Author: jimmyc1968

Lancaster Venues 4 to 7

If you take a left turn outside the main entrance of Lancaster train station, there is a path that takes you over the hill by Lancaster Castle. The Castle itself has a long history including its role as a bastion against the Picts and Scots tribes and was the location of the trials of the Lancashire Witches and has rather grimly witnessed over 200 executions. As recently as 2011 it was a fully functioning HM prison and in recent years has also become a music venue alongside 50 others within the October Lancaster Music Festival, an event I have yet to visit.

The path then drops back down to the River Lune where I used to visit the Wagon and Horses and then onto the George and Dragon pub. If you then walk along the riverfront towards the centre this brings you to Lancaster Three Mariners on Bridge Lane.

Lancaster Three Mariners. Image Credit whatpub.com

The pub is the oldest in the city and the Grade II listed building dates to the 15th century and has an olde world feel with wood beams and low doorframes and is reputedly haunted. It is a CAMRA award winning pub and as a result you can purchase some tasty ales. One night in 2017 I saw an act called Acoustic Blues play there.

As you continue to walk past the bus station and up Bridge Lane you reach the highly recommended Bombay Balti House where I have been visiting on and off for around twenty years and attended as part of my 40th birthday celebrations.  

If you then turn into Church Street and past my favourite Lancaster pub, the Sun you arrive at Lancaster Study Room. This is a very chilled establishment which also contains a restaurant. Whilst visiting here on a night out in September 2016 there was a young local acoustic artist called Oliver strumming away in the corner.  

On the other side of St Nicholas Arcade shopping centre from there lies Lancaster Tap House which can be found down a quiet side road called Gage Street. As the pub name implies, they have a plethora of fine ales and over fifty bottled beers to peruse and choose from and is a terrific little bar. They have regular musical content and on one visit in August 2013 we enjoyed a set by a decent young local singer called Sarah Comer.

Further across town on Parliament Street, you would find the Lancaster Yorkshire House. It has more recently changed its name to Yorkshire Taps and is run by the local Mitchells Brewery. On a Christmas lads’ night out in 2013, we could hear music emanating from the function room upstairs so obviously had to investigate further.

Lancaster Yorkshire House. Image Credit tripadvisor.co.uk

In the small music room, a band called Two For Joy were on stage. They are led by prolific local musician and artist Ben Hall who is joined by other band members. They have supported local legends Lovely Eggs who have also played at this venue. Ben has also exhibited his art works in the city been involved in a musical side project called Mr Ben and the Bens. My records display to me that from a statistical viewpoint this became my 200th different venue visited.

Preston Venue 42 – The Venue

Situated near to the Bus Station on Lords Walk there is a Preston pub with a long history and many owners. In the 1960’s and 1970’s it was named Moonraker’s and was a firmly established music venue, details on the musical content in this era are a tad sketchy but local legends Dennis Delight and various punk bands are referenced as having played there.

For the 1980’s kids out there you may recognise it when its moniker was the Amsterdam Bar before then changing its name to the Blue Moon. As you entered the pub from the entrance there was a reasonable size tap room and a door to the right transported you into the large main room. It was the first pub Gill and I ever had a drink in on our first date back in January 1988.  

The pub in its current Blitz phase. Image Credit Ents24.

I was a decent pool player in my youth briefly playing for the Joplins pub team, and for many years in the Blue Moon tap room there were a couple of pool tables and I recall one Friday night in there going a personal best ‘winner stay on’ ten games undefeated.  

The name changed again to the Town End bar creating an affinity and linkage to the local Preston North End football team. It then became Pachas which was designed as a ‘fun pub’ under the tutelage of Colin Durnan, who previously ran the infamous Hollywood Bar on Deepdale Road.

In 2004, John Bates, the owner of 12 Bar on Church St took over and reinstated it as a live music hub  again and it then passed over by the owner of the Mill who renamed it the Venue. It then morphed into a club called Beats of Rage. At that current point in time there was a huge game changing Tithebarn development planned across that area of Preston, threatening impending closure so it was cleverly renamed Coda, representing the final bars of a song and they became a successful dance club with a renowned club title Mixmag. Somewhat unsurprisingly the Tithebarn scheme never reached fruition.

A complete change in direction ensued in 2010 when the renowned Frog and Bucket comedy club became ensconced there and the likes of John Bishop and Terry Christian graced the stage. Sarah Millican used to utilise the club to test run her brand-new material.

It then finally became its latest incarnation by reverting back its musical roots under the name of Blitz. Now, somewhat confusingly I did cover in an earlier blog my attendance at the other venue in Preston which for a short period was also called Blitz which in 2013 was in the old Gatsby nightclub building on Great Shaw Street.  

This particular blog though is concerned with the Lords Walk Blitz site where they have been closely linked to Action Records and have had pre tour or promo performances from the likes of Fontaines DC and Snow Patrol.

My one attendance there was on 14/07/06 when it was called Preston The Venue. It was a Battle of the Bands event and the first act we witnessed was Jelly’s Last Jam, who formed in 2005 from the ashes of a previous band called Frencheryk. The bassist Martin Clarke was co-managing the Mitre Tavern pub down on North Road, and two of the band members were also residing there so many of their early rehearsals took place in that boozer. The pub itself has long since closed and is now a business called Vets and Pets.  

The Mitre Tavern. Image Credit Lancashire Evening Post.

The other band we saw were called Green Room who are a three-piece from Preston who also formed in 2005. Their first ever gig was held at the Adelphi venue in Preston, and they were a female fronted act who sat in the trip-hop genre, not dissimilar to Portishead and Massive Attack.