Category: Preston

Preston Venues 43 to 44

Four miles south-west of Preston lies the small village of Longton. It is an ancient place and during the Middle Ages was known as ‘a sort of Holy Land’ as a result of the monks from nearby Penwortham Priory tending the lands in the vicinity.

The Brickwork nature reserve and a little-known nuclear observation bunker are nearby to Longton and Nick Park, the creator of Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep was brought up in the neighbouring village of Walmer Bridge. Due to the proximity to the police HQ at Hutton, they once filmed an episode of Z Cars in the village in the 1960’s, the theme tune for which is still used as a pitch entry tune by Everton football club.

Driving in from Preston city centre down the A59 takes you past the infamous Koh I Noor Indian restaurant (now called Cumin) and the Anchor pub nearby. I have spent several Christmas days in this restaurant enjoying an alternate cheeky Jalfrezi Xmas lunch. The road then bends round a few curves to drop you into the main street of the village which contains the Rams Head, Black Bull, Golden Lion public houses and the most recent micro pub Wilkins and Pye. There is also the obligatory local Booths supermarket located there.   

If you then spin off down the very thin tributary of Marsh Lane you reach the Dolphin, which is close to the River Ribble. As with many other pubs up and down the country it has an alternative name and is known locally as the Flying Fish. There is a function room attached where weddings can be held, and they serve humongous plates of food in the main room where we have partaken many family meals.

Back on the main drag you would also find the Longton Red Lion which is a grand old building and has been an active concern since the 1800’s.  It stands as one of the first community-owner public houses in the country from when the co-operative bought the establishment from Whitbread’s brewery back in the 1980’s.  There is a beer garden at the side, and they have live music on there every Friday and Saturday night. On one such weekend evening in 2006 I saw a noisy garage rock band called Landslide in the corner of the pub.

Red Lion Preston. Image Credit useyourlocal.com

Across town resides the housing area of Walton Park which was built in the mid-1980’s and can be accessed from the town centre via London Road and the retail park or by walking across the old tram bridge at the foot of Avenham Park and following the track opposite for around a mile.  

On New Year’s Eve 2013 we returned from a short city break in Glasgow which will be covered in a future blog. On arrival back into Preston, we immediately headed round to some friends who lived on the estate and wandered down to the local pub Preston Welcome Tavern, nearby on Hennel Lane, which in 2015 went through an extensive refurbishment and changed its name to Hunters. 

Preston Welcome Tavern/Hunters. Image Credit ResDiary

It is a large pub with an extensive beer garden at the front and since the conversion to Hunters has concentrated more on the food side of the business. Somewhat worryingly alcohol is served from 10am most days, but I guess the old adage that it is always 5 o clock somewhere rings true!

Our drinking partners son Stephen is gradually ensconcing himself into the music world as a sound producer in Leeds. That night, some of his pals were playing an impromptu gig in the front room under the name of Black Stone.  

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.