Author: jimmyc1968

Preston Venue 33 – Sam’s Bar

Eleven miles south of Preston on the Manchester rail line lies the town of Chorley. The train passes through Leyland and the new station of Buckshaw Parkway prior to its arrival. I have always had a soft spot for Chorley and had numerous forays out there in my youth.

Prior to the extension of the licencing laws, we would arrive there at 7pm on a Friday evening, a sally round the town would follow before a 10pm train back into Preston, flier in the Olde Black Bull before jumping on the last bus at 11pm, sometimes via Zagros for a cheeky pizza!

When I was 18 in 1986, PNE seem to regularly play on Friday nights necessitating the requirement of a transistor radio whilst walking back to the station to check the result on Radio 2’s 9.55pm sports bulletin.

Remarkably, the following year, non-league Chorley beat the once mighty Wolves in a FA Cup 1st Round second replay before drawing PNE at home in the 2nd Round. It was a huge game locally and they decided to play at Blackburn’s Ewood Park ground, which much to our amusement produced the biggest crowd in years at the stadium and the home team weren’t even playing! Also, it was memorably where Uncle George got stuck in a yellow box at a junction and was summarily rollicked by the local polis when driving back from the match in his yellow Vauxhall Cavalier, with us buffoons chortling unhelpfully on the back seat of the motor! The match was drawn, and we won the replay.  

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The Chorley heroes of 1987. Image Credit Daily Mail – PA Reporter

34 years on, in 2021, Chorley surpassed that achievement by reaching the 4th round and bizarrely ran into Wolves again, now a Premier league side and lost narrowly. The crying shame was that due to the pandemic there were no crowds, denying them the opportunity of a rocking Victory Park that evening!

So, on arrival at Chorley train station back in the 80’s you could initially backpedal to the real ale house Malt and Hops (wrong side of the tracks?!) before heading back and taking a circular route around the town centre. This would take you past the Queens down to the main drag where Yates Wine Lodge resided.

Yates was a strange establishment in those days with a pool table located in virtually the centre of the pub. I was a decent player then so used to put my 10p down and take my chances, but it felt a little like a Wild West viewing audience around you when you were participating!

A right turn then took you to the Swan with Two Necks which was down in a dip next to the main road. I recall staying at a mate’s house on a balmy summer’s night and the last port of call was the pub’s large beer garden. Before we departed, I nipped to the loo, and much to my horror while I was in lavatory somebody had locked the door. Door banging and hollering ensued with visions forming of me camping down there for the night before thankfully after a tortuous five minutes the door was unlocked. I informed them politely (not!) that it might be beneficial in future to check the area before turning the key.

A return route past a Walkers brewery pub near the market, I cannot recall the name, took you to the hostelry which was opposite the station. This was known at one point as the Weird Arms and used to be a Burtonwood brewery establishment, so a pint of Top Hat was always the beer of choice before the train journey home.  

I had not been out in Chorley for nigh on 20 years before we convened a lads Christmas gathering on 20/12/19. Understandably the place looked different with a suite of new ale bars near the station, one we visited was called the Gallery. As we were being served, there was a creak preceding the total collapse of the shelf behind the bar containing all the spirit bottles which landed in an almighty thud with splintered glass everywhere. We returned there again in Christmas 2021 where an errant child came perilously close to toppling a huge Christmas Tree, an accident book might be a worthy present next year!

Another venue near the station was Sam’s Bar where on the 2019 outing we encountered a terrific noisy energetic punk/new wave/ska covers band called The Stories. The band are Chorley residents so unsurprisingly they played in front of a large boisterous crowd.

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Sam’s Bar. Image Credit fleurets.com

You may justifiably ask why Chorley is classed under the banner of Preston venues, the answer would be that the town has a Preston postcode, so I am applying the same principle of Salford venues with Manchester postcodes.

