Tag: Boardwalk

Nottingham Venues 1 to 3

The reason for my initial visit back in 1992 was that we on the Sugar trail. After seeing them in Leicester on the Friday, we had a Nottingham date with them on the Saturday night.  

Fiona was not in attendance at the gig as she had a family wedding. We chilled during the day and then headed to Steve and Steph’s to eat pizza and watch Ghostbusters. Steph was telling us about having a meeting and photo with Bob Mould in a record shop that afternoon.

We jumped on a bus and had a couple of beers in Jacey’s Bar and then headed into Nottingham Trent Polytechnic at 9.15pm just before the band hit the stage. It was a traditional Uni type venue and was the only time I visited there and looking now at the history it doesn’t display any gigs beyond mid-90’s, so I must have been at one at the latter ones. Nirvana and Teenage Fanclub played there in it’s heyday.

Steve was the coat monitor as the remaining three in the party headed to the front. The sound was instantly better than the previous night resulting in a huge moshpit which obviously I dived into, resulting in a stunning bruise on my ribs the next day!

They were thankfully one of these bands that juggled the setlist which always adds variety to the proceedings if you see them more than once on the same tour. Standouts were ‘A Good Idea’ and ‘Fortune Teller’. Five minutes after the set conclusion, Bob wandered past where we were standing.

My brother headed down to London the following night to catch them at the Town and Country Club and I caught them two weeks later at the Boardwalk in Manchester, so we completed pretty good coverage between us on that first tour.

My next musical jaunt was to Nottingham Rock City on 18/10/97 to see Spiritualised supported by Steephill Jack. It turned out to be my only visit to the Main Hall.

Nottingham Rock City. Image Credit Rock City

Rock City is a somewhat fated venue as two other scheduled gigs there didn’t happen for different reasons. One to see Kyuss (forerunners to Queens of the Stone Age) was missed due to illness and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club annoyingly cancelled their show on the day of the gig.

It has always been touted as a much-vaunted venue, but it seemed a fairly unremarkable place and the gig tended to wash over me as well as the chilled Spiritualised vibe didn’t have its tentacles out that night.

See the source image
Spiritualised live on stage. Image Credit giggingni.com

However, the fates turned in our favour as we headed out post-gig and discovered a band mid-set in the Nottingham Rock City Basement Hall. It took a second to recognise who was playing but soon realised it was those incendiary lovable South London scamps Snuff kicking up a storm!

They were jammed into a small hall with a monster sweaty moshpit. The 30 minutes we managed to catch was superb. The highlight was at that particular point in time they were bringing up local punters to the stage to guest vocal, perhaps selected via their fan club. The local talent absolutely nailed a terrific version of Snuff’s cover of ‘I Think Were Alone Now’.

This resulted in turning what had been a slightly tame gig into a very fun bonus encore!

Manchester Venue 13 – Roadhouse

When I converse with seasoned Manchester gig goers three particular older venues in my experience are remembered fondly. These are namely the International 1, Boardwalk and Manchester Roadhouse. The venue was located at Number 8 Newton Street in the Northern Quarter. The club had previously been a snack bar and nightclub in the 70’s before morphing into a music venue. The venue sadly closed in 2015.

See the source image
The Roadhouse. Image Credit NME

It was a slightly scuzzy but charming basement club with a small stage and a capacity of 200. One of my largest regrets was being aware of White Stripes playing there on a very early tour but not being able to make the gig.  

I attended 5 gigs there between 1998 and 2009. The first being Mogwai in April 1998. Now, I am not usually prone to being melodramatic, but it was one of the strangest nights of my life. The night started normally enough with me, John Dewhurst and Nick Sharp in attendance. We had only a couple of beers in the Millstone on Thomas St where I suspected afterwards that potentially our drinks were spiked.

The night then on is distinctly hazy. The support band was Aerial M who also sometimes worked under the moniker Papa M. It was the first time I had seen Mogwai and from what I remember they were excellent. Nick disappeared unannounced mid gig and headed home as he felt ropey. Me and John headed on auto pilot for some supper to kill an hour before the late train but neither of us ate much and John was not himself. I was then very unusually for me physically ill at the station.

The finale to this surreal trip occurred on the train where I was awoken from a slumber by a commotion around me. The bizarre sight that greeted me on my awakening was the train guard stood in front of me with an axe. With my heart racing, I asked him the reason and it turned out the train was blocked by a small tree that he was going to clear with the said tomahawk. I was never so glad to arrive home as I was that night!

My next visit was in May 99 to see the at the time highly touted Llama Farmers from Greenwich supported by Seafood. They had obtained some decent supports slots to the likes of Green Day and Foo Fighters, but I can honestly say they didn’t live up to the hype and sounded too much like Placebo for my liking. They released 2 albums but subsequently drifted away on the ether.

The previous year I discovered a band with the very unique name of And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead from Austin Texas who had a released a decent self-titled first album. They arrived at the Roadhouse in March 2000. Unfortunately, they attracted the most annoying heckler who directed unjustified sustained vitriol at the unfortunate support act Sleepwalker.

AYWKUBTTOD were excellent with their post hardcore scuzzy sound and I recall the drummer and guitarist trading places several times during the gig. They are still on the circuit and have just released their tenth album.

My last gig there on 12/06/09 was to see Drones a punk rock band from Perth, Australia supported by the Snowmen. We happened to be out in Manchester and fell upon this gig and it is one of those that I cannot recall much about, it just passed me by.

My penultimate show was more memorable when I went to see Asobi Seksu on 10/02/09. The gig was originally scheduled for Jilly’s Rockworld on Oxford Road however before the scheduled gig the venue closed for good and the gig rescheduled to the Roadhouse. That was my one shot at attending the Rockworld, so it remains a lost venue.

See the source image
Asobi Seksu. Image credit Allmusic

Asobi Seksu were from New York and in the shoegaze/dream pop genre and their first two albums were excellent. They could certainly cut it live as well with a periodic thunderous guitar line in there. Another endearing element to this gig was the surprisingly enlightened approach from the bouncers to allow us to stand on chairs at the back to view the stage as visibility at the venue could be impaired when busy.  

The band had a DIY ethic exemplified by them running their own merch stand. A couple of years after I heard one of their tracks booming out when in Top Shop in Southport and I would say undoubtedly, I was the only punter in the store who could name that band!