Category: Nottingham

Nottingham Venues 15 to 18

Bang in the centre of Nottingham lies the Old Market Square. It is apparently the second largest public paved space in the UK, measuring in at 12,000 square metres or approximately three acres. On one visit into town on the afternoon of 05/07/08 I witnessed a local band called Dub Masters playing on a temporary stage in one corner of the Square.

On Broad St is located the Broadway Cinema and Café Bar. I have a real soft spot for independent cinemas, and this is a jewel of a place and I have seen a couple of movies there including Quantum of Solace with a civilised pint in hand. There is another terrific independent cinema near where we live now called the Savoy which I am hoping and praying will still be in existence post Pandemic. Next to Broadway was a terrific curry house which I have frequented several times.

The music stage was located within the bar area and we saw a suite of bands there on 25/10/09. On the bill was Dave Apple, Shadow boxer, Young Republic and a local blues rock band called Ulysses Storm.    

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Broadway Cinema. Image Credit apmonthejob.com

The Pit and Pendulum is a Grade 2 listed building in the Lace Market Conservation Area. It is a grand gothic themed pub with a basement area and quirks such as hidden bookcases leading to the lavatories. The bands played in a very novel slot which was halfway up a staircase between the basement and the ground floor.

Alright the Captain were a proper loud math rock trio in the mould of bands like Primus and they were fine fun in this unusual setting. Also, on the bill were Garrison who were the ultimate gentle antidote to the previous noise fest as they clocked in as a female folk style trio.

Sat at the bottom of Hockley was a great real ale pub called Bunkers Hill and there was a regularly frequented music stage upstairs. On the Hustle day we attended they were predominantly populated by uproarious guitar bands which suited me down to the ground.

The first band were Boxer Rebellion, a brit rock influenced act from London. The second band were the fabulously named 93 Million Miles from the Sun from the renowned creative hotbed of Doncaster. They lived up to that lofty moniker with a set of cacophonous reverb shoegaze in the mould of such luminaries as Loop and Slowdive. They were followed by Exit Calm, a rock band from Barnsley.  

The last band on the day were well worth waiting for. Nottingham based Spotlight Kid were formed by former Six by Seven (a fellow Nottingham band) drummer Chris Davis and their thunderous shoegaze was further embellished by female vocalist Katty Heath. They were named after a Captain Beefheart album. They had formed four years earlier in 2005 and based on the crowd reaction had obviously built up a local following. They were excellent and worthy headliners.

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Spotlight Kid. Image Credit Wikipedia.

Nottingham Venues 9 to 14

For my 50th Blog entry I return to Nottingham. While in attendance at my first Hockley Hustle on 17/06/07 I caught a couple of bands in Dogma. Hockley was a suburb in the centre of town with a swathe of venues within its boundaries. The venue was located on Byard Lane and had three floors with a main ground floor bar and a restaurant located upstairs. The music stage was in the nightclub setting downstairs.   

I have always found venues such as this metallic sparsely populated basement nightclub layout to be in stark contrast to a daytime gig, especially on a sunny June day.

I don’t recall the first band Arias Ashes, but the second band Dust Collectors were a peculiar seven piece infused with Victorian jazz influences.  

The venue closed in 2014 following a stabbing and reopened as a Tapas restaurant called Barasca.

Lee Rosy’s Tea Café was situated on Broad Street. As it was a little café its musical direction was strictly in the acoustic mode. I visited there twice, the first witnessing Ying and Herbidaceous in June 2007.

My other attendance was to see Alun Parry at the 2009 Hustle. He was a traditional folk singer with a social conscious streak in the mould of Woody Guthrie. He was also a community music festival organiser and resided in Liverpool.

The physical café closed in 2018 but the business is still alive and kicking as an online entity.

Nottingham Lee Rosy’s Tea Cafe. Image Credit Yell.

On my second Hustle in 2009, we visited Browns on the corner of Park Row and East Street Circus. It was a rather pretentious brasserie and a bar where the bands were playing. First up were Tasty Morsels with their melancholic keyboard tinged vibe.

We also witnessed Free Control and The Amber Herd. We only caught the final two tracks of the latter, but they had a promising presence about them complimented by lead singer Neil Beard’s soothing vocals. They were at that stage obtaining some decent support slots with The Delays and That Petrol Emotion and appear to be still active.

Escucha on Fletcher Gate was another plush late-night bar and we saw the five-piece Matt Chandler Band who sat strictly in the jazz mode and was a bit too sleepy loungecore for me. Matt Chandler was originally from Derby and appears to be quite renowned in his genre playing regular London gigs and working with luminaries such as Youth from Killing Joke and Polystyrene from X Ray Spex.  The venue now appears to be closed.

Situated right next to Broadway cinema on Broad Street is Shaw’s, a small tapas restaurant and bar. We saw a Nottingham soul singer called Natalie Duncan. A couple of years later she appeared on Jools Holland alongside Muse who she must have impressed to the extent that they asked her to appear in the support slot on their upcoming tour.

At the tail end of the 2009 Hustle we were heading back up Pelham Street towards the tram stop when we heard a cacophonous racket emanating from an upcoming shop doorway. We soon discovered it was the delightfully named local band Ocean Bottom Nightmare who were kicking up the racket in one of the oddest venues I have ever encountered. They were ensconced in a retail unit called 28 Barbers with props such as clippers and trimmers in view behind the drum kit. It was a bracing unusual end to the festival!

Nottingham 28 Barbers. Image Credit Local Data Company.