Tag: Bhundu Boys

London Second Trip

In October 1987 my brother and I headed off on a sally to London and attended a flurry of gigs in a similar vein to Mr Heaton Hibs comment on London First trip. We travelled down by train on Saturday 24th October and swiftly dropped the bags at our lodgings, the Calvados Hotel in Victoria. We then scarpered off to take part in an Anti-Apartheid rally with 75,000 other participants. On arrival at the final destination of the march at Hyde Park, where Rolling Stones once played a famous free concert in 1969. There were various speakers but also a short enjoyable set from the Bhundu Boys.

That evening we headed up to Harlesden, an Irish enclave in North West London. There was some fine Guinness on tap in the pubs, one had about 20 pints already half pulled in preparation for the incoming orders. Our terminus was the Mean Fiddler, a honky tonk venue run by Vince Power, who went on run the Leeds/Reading festivals. It was opened in 1982 taking over from a dubious drinking club run by boxer Terry Downes, the venue subsequently closed in 2002.

It is was a fabulous venue with very laid-back country music booming out. We saw Townes Van Zandt there who was significantly inebriated but was enjoyable nonetheless and played to 11.25pm. He was support to the Dave Kelly Band, but we had to leave before then to catch the last tube which managed to get us to within a mile walk of the digs.

We had a gig free day on the Sunday. On the Monday afternoon we had a double bill of movies watching The Untouchables and then Rivers Edge featuring Dennis Hopper and a very young Keanu Reeves. We headed into Camden later that day to visit Camden Dingwalls. The venue first opened in June 1973 and was home to Blondie’s first ever UK gig and remains a venue to this day, in fact I was in the bar there for a cheeky beer about a year ago and it is significantly more gentrified nowadays.

It was a £1.50 entrance fee and was a bit of a battered venue in those days. I recall purchasing a scooby snack of some fine cheese salad butties. The first band were Brilliant Corners who were pure pop music and they were superb. I recall them playing ‘Brian Rix’ and the excellent ‘Delilah Sands’, I still own the 12-inch version. They were supporting the Happy Mondays who weren’t great and I was never really a fan, but 12 months later they were huge…

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Brilliant Corners. Image credit danicanto.com

The original plan for the Tuesday was to see Michelle Shocked but it was a Mexican Restaurant gig so we hunted down an alternative gig. After visiting the Forbidden Planet comic store, we travelled over to Angel Tube station. We visited a couple of hostelries on what was a windswept night and then headed over to City University on Northampton Square. The venue was on the second floor of the University, full of long corridors. The first band was Raw Herbs who were somewhat appropriately very studenty but enjoyable. Corn Dollies were on second, Janice Long reportedly a fan, who had to cut their set to 30 minutes to meet the 11pm curfew. Both were East London bands.

The City University venue is nearby the Lexington, a venue twice in recent times I have tried to attend, both without success, but I am nothing but perseverant so I will get there eventually.

By our last day in London on the Wednesday we were proper jaded. We bought tickets for our farewell gig from a ticket outlet in Camden at lunchtime and then went to view Blue Velvet, a surreal David Lynch movie. A stock take at the digs revealed we had £15.50 in the coffers thus funds were running perilously low. Off to Kentish Tube we weaved heading into the Town and Country Club at 10pm to see the Bhundu Boys again. The venue had that name between 1985 and 1993 and is now badged the O2 Forum.

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Bhundu Boys. Image Credit blogspot.com

I do recall a bloke at the bar offering to buy us a round, thinking back now he probably thought I was a waif and stray who he may be able to take advantage of. More fool him as I gratefully accepted the beers and strode back off to the sprung dancefloor.

It was an excellent venue with winding steps leading up to packed balconies with a responsive audience dancing and swaying away to the Zimbabwean vibes. I managed to get within four rows of the front and they were excellent with the lead singer tipping his hat after every tune. We had earlier won on the bandit so we could rather decadently buy a Chinese each, some fags for my brother and have £3 left in our pocket!

