Attached to the venue was a bar/nightclub called 42nd Street which we smuggled into a few times despite being non-students.
On 31/05/92 I went to see the Cornish band the Family Cat. It was a hot summer which at that point of my life was nosebleed season for me. It was a late decision to go with a couple of friends. We met in the Continental and then got distracted walking into town by Jools Holland playing a set on Avenham Park.
In the pub before the gig, some punters were watching a Nigel Benn title fight on a little TV in a corner. We went in about 11pm and caught an unnamed support act who had one song titled ‘Kenneth Clarke is a Sad Man’.
The place was about half full and I saw a pal of mine called Warren Beasley in the audience. A couple of years after Warren tragically died from cancer at the age of 26.
Family Cat came on about 12.15. It never ceases to astound me looking back how late the sets were in those days, it would never or very rarely happen now. It was a nondescript gig and they played for about an hour.
In 1997 John Dewhurst, Uncle George, Gill and I went to see Billy Bragg. It was 6 days before the General Election, and it was patently obvious that after 18 years of Tory rule we were finally going to see a Labour government. As a result, he was on fire that night literally preaching to the converted and that enthusiasm created an anticipatory buzz in the crowd.
The charged atmosphere added to the lustre of ‘Ideaology’ and ‘New England’. A thoroughly enjoyable set.
The following week the expected landslide came to pass. I recall on the Friday morning Dominik Diamond opened his show on 5 Live by stating ‘he was proud of the British public’ earning him a reprimand for breaching the legendary BBC impartiality rules.
That evening George and I headed into town where I could partake in my first legal drink under Labour power at the sprightly age of 29 and we took full advantage ending the night in the legendary Raiders nightclub!
It was an enervating time and on a personal level it coincided with major life events of buying our first house and getting married before the 90’s were out. The time period was the Yin to the current Yang of the post Brexit Covid Britain we currently reside in.
My final gig there was to see Electric Six on 29/11/03. It was on a Friday night and the place was almost full. They were a six-piece band from Michigan and had just released their fine debut album ‘Fire’. They had shot to fame on the back of their two hit singles ‘Danger! High Voltage’ and especially ‘Gay Bar’ accompanied by a startlingly original video which resulted in me never looking at Abraham Lincoln in the same way!
I think they remain the band that I was most surprised by in relation to how unexpectedly good they were, they were as tight as a drum live. Dick Valentine was an utterly engaging lead singer complete with a French stick as a prop.
Little did I know when I started attending gigs that in my mid 30’s I would be joyously bopping round a moshpit with a hundred others bellowing ‘I have got something to put in you’!
