Author: jimmyc1968

Preston Venue 60 The Ferret – Part 1

The Preston Ferret has been a jewel in the crown for catching live music in the city for many years. It is situated on Fylde Road opposite the University of Central Lancashire Student Union building and for around a decade was a sister act to 53 Degrees when that venue was located across the road.

It opened originally as the Mad Ferret in 2006 by taking over the site of Preston’s first steam powered cotton mill, owned by local businessman John Horrocks way back in 1794. The first owner Frazer Boon introduced live music to take place on most nights including a Tuesday open mic session and the busy schedule of over 200 gigs a year, many of them free of charge, remains to this day. In 2013, a new landlord took over and removed the ‘Mad’ from the name and it simply became the Ferret.

The old Horrocks Mills Centenary building located on New Hall Lane. Image Credit flickr.

It survived the troubling Covid years by staging sit down safe distance gigs. Despite that its very existence was thrown in considerable doubt when it was unexpectedly put up for sale in 2022, however a crowd funding initiative was launched and the sale price of £795k was raised to save the pub. I for one was ecstatic at that news as these small venues remain essential to the lifeblood of the music industry, especially in regularly bypassed backwaters like Preston.  

It is an archetypal grungy and extremely noisy venue and that just makes me revel in it even more, and it was a handy 15-minute walk from where I lived at that stage. For many years, it was my most attended venue as I have visited there 42 times for live music, many other times just for a beer with no music witnessed. That total has just recently been matched by Academy 2 in Manchester, so therefore as of today (01/03/2024) it remains my joint most attended ever venue. Many times, when visiting there I have run into other Preston musos, Rachael Beattie and Nick Godkin spring to mind here.

The Mad Ferret days. Image Credit Ents 24.

Idles and the Orielles have graced the stage there, but I will relay two other tales in relation to the venue. In 2011, the promoter booked in a young Ed Sheeran who in between the announcement and the actual gig released his debut single ‘A Team’ which flew up to No 5 in the charts. Now, I do not personally understand the appeal of Mr Sheeran, but fair play to the lad he honoured the date and crashed at the one of the audience’s house and played them a personal set there.

My biggest missed opportunity was Jason Lytle who played shortly after the breakup of his band Grandaddy, of whom who I am a huge fan. For some inexplicable reason I did not attend and sincerely hope I was doing something very worthwhile instead!  

Jason Lytle cogitating on a new tune. Image Credit YouTube.

My first attendance at the venue was in August 2007, a week before I travelled northwards for my one visit to the excellent Connect Festival at Inverary Castle. Uncle George and I met Gill after a PNE match and visited the noodle bar that was located at the Ringway end of Ormskirk Road where I mentioned a gig at the Ferret I had read about the day before in the Lancashire Evening Post.

Thus, we wandered down to investigate and the band in question was Slippage from Seattle from whom the driving force was Alison Maryatt who has also been in Rocket Surgery and recorded as Allison in Wonderland. They were in the grunge vein and were excellent though I have found that sourcing any of the material today from any of those acts is rather challenging as there are only very sparse outputs available. 

Around a year later I saw a band called Pencil In who supported the headliners Ivan Campo. The main act are a folk trio who formed in 2006 when they met at the University of Central Lancashire. They have had several 6 music sessions and their single ‘The Great Procrastinator’ was featured in the soundtrack of the TV series Skins. 

In 2010, I witnessed Victorian Dad, an upbeat folky band from Wigan whose driving force is David Rybka. They supported singer songwriter Daisy Chapman who reminded me of Jonie Mitchell. She has been an on/off member of prog band Crippled Black Phoenix and has toured with Howie Gelb of Giant Sand, who interestingly have just announced their first British tour for 9 years.

Heptonstall Festival

The town of Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire dates back to the Saxon (not the band!) era and sheep rearing was the main occupation at that stage. When the industrial revolution commenced, there was an increasing need for water-powered weaving mills and the villages proximity to the river presented a considerable advantage. The transportation element was further enhanced with the opening of the Rochdale Canal in 1798 and the Calder Valley rail line in 1841.

In the 1970’s and 1980’s many artists, musicians and bohemians gravitated towards the town thereby increasing the tourism and reliable train links were created into the big cities of Manchester and Leeds. The town obtained fairtrade status in 2003 and was also chosen to be part of the Stage 2 route in the 2014 Tour de France.

On the cultural front the original video of Dream Academy’s 1984 single ‘Life in a Northern Town’ was filmed in the town as was the hugely successful TV series Happy Valley.  A renowned Blues Festival was held there in the early 2010’s and there is also the nationally renowned Trades Club where regular gigs are held, though I have never yet visited as tickets are regularly at a premium.

Dream Academy promo. Image Credit iheart.com

Luminaries such as Patti Smith, Teenage Fanclub, Public Service Broadcasting, Loop and Mark Lanegan have graced the stage there. Peel faves Bogshed were from the town, and I still recall their very lo-fi out there ‘hit’ single ‘Fat Boy Exam Failure’, and I also saw them at Preston Caribbean Club back in 1985.

Above the town lies the hilltop village of Heptonstall where the poet Sylivia Plath is buried. It is a throwback to an archetypal Yorkshire village further embellished by the fact that in the 1980’s the roads were returned to their original stone setts and late 19th century cast-iron gas lamps were installed.

Bogshed. Image Credit pinterest.com

The original church was damaged by a gale in 1847 and now just a shell remains. However, one of the lads in 2015 picked up on a more contemporary usage of the church with the identification of the annual Heptonstall festival where John Bramwell and Lottery Winners have graced the stage there.  

Thus, on the 04/07/15 we sallied over on the train alighting at Hebden Bridge station and after a couple of beers in town we headed up on the bus to the village. When I say up, that is a significant understatement as it is a very steep climb, one I have only yet walked downwards, but hope to rectify that upward trajectory at some stage.

The two pubs in the village and accompanying food stalls were doing a roaring trade and it was a very well organised and q friendly set-up. On the Heptonstall Festival Acoustic Stage we saw a band called Revisit and the Three Valleys Gospel Choir, who perform locally on a regular basis, mainly in the Todmorden area.

Top of the Heptonstall hill. Image Credit screenyorkshire.co.uk

On the Heptonstall Festival Weavers Square I encountered some electro-pop from the Manchester musician Zoe Stirling who is also known under the alias KOHL. The Hebden based eight-piece Owter Zeds who have been on the scene for 30 years followed with their ska covers. Next up was Catfish Skillet who are classed in the hugely niche genre of Pennine Appalachian and incorporate some quick picking bluegrass banjo playing. The final band were a decent post-punk band from Liverpool called Takotsubo Men.

I returned a couple of years later to attend the 2017 edition and on the main stage witnessed local folk band Johnny Powell & The Seasonal Beasts and a jaunty acoustic set from MK and the Escalators. They had set up a further stage in the evocative setting of the remnants of Heptonstall Festival Church where a Scottish influenced folk combo called Outside the Box played some foot tapping tunes.