Between 1978 and 1997 the Guild Hall was home to the UK Snooker championships during snookers halcyon years. I attended a few times and sat in a temporary stand watching Steve Davis take a commanding 7-0 lead against Alex ‘Hurricane’ Higgins in the 1983 final before Higgins recovered to win 16-15 the following day.
When we were aged about 16 prior to visiting pubs on a regular basis Rick Clegg and I used to mulch round town on a Friday night. On one such occasion we smuggled into the main hall after the snooker had finished for the day and had the place to ourselves for about 10 minutes before we departed on fear of security finding us. We were on the stage and had the rests on the match tables, thankfully they had left no snooker balls out to increase the temptation!
My first music experience there, though not a gig was on one of those Friday night jaunts. There were further external stairs taking you to top of the venue where we once sat by the doors where you could hear but not see the bands from this spot. One time, Barbara Dickson was playing, so my first song there was ‘January February I don’t understand’….
The Guild Hall officially opened in 1973 with one of the earliest acts being Queen in November 74 who ironically finished their set with a cover of ‘God Save the Queen’. Led Zeppelin, Bowie and Jackson 5 have also graced the stage.
The most famous gig there is probably the one with the shortest duration. The Smiths chose unexpectedly to include Preston on the tour schedule in October 86. I wasn’t in attendance, but I know many who were.
They opened with ‘Queen is Dead’ during which an item was thrown and struck Morrissey on the head, the weapon of choice allegedly a 50p coin. He stormed off and the gig was cancelled generating a very disgruntled crowd. It turned out to be one of the Smiths last ever shows. Morrissey did though return to the venue for a solo concert in 2004.
The Main Hall endeavoured to cover all genres thus it only sporadically had anything resembling anything in the way of half decent bands.
My first gig on 04/10/89 to see the Sugarcubes from Reykjavik on a Wednesday night. I had just recovered from a tonsillectomy and was my first night out after the op. I met a couple of lads in Yates before the gig.
At that age I was somewhat cynical of the weakness of the Preston live scene and my mood didn’t improve when upon entering the venue it was discovered the support band Ham hadn’t turned up and the venue was only a quarter full. The band came on about 9pm and had occasional moments but it all sounded somewhat disjointed to me.
It was a slightly volatile crowd with the band receiving some verbal abuse. ‘Motorcrash’ and ‘Deus’ were enjoyable, but Bjork’s voice can be a tad marmite! The NME review of the gig stated that the band were superb, and the audience were really cool, perhaps exemplifying the fact that life is full of differing opinions!
After a couple of post gig pints in the Black Bull and a pizza I managed to purloin a free taxi ride with a businessman from Cardiff who was heading to the Tickled Trout after watching Widnes rugby league team beat Canberra in a World Championship match at Old Trafford.