Preston Venue 31 – 53 Degrees Main Hall

I have previously covered the Club venue and in this week’s blog I am going to concentrate on the 53 Degrees Main Hall. The venue’s opening in 2005 spelt the death knell to Preston Mill as a gig going concern as there was patently not room in Preston for two such singular locations.

The main hall comprised of a capacity of 1500 and had a sizeable bar facing you on entrance. There was a large, raised area before steps dropping down into a sizeable pit in front of the stage. In their time, they attracted some decent acts here but overall, I always felt it was a golden opportunity missed where they could potentially have attracted better acts, maybe that slightly biased perception gleans from certain fave bands that I thought would have great to see in that setting!

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53 Degrees Venue. Image Credit 53degrees.net

My first visit there was on 20/05/05 when I went to see Supergrass. They were in good form as they had a commendable back catalogue and played my two cherished tracks of theirs, namely ‘Caught by the Fuzz’ and ‘Late in the Day’. Our group was stood off to the right-hand side of the stage where it felt very draughty, but reasons for that became evident as I had an unpleasant bout of man-flu for about 10 days after. The lurgy nearly denied me the opportunity to watch PNE playing West Ham in the Championship play off final (I wish it had!)

Now I have never warmed at all to Blur, talented musicians, and all that, but for whatever reason their music grates on me. Whilst up in Scotland for Hogmanay we were listening to John Peels festive 50 and they featured a couple of half decent tracks from the bands lead guitarist Graham Coxon. This led to an attendance at one of his gigs in October 2006. Most of his set was based on his Ramones influenced latest album ‘Love Travels at Illegal Speeds’. He had his moments and with the shortness of the tracks swiftly whipped through more than 20 songs.

A couple of years later I saw my standout gig there when the Subways were in town. They had so much energy with lead singer Billy Lunn a whirling dervish on stage and his then girlfriend Charlotte Cooper a perfect ally to his antics. It was arguably one of the most joyous moshpits I have ever encountered when they played ‘Oh Yeah’ off their terrific debut album ‘Young for Eternity’. You could never fault these kids for effort! They were supported by Enjoy Destroy.

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The Subways in full flight mode. Image Credit buzzbands.la

In October 2010 a group of us headed into town to watch Half Man Half Biscuit, only to discover the gig had been cancelled at the last minute. It was rearranged for six weeks later on a Friday evening clashing with a North End game. We left the match early resulting in missing the first couple of songs of their set. They were very enjoyable, and they have such a devoted following that it always results in a cracking atmosphere.

In 2011, we went to see John Lydon’s combo, Public Image Ltd. I was far from an expert knowledge on their output but appreciated their intelligent songcraft which stood up well in a live environment.

When I was young whippersnapper at the tender age of 14, I went through a short Adam Ant phase and 30 years hence I was persuaded to go and see him again and this was my final gig there.

The place was packed to the rafters and access to the front area was tricky. There was an eejit and bully from my youth in residence who was blocking the accessway who I navigated past but who then somewhat predictably nudged me down the steps, but I maintained my footing and more importantly didn’t spill a drop of my beer! He was and obviously remains someone just not worth bothering with in any format! The gig was also a bit of a limp affair capping off a forgettable night.

First T in the Park Festival

The first full Festival I ever attended was T in the Park in July 1999 with John Dewhurst and Uncle George. I recall John attended the first couple of festivals in 1994 and 1995 when were held in Strathclyde Park, Hamilton with easy access from Glasgow before the festival moved to the larger site at the disused Balado airfield in 1997. Problems were subsequently encountered at the 2016 festival resulting in that being the last event.

We decided to grab a B&B in Edinburgh with the obligatory dolls dotted everywhere in our triple room and commuted into the site from there which turned out to be a bit of a trawl as it was over an hour each way on the shuttle bus, but you had the consolation of crossing the Forth Road bridge. After a couple of bevies in town on the Saturday we caught the bus about 3pm.  The weather gods smiled on us that weekend.

It was a huge site with several stages, and it possessed a natural amphitheatre for the main stage location. It was a cracking roster that year.

First up on the main stage was in retrospect a touching set as it transpired to be one of Joe Strummer’s final gigs prior to his untimely death, he was backed up by the Mescaleros. Following them was the New York faux gangsters Fun Lovin Criminals with their inimitable lead singer Huey Morgan, who is now a Radio 6 DJ. He was dishing out priceless advice by encouraging us ‘to go out and grab some ass’!  Their ‘Scooby Snacks’ track naturally went down a storm. We also caught a portion of the Stereophonics set.

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Joe Strummer on stage. Image Credit Las Vegas Weekly

We caught a segment of a very young Travis in a packed Stage 2 tent playing a rousing rendition of ‘All I Wanna Do is Rock’ and in the Slam Tent we saw Basement Jaxx.

In the King Tuts Wah Wah tent I encountered Death in Vegas for the first time and they were startingly good, opening with an astonishing 10-minute version of ‘Dirge’ with the added bonus of the guest vocalist Dot Allison actually on stage as she was also playing the festival as a solo act and we caught her set the following day.

The headline act was Mogwai and only the second time I had seen them at that stage, and George’s first and they were in fine fettle. Upon realising they were clashing with main stage headliners Blur, who they understandably had no time for the cheeky young scamps devised some T-shirts. Mogwai had been previously quoted that they thought Blur were one of the weakest bands on the planet thus the message emblazoned across the front was their interpretation of the dictionary definition of the band, namely ‘Blur: Are S#*#e’. I regretfully never purchased one of the T-shirts.   

  

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Infamous T-Shirt. Image Credit WordPress.com

 

Upon arriving back into the city, we foolishly stayed out until about 3am, however the dolls were still waiting for us when we arrived back. Thankfully John had some remaining dexterity to navigate a troublesome lock, whilst me and George giggled inanely behind him!

What greeted me the following morning was one of my all-time crippling hangovers and the thought of another full festival day was put it mildly particularly undesirable at that point in time. The only potential cure was the Hair of the Dog method though I was contending with the size of a Saint Bernard resulting in the extreme step of supping a brandy at lunchtime to set me right.

A few pints followed in a bar on Rose Street and I recall the British Grand Prix being on and chatting to an engaging American chap called Hank who became known thereafter as ‘Hank the Yank’. I felt infinitely better leaving than when entering the pub though I did flag later in the day.

In the newcomer’s tent, we saw Astrid and a very young Biffy Clyro.  On other stages we witnessed Placebo, Massive Attack, Gay Dad, Lanterns and Deus.

However, the best three acts of the day were the main performances in King Tuts tent. A soothing set from the Delgados was followed by a rousing one from Idlewild. The headliners were Mercury Rev who produced a terrific swirling performance to bookend the festival.

On the packed bus on the return journey some punter dropped his cube of recreational drugs. He went into panic mode as he wasn’t the owner resulting in the surreal sight of the entire top deck crouching down searching for the missing artefact before it was eventually located.

We landed back just shy of midnight and we were ravenous. We tasked a local taxi driver to find us an open Chinese takeaway and he met the challenge. A midnight feast followed before having a nightmare about those damn dolls!

I awoke feeling like a new man in the morning and we headed home via an ice cream stop in Moffat.