Tag: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Nottingham Venues 37 and 38

Many of the best venues are buried away down the city centre back streets, a case in point is the Chameleon Arts Café in Newcastle Chambers down Angel Row. It is a small eclectic place with a café downstairs with some quirky beers on sale and a 140-capacity venue upstairs. The venue is embraced by DIY promoters which presents the opportunity to catch some unusual and upcoming bands there.

My one criticism is the slightly cramped nature of the venue especially when busy caused by the small access to the venue but once you find your vantage point everything is ok again in the world! 

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The stage of the Nottingham Chameleon Arts Cafe. Image Credit YouTube

My debut visit on 29/09/12 was to see a roster of bands and the first I encountered was Standard Fare, a decent indie pop trio from Sheffield with a C86 aesthetic and the slightly wonky vocals of Emma Kupa. The second band was Milky Wimpshake, a lo-fi indie trio from Newcastle who first appeared in 1997 and remain on the circuit to this very day. Their original drummer had the terrific name of Ms Joey Ramone and they had a knowing charm about them.

The penultimate act was a five piece from Brighton called Shrag prior to the headliners Anguish Sandwich. The main act was a frenetic garage punk band from Northampton with high pitched vocals from Chris East and remaining in the C86 vein they reminded me of Stump, another band from that era.

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Anguish Sandwich. Image Credit blogspot.com

My second visit a couple of months later was to see the Nottingham stalwarts Grey Hairs for the third time. They were supported by an excellent energetic Spanish instrumental math rock three piece called Iepi. I would describe their sound as a more aggressive version of Leicester band Maybe She Will! Their 2014 album ‘New Wr’ is also well worth bending your ears around. They have supported Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and were the first Spanish band to play the post rock festival ArcTanGent held annually at Fernhill Farm in Somerset, which regretfully I have never yet attended.

My third and final appearance was on 24/10/15. Now I have never been a great fan of bands you might place in the Liverpool category of sound, though quite often having the jangly guitars, many bands from that area in my humble opinion sound too fey and lightweight.

However, that changed when I encountered Hooton Tennis Club in a live setting. I had heard some recorded output before and thought it sounded ok, but they were a revelation live with their diverse and inventive sound. The four-piece hailed from the Wirral and the name is taken from a local tennis court. Their debut album around the time was recorded by Bill Ryder Jones from the Coral and the band are currently on a hiatus.     

Continuing the Spanish theme, they were supported by the Parrots who are a duo from Madrid. Their rootsy wonky charm reminded me of their city counterparts the Hinds.

When my brother first moved to Nottingham, he had a flat off Mansfield Road in Sherwood. Just prior to Christmas in 2016 we took a sally out that way and encountered some non-descript pubs including the Robin Hood, a traditional Greene King hostelry. Whilst there we encountered a local cover band called Little Angels.     

Preston Venue 23 The Mill – Part 3

Located near to the Mill was a track leading to the current starting point of the Preston to Tewitfield canal. The original plan was to continue the canal south of Preston onto Wigan to link up with the Leeds to Liverpool canal but was only ever partially completed.

In July 2005 a group of us went down to see Idlewild on a Monday night and I recall seeing Matty Pope of the Accrington parish prior to the show. It was an odd day as the gig followed my Grandma’s funeral. It was well attended and Idlewild were in very good form, ‘You Held the World in Your Hands’ was the highlight and I recall them also playing a rousing cover of the Ramones ‘I Wanna be Sedated’.

Three months later the ska legends The Beat were in town and they were a good as ever with Rankin Roger and Junior Rankin sharing the vocal duties. There was a plethora of dodgy dad dancing and the highlights were ‘Stand Down Margaret’ and ‘Tears of a Clown’.

In December 2005 I saw Half Man Half Biscuit for the first time and the Birkenhead boys were a revelation. They were one of the tightest bands I have seen honed by constant touring for over 20 years. I recall fondly ‘Trumpton Riots’ being played regularly on the ground level dance floor in Raiders nightclub in the 80’s and they played a belting version of it on the night. Other highlight tracks were ‘F#@k me its Fred Titmus’ and ‘All I want for Christmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit’.

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Half Man Half Biscuit on stage. Image Credit BBC.

I have saved the biggest one to the last and I cannot overstate the significance of this particular gig as in my view it was the biggest band, I have ever witnessed in the olde fair city of Proud Preston and certainly stands strong in my Top 5 gigs in Preston. Randomly scanning the Friday What’s On page in the Lancashire Evening Post I noticed to my astonishment that Black Rebel Motorcycle Club were going to play the Mill.

Tickets were purchased over the weekend and the date ringed on the calendar. Then disaster struck as due to one of guitarists in the band breaking his thumb the gig was cancelled. A combination of them rising in profile and the size of the venue made me cast serious doubts of it being rearranged. However, to their eternal credit they honoured the booking and a rescheduled date of 11/05/04 appeared on the horizon.

On the gig day I was slightly giddy at work and I sloped off early.  A group of us rendezvoused in the Hogshead and on arrival we caught the last two tracks of a then unknown support band which turned out to be Kasabian.

The venue was packed to the rafters with an exultant crowd. They opened the set with a couple of acoustic tracks, one of which was the delightful ‘Complicated Situation’ subsequently included in the tracklisting for the Howl album released a year later. ‘Whatever Happened to my Rock and Roll’ and ‘Spread Your Love’ from their self-titled debut album were outstanding and their noisy dirty old-fashioned rock and roll was a compelling spectacle and they certainly lived up to my pre-gig expectations.  There were fluffy clouds under my feet as I walked home up the hill afterwards!

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Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Image Credit saltartists.com