back up Pelham Street towards the tram stop when we heard a cacophonous racket emanating from an upcoming shop doorway. We soon discovered it was the delightfully named local band Ocean Bottom Nightmare who were kicking up the racket in one of the oddest venues I have ever encountered. They were ensconced in a retail unit called 28 Barbers with props such as clippers and trimmers in view behind the drum kit. It was a bracing unusual end to the festival!

Nottingham 28 Barbers. Image Credit Local Data Company.