Wickerman Festivals 12 and 13

My penultimate Wickerman article commences with the 12th festival which took place in 2013. Dreadzone were back for their third appearance and Dundee rock band Fat Goth were on their second showing. There was as ever the contingent Scottish representation with Primal Scream and singer songwriters KT Tunstall and Amy MacDonald.

On the roster were Welsh folk band Glendale Family, ska bands Random Hand and the 9-piece Amphetameanies from Keighley and Glasgow respectively and some rambunctious ska punk from London’s Buster Shuffle. Casual Sex from Glasgow were very much in the Orange Juice/Fire Engines mould and there was a decent set from the Edinburgh rock and roll band William Douglas and the Wheel.

Also on the bill were Mark Wilson, Maask, Machines in Heaven, Bellowhead, Friends in America, The Hang Project, Galapagos, Mark Thomson & Neil Patterson, The Yawns and Gardens of Elk. Dexys produced a rather limp set, and The Enemy from Coventry were also in town.

Wicker had over the years had many punk bands on the bill, many of whom were ageing and who should maybe give up the ghost! One sparkling exception to this viewpoint was the Rezillos from Edinburgh who were superb and their stellar single 1978 single ‘Top of the Pops’ went down a storm! My fave punk band Stiff Little Fingers also produced a fine greatest hits set.

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The Rezillos. Image Credit Blurt.

The post-burning act was my first opportunity to witness Public Service Broadcasting who were at the stage in full computer voice mode even when acknowledging the audience, they were thoroughly enjoyable, and I have seen them a couple of times since.

The best band of the weekend and arguably the finest ever Wicker performance was from the legendary Nile Rodgers and Chic. They were so accomplished and a visual spectacle and played hit after hit reminding you how many fine tunes he has written/produced. Normally one of our crew would wander off but everyone remained in place for their terrific set complete with dubious dad dancing and I have never seen the festival crowd so engaged!

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The incomparable Nile Rodgers and Chic. Image Credit godisinthetvzine.co.uk

Our accommodation at Dewhurst Towers in Kirkcudbright is literally next door to the Selkirk Arms which has an old-fashioned front room with the portable TV in the corner and fine Guinness on tap. The back room is the food lounge area with a large sunny beer garden, and remarkably it can get proper warm in Scotland in July! They also have lodging rooms and the Proclaimers resided there when they played the festival.

Other pubs in the town were at different times the Gordon House Hotel (AC/DC regularly on the jukebox), Masonic Arms (best pub in town), Commercial (apparently the racing driver David Coulthard has been spotted in there over the years as he was born in neighbouring Twynholm), the Steam Packet (by the harbour), the Royal (used to watch Open Golf) and the Tides (battered establishment where we watched the racing and contained a commendable jukebox).

Wickerman 13 in 2014 had Dizzee Rascal, Shed Seven, Jason Dupuy and the Mac Trio on the bill. The old troubadours Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Idlewild’s Roddy Woomble plus band and the always top value the Beat played. I created a first by catching two individual sets on the Main and Acoustic stage by Colonel Mustard and The Dijon 5.

Also on the roster were Explosion Soundsystem, The New Piccadillys, Neon Waltz, Vladmir, United Fruit, Broken Records, The Zombies, The Feeling, Skerryvore, The Chair, Cockney Rejects, Pale Honey and Schnarff Schnarff.

Another punk band who could still most definitely cut the mustard were The Members. They were a very tight unit and thunderously loud and their extended closing track of Sound of the Suburbs was sublime. British Sea Power were as excellent as ever.

We saw a highly touted Glaswegian three-piece rock band called The Amazing Snakeheads who produced a rip snorting live set to a frenetic packed tent. They had just released their sole album Amphetamine Ballads but disbanded the following year. I have just discovered that tragically their lead singer Dale Barclay died of brain cancer in 2018 at the brutally tender age of 32. I now feel even more privileged to see them in their heyday!

The final band to reference was a terrific vibrant set from a Scottish female 4-piece called Teen Canteen who produced slabs of sugary indie-pop and they since received acclaim and sessions and airplay on Marc Reilly’s 6 music show.