Manchester Venue 2 – International 1

Aah, let me count the ways I loved this venue: –

  • Low strung roof which assisted greatly with the acoustics and created a fabulously sweaty communal venue when busy
  • Bars either side serving Colt 45 or Schlitz
  • Responsive DJ playing fab tunes when requested and memory tells me or tricks me that they played Long Ryders ‘Looking for Lewis and Clarke’ every visit
  • Loos at the side of the stage to allow you to swiftly rejoin the moshpit
  • Like minded brethren in the audience
  • Main bands rarely came on before 11 and of consistently high calibre
  • Cheeky little food hatch with un nutritious snacks to soak up the ale
  • All in all, what’s not to like?

I visited 20 times between 1985 and 1989, the venue closed around 1992. In my new Manchester pad I live a couple of miles away from the old site. It is now a Turkish deli/supermarket. I always had pretensions if winning the lottery to reopen the venue, but my odd £25 prizes are clearly not enough to achieve that aim.

The hallowed venue now! – Image Credit Jimmy Crossthwaite

My first visit was to see Hüsker Dü with the prior knowledge we wouldn’t get home and involved train and a fair bus ride as it was on the outskirts of town in Longsight. Whilst queueing up lead singer Bob Mould clattered out the doors past us to buy some cigs in the small newsagent next door which was exciting for us avid fans. They were mighty fine in front of a sparsely attended venue. The remainder of the night was trekking back into town to  Victoria and crashing in the waiting room while they loaded the paper trains before catching the first train back at 6am. Being a durable 17 year old I recall a couple of hours kip, on to Preston North End to sell programmes, watch the match and then inevitably out again that night. A few years after I became friends with another chap who was there and also napped on the station prior to a trip back to Blackpool (Spig, if you are reading this).

There was always an obliging driver in the crew to ferry us there before trains became the regular route to Manchester gigs. There was always a couple of aperitifs as we always travelling in via Holts and Boddingtons pubs in Prestwich, I believe the Friendship Inn is still standing and the afore mentioned Holts was 64p a pint (cheapest beer in Britain!).

Some of my favourite early gigs were here, notably astonishing performances from Lone Justice (what a set of pipes Marie McKee has and a fantastic cover of Velvets ‘Sweet Jane’), 10,000 Maniacs (stunning vocal also from Natalie Merchant) , Hüsker Dü again and the first ever gig in England for Meat Puppets in 1987 supported by the Inca Babies.

Picture shows the infamous Lone Justice gig on 20/02/1987. Image Credit radiox.co.uk

There was a dream joint headlining tour from Throwing Muses and Pixies. I read somewhere that it was something like the Pixies 26th ever gig and Black Francis cut a very menacing presence howling like a Banshee with me joyously bouncing round the moshpit despite having at that age an ever present nose bleed!

Other bands seen were Shop Assistants, a polished Robert Cray, That Petrol Emotion, Proclaimers and Rhythm Sisters, joyous Bhundu Boys (twice and once with a compelling hangover after a quiet night at the infamous Strawberry Duck at Entwistle!), Screaming Blue Messiahs and Wild Flowers, Wonderstuff and Darling Buds, Triffids (laconic Aussies) and Waltones, Amayenga and finally a thunderous Loop.

Flyer from 1986 – see Wonderstuff and Voice of The Beehive dates. Image Credit mdm.archive.co.uk

One notable exception was Green on Red and Steve Earle where it was just one of those nights where the gig didn’t work, the set was dull and to top it off the transport home had been vandalised and was bereft of a coat and a back seat window so was bloody freezing all the way home especially for Dave Keane in the back seat!

Two remaining standouts were Voice of the Beehive which was the first gig I attended with my then girlfriend, now wife Gill. The other was a carload of us attending the Stiff Little Fingers comeback tour on 18/12/87 which despite being sub-tropical outside remains one of the hottest gigs I have ever attended with a maximum of two songs in the moshpit before an obligatory rest station on the DJ’s steps.

Despite not attending a gig there in 30 years, and over 900 gigs since it still sits proudly as my 5th most attended venue.