When living near the Withytrees in Fulwood I quite often used to walk into work which took me across Moor Park and right past the location of the Caribbean Club, now a Cash and Carry store.
My first visit around 1985 was to see Bogshed on a cold Wednesday night. They were pretty forgettable and had one good track – ‘Fat Boy Exam Failure’. I recall I managed to get a lift home from one of my brother’s mates.
My second visit in July 1986 on another Wednesday night was eminently more memorable. Prior to the first band I won £10 on the £100 bandit which was my biggest ever win and a tidy chunk of money in those days, resulting in me drawing annoyed glances from the club members.
The support band was Howl in the Typewriter which wholly consisted of one bloke called Sam from Blackpool playing a guitar loudly which sounds rather limited in scope, but he was good fun. He went on to form a long running record label called Pumf Records and Tapes. His encore party piece was unveiling his array of 15 guitars and allocating members of the audience to each one which created an unusual cacophonous outro.
The interesting backdrop to the music was that England were playing Poland in a must win World Cup game in Mexico with an 11pm kick off. So, there was a runner coming in from the other side of the club whilst the main band were on stage to announce each goal of Lineker’s hat trick which generated loud cheers every time.
The main act was a Washington DC Hardcore/Blues band called Scream who were really enjoyable. They had to go off at midnight as residents were complaining about the racket and their last act was to ask the audience for the bed for the night. A postscript was that 3 months after I saw them a 17 year- old drummer called Dave Grohl joined the band. The night ended by tottering home and watching the last 10 minutes of the England game.
Continuing the theme of Caribbean based venues, there is another club Jalgos – Venue 6 behind Raiders nightclub. I visited there once around 1995. It was again a social club set up on the ground floor with the venue upstairs. They were many old and new punks in attendance that night.
Support was Jez Catlow’s band punk band Pike who I was watching for the first time. They had been ploughing the local circuit for many years prior to this gig and continued to afterwards, however they are scheduled to play their last ever gig later this year.
The main band were UK Subs who continue to this very day to play a legendary number of gigs per year. I can only think comparably of Status Quo who were as hard touring as the Subs. They are fronted by the timeless Charlie Harper, who is now aged 74.
I read recently that the continued existence of Jalgos is in doubt, which would potentially leave Preston without a Caribbean venue, which I think would be a shame as there is a thriving Caribbean festival that takes place each summer on nearby Avenham Park.
Venue 7 – Lion Pub was down the bottom end on Church St located between the George and Joplins hostelries. It had gigs virtually every night, however it was primarily a Jazz and Blues venue and as a result it was not a regular haunt. I did see one gig there around 1988, involving Human Nature referenced previously in the Blackburn King Georges article. I also recall John Inverdale hosting some interviews in the very pub for a Radio 5 live piece when they were undertaking a tour of Britain looking at regional variations.