Category: Other British Gigs

Other British Gigs 3 and 4

I managed to catch Mogwai three times in the 2006 calendar year as I saw them in Edinburgh and London. The third strand of that trilogy was the last date of a short British tour which took place at Sheffield Plug on 07/04/06. My attendance of the event was in doubt until the last minute as I was a tad under the weather, but generally nothing would stand in my way of attending Mogwai gigs!

Thus, a train was boarded by Uncle George and I on the Friday afternoon via Manchester into Sheffield. John Dewhurst was not in attendance as the birth of his son Joe was imminent, frighteningly Joe is now aged 16 and just about to commence his first apprenticeship.

It was my virgin trip into the steel city, and I have always aspired one day to attend the World Snooker at the Crucible Theatre. Linked to that, I have a pal called Dave Dyson whose one of his claims to fame is that he was in attendance in 1983 when Cliff Thorburn famously made the first televised 147 break at the World Championships.

We had a quick foray into the bookies as it was Ladies Day at the Grand National meeting and we found a 33-1 winner which set us up in good stead for the day. We had a mulch around a couple of pubs before heading over to the venue located on 14-16 Matilda Street.

The club first opened in 2005 and modelled itself as a live music and club night venue opening to 6am at the weekends. Local luminaries Arctic Monkeys and the Prodigy have played there. It was also an award winner in the Club Bar None Awards in 2014.

The venue subsequently closed just before the pandemic struck. However, there are green shoots of recovery evident as the record shop Record Junkee, which sits opposite, are planning to reopen the establishment under the name Network and reinstate gigs and club nights there.  There are also plans for a bowling alley, drinking and dining area to be located in the original Plug car park.

The Sheffield Plug. Image Credit sheffieldhistory.co.uk

I recall the venue being down in the basement and it contained a very low roof in the style of the old International 1 in Manchester. As a result, it was the loudest Mogwai performance I have ever witnessed, and they do set a very high bar in that regard. There were literally people with hands over their ears at certain points during the set.     

The bands choice of the last three tracks contributed to this cacophony, being namely ‘2 Rights Make 1 Wrong’, We’re No Here’ and ‘Mogwai Fear Satan’.  We spent the return journey on the Saturday, trying without success to identify the winner of the National that afternoon.

On one weekend when I was visiting my brother in Nottingham in July 2008, he mentioned there was a festival that a friend’s band was participating in on the Sunday. So, I agreed to provide a lift there for him as it was on my route of travelling back to Preston.

The event was the Belper Music Festival though I can find scant details when I searched, so I don’t know whether it was only in existence for a short period of time. It took place on the narrow streets of the town and as it encompassed a bonus new venue I obviously had to stick around and watch a couple of acts! Thus, on a small stage on the main drag I saw two local bands, namely Moscow Straits and the Re-enactments.

Two postscripts from me if I may, I have just heard the brutally sad news of Mimi Parker of Low’s untimely death from evil ovarian cancer. I shall always the treasure the few times I saw them live and the heavenly harmonies they created. We shall always have ‘Just Like Christmas’, which is our Christmas present opening song on Christmas morning.

Mimi Parker of Low. Image Credit www.acclaimedmusic.net

The other element is that I have finally reached 100k words in my blog, a future book at some stage methinks. What was the profound 100,000th word I hear you say? Could it be ‘the’ or ‘but’? Well, it actually somewhat appropriately turned out to be ‘Manchester’!

Other British Gigs 1 and 2

As we had never made a pilgrimage to Anglesey, we decided to rectify that anomaly in 1997 with a weekend away in Beaumaris. A friend recommended a B&B which we swiftly booked into and travelled on the North Wales coast road en route to the island.

On the Friday night in a pub down the road, we began chatting to some locals who invited us to attend the main club in the town the following night. On the Saturday we salved our souls by visiting the numerous windswept beaches. We then had a fine curry at the Menai Bridge Tandoori before heading back to the same pub to meet our comperes for the evening.

The renowned club in question was the Beaumaris and District British Legion Club. We were readily signed in as visitors, post last orders in the pub, and the venue was a revelation as it seemed the whole town across all ages were in residence. We played some killer on the pool tables prior to the main musical act hit the stage.

The artist was a Roy Orbison tribute act resplendent in full garb obviously including the requisite dark sunglasses. It has to be noted he was rather good and regularly hit the challenging high notes. Now, I may have been imagining this, but he appeared to be looking regularly in our direction. Was it that we were recognising as newbies or was it thought that we were thought to be talent scouts! After a top night was had by all, we thanked our gracious hosts and bade our farewell.

The tribute act looked a bit like this chap. Image Credit bing.co.uk

In January 2002, we identified that Henry Rollins and the Rollins Band were undertaking a tour and playing the very unusual outpost of Whitehaven Civic Hall. The choice of venue piqued our interest so Uncle George, John Dewhurst and I headed over on a cold Thursday night.

It is a fair old drive into deepest Cumbria via the M6 and A66. The B&B we booked has to be worst I have ever lodged in replete with old fashioned extremely nosey landlady. It was dirty and unhygienic, one shared loo between all the rooms and the breakfast was inedible! Let’s just say we have never rushed back for a return visit.

We grabbed some tea at a local chippy, which served humongous fish, perhaps the close proximity to Sellafield contributed here, but boy it tasted good! There were odd coincidences that night where different cars appeared to follow us each time we turned into a road, even the quiet ones, to the point of us jesting that we were under surveillance.

The Civic Hall was the singular venue in town, containing our venue the Solway Hall (capacity 600) and Dunboyne Hall (capacity 400). The building appears to be still operational with odd tribute band on the gig listings and there are also additional theatre performances on the roster.

See the source image
Whitehaven Civic Hall. Image Credit BBC

The venue was busy with a diverse clientele similar to the Beaumaris crowd with ages varying from 18 to 80, it created an interesting dynamic with stage diving being undertaken by the yoof!

Henry is famous locally for once citing a story when being interviewed by Terry Christian on the old Channel 4 music programme the Word. The tale relates to him being beaten up outside Preston Raiders nightclub when he was the lead singer in his original band Black Flag. As he was back in the North of England, he referenced the incident and his assertion that Preston folk had wafer thin craniums. We glanced at each other and wisely kept our heads down and eyes averted from the stage!