Tag: Deadwood Dog

Preston Venues 28 and 29 – Strettles/Bitter Suite

Down an alley on the left-hand side of the entrance to the Mad Ferret pub on Fylde Road lies the Strettles Bar. That was the original name when the bar first came into existence around the turn of the century.

I think it was linked to the Strettles Property Letting company which was located in Lancaster Road in the old Coconut Grove pub building. The Coconut Grove was a short-lived surreal attempt at a beach bar that endeavoured to resemble Club Tropicana, somewhat unsurprisingly it was massively under populated and subsequently closed. Opposite in the early 90’s was the Spindlemakers Arms which I recall had a commendable three pool tables located within.        

Strettles changed to a new moniker of Bitter Suite in February 2006 and was run by the former landladies of the New Britannia pub on Heatley Street. It quickly became a haven for real ale drinkers with a plethora of handpumps available. It was formally recognised by CAMRA and was twice a winner of the prestigious George Lee Memorial Trophy award. On 31/01/14 it became the Ale Emporium and was run by the previous landlords of the Sun Hotel on Friargate. It then became Speakeasy but unfortunately, the latest update I can find displays this venue now as permanently closed.

Strettles in its final incarnation as the Speakeasy. Image Credit blogpreston.co.uk

Throughout this twenty-year period the bar remained unchanged and always resembled to me a slightly spruced up social club. You could always obtain some fine ale in the downstairs area which stretched round to a decent pool table at the back of the bar, I also watched a couple of football matches in there. It was a regular venue for a break between bands when attending the adjoining Ferret.

My first musical outing there was in Strettles Upstairs Bar which was more of a function room that could be hired out for private events. In July 2002 I saw two local bands called Head2Wall and Freak Jesus.

In the Strettles Downstairs Bar I attended six gigs in total. The stage was immediately to the right as you entered the venue. It was mainly a blues-based venue and my first foray there was to see a band called Silvertones on 25/09/10.  

In Feb 2013 and July 2014, I saw the Band with No Name there. On the second visit, I witnessed our neighbours Jean and Bill Hunt jigging away at the front and discovered that their attendance was for a very justifiable reason as their son was in the band. They were an older couple who lived a couple of houses away at our last Preston house in the Withytrees area of the city and they were very accommodating when we moved by storing boxes for us. Bill was a real character and had a laudable musical heritage as he had been a member of many folk bands over the years.

The Band With No Name
Band with No Name on stage at Bitter Suite. Image Credit blogpreston.co.uk

Around the time was also saw Route 66, a five piece covers band from Barrow in Cumbria and Ramshackle, a four-piece blues band. I additionally saw a combo called Frayed at the Edges there.

My final gig I am covering from 2013 was a special one as it was to celebrate local musician and friend Jez Catlow’s 50th birthday. It was very well attended and what Jez had decided to undertake was sets by all three bands he had been part of. The first was Last Orders which I don’t think had played together for an age.

The other two were more instantly recognisable as Pike and Deadwood Dog. Jez played for about 2.5 hours that night but took a well-deserved rest as Dan Donnelly topped off the night.     

Preston Venue 27 – The Wheatsheaf

Preston Docks was a thriving metropolis back in the 1960’s and at that point boded well for the future of the town but its luminous period gradually faded and the whole area was regenerated in the 1980’s.

One of the famous spots that appeared in the area around that time was the Manxman, which was original a ferry between Isle of Man and Liverpool before became a floating nightclub which I frequented only the once on a Tuesday night in 1988 at Dave Keane’s 21st. It was also the venue where my pal Tony Dewhurst met his future wife Pam.

See the source image
The Manxman making its grand entrance into Preston Dock. Image Credit Flickr and Mrs J Fielding.

It was then towed to Liverpool where it remained as a nightclub in the Trafalgar Dock area before subsequently landing in Sunderland where it was dismantled in 2012. Two lesser-known facts I discovered are that it was used a location for the Barbara Streisand film Yentl and a pre-married Richard and Judy recorded a Granada series called Scramble there.  

I also spent 7 happy years working at Albert Edward House in that area in the 90’s. The building used to have a canteen where for the first time since school I re-encountered the culinary delights of Manchester Tart. They also used to have a pool room where I arranged a couple of large tournaments between work colleagues, I also now and then did a little bit of work!

When we used to venture out at lunch, we walked through a suite of industrial units prior to accessing Strand Road. The end unit was Oyston Mill which for a period in the 80’s/90’s was a band rehearsal space.

My good friend Paul Catterall was in a band at the time and used to frequent the there and a local metal band called Xentrix often occupied the adjacent rehearsal space. The band achieved some short-lived airplay with a Ghostbusters cover.  

The landmark breakthrough Dinosaur Jr track ‘Freak Scene’ was recorded in 1988 and within the wonky video there is a yellow Fisherman statue. I recall this video being played mercilessly at the time by Snub TV, a BBC2 teatime programme devised by Janet Street Porter. The video was recorded in a garden in a West Didsbury house which was rented by John Robb.

However, I have seen incontrovertible video evidence provided by Paul that this statue used to reside in Oyston Mill, though it remains unclear whether this was before or after the recording of the video. 

In those days there was a thriving work social scene, and many Friday lunchtimes were spent in local hostelries, one of the regular boozers was the Ribble Pilot sitting right on the dock side. As you progressed round onto Watery Lane you passed the Ship Inn which I believe used to occasionally have bands playing in their large function room. My one memory of that pub is watching Steve Davis beating Joe Johnson in the World Snooker final in 1987. Behind the Ship was located the West Orange recording studio where reputedly Cornershop recorded some material.  

Further down, you pass the longstanding Curry House King Karai which I frequented regularly in the 1990’s before you then reach Umberto’s chippy which never seemed to be closed. Also, in close proximity was Jing Jing, in my view the best Chinese takeaway in the city.   

Up Tulketh Road lies a little homely pub called the Wellington, a couple of mates have an advantage on me there as they saw local band Deadwood Dog play there.

At the bottom of Tulketh Road are two adjacent pubs. On one side is the Grand Junction, not a regular haunt but I recall a group of us scrambling out from work at lunchtime in 1992 to watch the last few overs of England losing the Cricket World Cup final to Pakistan.

Much preferred is the other boozer The Wheatsheaf. It has also been under the moniker of Last Orders and for a spell a Mighty Muldoons. I have always been fond of this pub as it has a variable clientele of ages ranging from 18 to 80.

See the source image
Preston Wheatsheaf public house. Image Credit unspecified.

It was a regular venue for watching football including England in World Cup matches beating Columbia in 1998 and Argentina in 2002 and several PNE matches. I recall also watching an England v Scotland where it was so heavily populated, I had to go out the front door and return in via the back door to reach the loos.

The pub periodically had bands on there and my one occurrence was to see a rather noisy local covers band called Contraband.