There used to be a plethora of pubs in the Plungington/Brook Street area of the city, many such as the Royal Oak, the Tanners, Plungington Tavern, General Havelock, The Cottage and the Brookhouse have all now bitten the dust.
Around the corner from there is Aqueduct Street where there used to be a couple of further boozers, Prince Consort a Whitbread house run by an ex-wrestler which closed in the 90’s. The other being the Lime Kiln, a small, homely pub that subsequently turned into a slightly chaotic Chinese restaurant. Located between those two hostelries was a landmark Preston venue called the Mill.
For about three years around 2003-2005 this venue burned very brightly and attracted some big indie names to an unprepossessing back street venue. It is located near a West Coastline railway bridge and opposite a dance club I cannot recall the name of but subsequently become a LGBTQ venue called the Boiler House in 2019.
It was originally a venue between 1993 and 1996 called the Mill where Oasis and Pulp played early gigs, annoyingly I have also just discovered Buffalo Tom played there in 1993, which I was wholly unaware of at the time. It then had different signage under Club Sugar and the Marquee before closing in 2002. A year later the owners of Leeds Cockpit were looking to open a gig site in the North West and chose this location under its original name. The opening of a bigger rival venue called 53 Degrees precipitated its subsequent downfall in about 2007 as Preston was not big enough to justify two main venues, I believe it is still operational as a recording studio.
There were steps leading up to the entrance which brought you into the centre of the venue with a large dance floor, stage to the right and a long bar facing opposite. Somewhat bizarrely in about 2005 they launched a split room approach to try and create a separate bar and gig area which personally did not work for me. On non-gig nights they opened as a nightclub which I frequented a few times, and this was where Paddy Finch and I used to pogo around the dancefloor.
I saw 15 gigs there in totality which places it 8th on the all-time visited venue list and joint 2nd in the Preston venues list. I attended there twice in its original incarnation. The first in 1995 to see Cement, which was a band formed by lead vocalist Chuck Mosley who was previously in Faith No More and the legendary and influential Bad Brains. I recall them creating a rambunctious slab of noisy garage rock.
My second appearance was the following year was to see a Battle of the Bands event and we witnessed Wunjo Station, Tripitaka, King Mambo and Fervid.
There was a seven-year hiatus before my next visit in 2003 at which point it was becoming increasingly evident that the venue was beginning to attract a decent calibre of bands to play there. I missed an early performance by Snow Patrol as I was attending an alternate gig that night, doubly regretful as I was a big fan of the material produced by their spin off band Reindeer Section, especially their terrific second album Son of Evil Reindeer.
On 23/09/03 the Swedish band Wannadies were in town and they produced an excellent set with their quirky lead singer Par Wiksten in full flow. It was a poignant gig for me as I was still recovering from a particularly unpleasant sustained bout of shingles and some noisy poppy guitars only served to aid my recovery!
Saw Greg Proops (with er Indoorz) 1994 – he even discussed the mighty PNE in his act.
I saw Frank Sidebottom, Kingmaker, Embrace, The Levellers, Amen, The Bluetones, Ian Hunter, Do Me Bad Things, and many, many more.
I used to love going to The Mill. I saw Ocean Colour Scene, Kingmaker, The Bluetones, The Levellers, Ian Hunter, Embrace, Amen, The Jackpot Golden Boys, Killing Joke, Electric Soft Parade, Frank Sidebottom, Mark Lamar, Greg Proops and many more. It’s a shame there’s only a handful of music venues left in Preston. We’ve only got The Ferret and The Continental left.