Category: Lancaster

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.

Lancaster Venue 3 – Lancaster Library

One fantastic initiative that has appeared in the last 17 years (since 2005) is the award winning Get it Loud in Libraries and Lancaster Library was at the forefront, if not the first to undertake this commendable pursuit. The concept being rather simple to see high quality artists in the unusual intimate surroundings of the local library.

Many heavyweight performers have embraced this ethos as an antidote to playing soulless stadium venues. Many libraries have joined the roster including Coventry, Birkenhead, Barrow and Blackpool. Some of the names who have appeared are Florence and the Machine, Idles and Ellie Goulding. I also recall at Lancaster specifically that Frank Turner and Adele have graced the venue. I had attended one library gig before at Finsbury in February 89 to see Peggy Seeger and Ewan McColl and one after in 2017 to see Honeyblood at Wigan Museum of Life (which was actually a library). 

Lancaster Library resides in the northwest corner of Market Square, where in 1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie was proclaimed regent by the Jacobite Army. This library enterprise first caught my attention 263 years later in 2008 when Robert Forster was booked for a Lancaster slot.

Lancaster Library. Image Credit creativetourist.com

Robert being one half of the co-writing team alongside Grant McLennan in the enigmatic 1980’s Australian band the Go-Betweens. The gig took place in the front portion of the building and once you got used to the quirky setting, he was very enjoyable. There was an intermission allowing us to scamper over to the nearby John O Gaunt pub, and I recall Algarve Ray had also headed over from the gig and we discussed my recent holiday in the Algarve!

The next visit in 2011 was a double header with a difference as there were two gigs scheduled, one on the Saturday night and the other on Sunday afternoon. Due to the highly opportune synchronicity Gill and I decided to grab a cheap room for the night at the Best Western Hotel near the station.

I met Gill after the PNE match, and we caught a train over, and I recall watching Crawley losing narrowly to Man Utd in the FA Cup 5th round when we were getting changed at the hotel. We grabbed some tea at the 1725 Tapas restaurant on the opposite end of Market Square.

In the intervening three years they had created a stage in the larger room of the library to aid an increased capacity. The act that evening was a band from Ohio called Mona, whose driving force was Nick Brown, the band being named after his grandmother. I had seen them on Jools Holland, and I thought they had the look of a young Glasvegas about them.

Mona. Image Credit NME.

They had just won the BBC Sound of 2011 poll though not yet released their debut album. They garnered some stadium support slots later that year with Kings of Leon and the sound was arguably in the same bracket. On the night the lead singer had a decent set of pipes, and I enjoyed their set. 

The following day, we decided to grab some Sunday lunch and a couple of aperitifs at the Borough gastropub before the 3pm gig. Yuck were a London band that were releasing their self-titled debut album the very next day. They were firmly in the grunge bracket and created a fine racket though I think a night-time gig in a more unkempt venue would have been a better fit for them. They subsequently split in 2015 and were supported that afternoon by emo band Pegasus Bridge.            

My final visit there was on Monday 09/07/12 to see Low and a group of us pottered over to watch them. They were still most certainly in their usual soft hushed vein prior to the shift to their more recent guitar led material. One of the crew left halfway through as he found it all too maudlin, but I thought they were in fine form and the venue played to their strengths.

On arrival back in Preston we had a flier at the Vic and Station before someone foolishly suggested we take advantage of the Old Dog down in Church Street which during the week stayed open until 4am. I finally toppled out of said establishment at 2.50am, my one and only visit to the late bar. Thankfully I had booked Tuesday as leave, but it took me quite a while to beginning functioning the next day!