Author: jimmyc1968

Preston Venue 52 Moor Park – Part 1

Somewhat remarkably I have arrived at the door of my 200th (and 201st) blog so I cogitated long and hard about to what to cover in this particular piece and eventually decided to write about what was arguably Preston’s biggest ever music event in terms of national exposure in my lifetime.    

On returning from a holiday in early 2007 we were informed that astonishingly the Radio 1 Big Weekend was to be held in the sleepy backwater of Preston in May 2007, and not only that but the venue chosen was Preston Moor Park, a ten-minute bumble from where I lived at that time. This event was Europe’s biggest free ticketed event, with 35k punters in attendance over the two days.

   Moor Park with an outdoor stage in approximately 1955. Image Credit flickr.com

Moor Park is Preston’s largest and oldest park. It was the site of the Battle of Preston in 1648 where there was a four-hour scrap between the New Model Army, commanded by Oliver Cromwell (commemorated in song by Elvis Costello) and the Royalist and the Scots. Horse racing was held there annually between 1736 and 1833, and there is still in place the stone that was the starting point for the races.

Also, in 1833 it was rebadged as Moor Park and the original Serpentine Lake and ‘Ladies Walk’ (Moor Park Avenue) remain to this day. Preston North End began their existence initially as a cricket club on the park before changing over to football and moving location onto the other side of Deepdale Road.

During the Great War, it was utilised as a hospital and in the Second World War as a prisoner of war camp. The observatory was installed in 1927 just before a rare occurrence of a total eclipse in that year.

Moor Park with Deepdale in the background. Image Credit blogpreston.co.uk

There was an open-air baths in existence there until the early 1970’s, just before my time though I do recall visiting the other open-air baths in Haslam Park across town before that closed, though from memory the water was brutally cold! I do also remember they had a decent pitch and putt golf course in the middle part of Moor Park in the 1980’s.  

The first challenge was to purloin a ticket for the Radio 1 shindig, and they did thankfully allocate a vast proportion to local postcodes. After submitting applications from several addresses (with prior agreement!) I was notified we had been allocated two tickets for the Sunday bill, though confirmation was only received ten days before the event. The tickets were free though that did not stop many greedy charlatans trying to sell them at hugely inflated prices, before thankfully the sites were shut down!

It was obviously broadcast live on Radio 1, and coverage was also available on BBC Three, with Edith Bowman, Jo Whiley and Chris Moyles amongst others in attendance. There was a huge encouragement for attendees to use public transport as there is very limited parking facilities in that area, two separate park and rides schemes were set up to assist in this venture.   

There were many Fringe events with local bands playing at the Mad Ferret, 53 Degrees, Bitter Suite, Kolor Bar and the Venue. They featured acts such as Jelly’s Last Jam, King Casanova, How’s My Pop and Redwings who had recently had a support slot with the Subways.

King Casanova playing Oxjam in Preston in 2007. Image Credit flickr.com

On the Saturday there was an exciting vibe as festival goers walked past the end of my road and I could hear the music from the bands in the distance. My pal Rick Clegg was in attendance and acts playing that day included Razorlight, Kasabian, The Gossip, Biffy Clyro, CSS, Scissor Sisters and LCD Soundsystem.

Manchester Venue 95 to 97 Chorlton – Part 2

In May 2009, we watched PNE lose again in the play offs, this particular time to Sheffield United and post-match the discussion turned to attending another event on the weekend of the play-off final. Thus, a couple of weeks later Uncle George, John Dewhurst and I took a car down the old M63 to South Manchester and found some cheap digs near Old Trafford football ground.

We then purloined a cab over to Chorlton and I recall visiting the Sedge Lynn Wetherspoons pub which used to be an old billiards hall. The venue we were gravitating towards was the Irish Club on High Lane, which was originally founded in 1956 to serve the local Irish community. In more recent times, it has had numerous financial difficulties and was put up for sale in 2020, and its future remains very uncertain.

It held numerous community activities and also hosted comedy nights with Peter Kay and John Bishop performing in the building. It also periodically had gigs on and the week before our attendance Sad Day for Puppets played there, whose debut album I thought was a decent output. I do recall however the NME reviewing the gig and inexplicably scoring it 0 out of 10, which withstanding the fact of personal preferences aside as there are bands I really do not like, I would never provide a score of zero for a live performance!  

The venue reminded me of a large doctor’s surgery house, in a good way. Firstly, there was Chorlton Irish Club Acoustic room where I saw a set by Manchester band Bugs in Ember who were at that point crafting their debut album ‘Take These Bones’.

Chorlton Irish Club. Image Credit the businessdesk.com

Next to there was the Chorlton Irish Club Downstairs stage and first up was a five-piece from Matlock called Bicycle Thieves. They were followed by Marple boys the Dutch Uncles who had only formed the year before and were just releasing their self-titled debut album. They have links to the afore-mentioned local football club of West Didsbury and Chorlton and have in fact performed a promo on the pitch and their post-punk sound is still going strong as they are now six albums in. 

The Dutch Uncles on the pitch. Image Credit The Quietus

On the Chorlton Irish Club Upstairs stage we initially saw LoveLikeFire who were an enjoyable San Francisco dream pop band.  The main act was Pains of Being Pure at Heart, a shoegaze band from New York. I was always a huge fan of this band and treasure their self-titled debut album and this performance was very early in their career and about their sixth date in England and first in Manchester.

Refreshingly and in the spirit of old Manchester International days, they only took the stage at 11.45pm and were leaning on the wall next to me just prior to their performance. They were always best where they had oodles of volume and they were thankfully pretty thunderous in that regard that night.

They opened with my fave track ‘Contender’ and were spellbindingly good and were clearly taken aback by the hugely favourable and noisy audience reaction, at subsequent performances they always referenced this special night. They understandably only played about a 35 minute set as that encompassed all the tunes they had at that stage. After the show I managed to sweet talk a bouncer into letting us into a local late bar for a last drink before our 1am taxi pick up.   

  

Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Image Credit beardedgentlemenmusic.com

I have thought about this event after the fact and it ticked so many boxes for me with the multiple self-contained venues, a discerning likeminded crowd, great music, and late performances which  places it firmly as a Top 20 gig in my all-time list!