Tag: Eddie and the Hot Rods

Preston Venue 60 The Ferret – Part 3

If you walk to the back of the Preston Ferret there is a well utilised beer garden, where you can seek some quiet solace and grab some air in the gaps between bands. In a spot just before you head outside there was for a spell the traditional cramped pub pool table.

The Ferret beer garden. Image Credit visitpreston.com

In November 2012 after seeing an underwhelming Eddie and the Hot Rods gig at the Continental I witnessed Bobbie Peru for whom the driving force is Bert Genovese. He originated from Connecticut but is now based in Manchester. Next on the list was False Flag who supported Piatcions. The main band were from Domodossola in Italy and originally named Thee Piatcions, they provided some enjoyable psych infused shoegaze but sadly only ever produced one single EP.

In March 2013 I attended my mate Jez Catlow’s 50th birthday shindig where he played sets from his three bands in Strettles next door. During breaks in those sets we wandered the 20 yards to the Ferret and saw local bands The Escobars and Binary. The same month after a Nine Black Alps gig at Preston Blitz I witnessed the bruising punk of Beard of Wolves, a two-piece from Wolverhampton who wore pig masks on stage. They memorably described their sound ‘as getting beaten by a meth addled Scarlet Johansen’ and unsurprisingly imploded for ever in 2014.

Beard of Wolves. Image Credit thrashhits.com

In May 2013 I saw Dave Clark and the Stones who proceeded Orphan Boy from Grimsby. The latter combo split in 2015 but reformed in 2022 and seem to be still active on the gig circuit. The following week I saw again The Chapman Family alongside Rook and the Ravens who feature the Fay brothers in their lineup. Also on that bill were Brassic and The Laze who evolved from a sludge outfit called Doom Cow. For a three-year period, The Laze had their own Valhalla club night at Liverpool Zanzibar’s club and their sound was heavily influenced by Frank Zappa.In August 2013, I saw the Escobars for a second time alongside the Locals.

A couple of months later I saw Deadwood Dog’s first headline set across the road at 53 Degrees. After the Dog’s show I sallied over to the Ferret and continued the canine theme by catching the scuzzy grunge sounds of Cat Called Dog. They must surely or at least subconsciously derive their name from Cat Deeley’s character Cat the Dog from SMTV Live which used to salve my hangover on Saturday mornings in the late 1990’s!

My first appearance of 2014 involved local combo The Kausters who were supported by Local Girls. Also on the bill was Matthew Cogley who performed solo but also doubled as the guitarist and singer with Chorley band Failsafe. His band once appeared on an episode in the third series of the successful Inbetweeners TV series and appeared at the famous South by Southwest festival in 2010. There is however a desperately sad postscript in that he subsequently died whilst on a trip to Belfast on New Years Day 2015 at the tender age of 30.

Later that month I saw the quirky four-piece Hello Bamboo. Soon after I saw an absolute belter of a show when Massive Wagons who are a rock band from Lancaster hit the stage. They reminded me of the Darkness in a good way and were terrific fun and incited a febrile audience reaction. Since that gig they have had a steady but exponential rise with support slots with Status Quo and Ugly Kid Joe prior to two individual headline tours and a top ten UK position with their ‘House of Noise’ album released during the pandemic.

Massive Wagons. Image Credit planetradio.co.uk

Next up was some soulful folk from Bill Orrick followed by some reggae rock crossover vibes from Conscious Collective. In November 2014 it was Moon and the Beams with their self-described slightly-delic rock who supported Mothertongue who provided some prog rock sounds. The final show of 2014 was a four-piece from Leeds called Clay who revolved around the nucleus of the Harvey brothers. The main band that night was Avalanche Party who provided some gritty garage punk and they hailed from the windswept ‘Wuthering Heights’ North Yorkshire moors. 

After my first exposure to the delightful Lovely Eggs at the Continental in March 2015 we decamped to the Ferret to catch some ska punk with Honour Roots and some prog with Jagwar. Next up was Nikki and the Styx (not the Motley Crue bassist) who supported local glam rockers Dragstrip Junkies whose members had the evocative names of Adam Wired, Johnny Rocker and Paul Wasted. A double bill followed with Monster as Humans, who reminded me of Aerogramme, preceding Midas Fall. The main band being a Scottish female duo who had gothic tones.

Preston Venue 41 New Continental – Part 2

Within the New Continental Arts and Events space the owners purchased a new PA and created a small reception area with its own bar and it doubles as the ticket checking area before entry into the gig room which has a capacity of around 250. The driving force behind the booking of the music acts was a local chap called Rico, and they have held a broad spectrum of events including World and Jazz bands and cinema showings.  

My first visit was at an all-day event on a swelteringly hot day on the May Bank Holiday weekend in 2011. Between bands we gravitated outside into the sunshine before returning inside for more tunes. First up was Seamus McCloughlin, a local singer/songwriter who has subsequently become a member of an alternative rock band called The Capital. Next up was Preston band Dirty Swamp led by Mark Whiteside, who is also the driving force behind Evil Blizzard.

They were followed by Australian born Viv Albertine, who was a guitarist in the legendary Slits from 1977 to 1982. She dropped out for a live scene for a long time before reappearing and was promoting her sole studio album ‘The Vermillion Border’ released the following year prior to her penning two autobiographies of her life. She cut a very enigmatic presence.

Viv Albertine. Image Credit flickriver.com

The headliners were the prolific Wave Pictures from London. They have a quirky quintessential English sound complemented by David Tattersall’s wavering vocals and are a staple play on Marc Reilly’s 6 Music show. I recall them referencing the ongoing World Snooker final ongoing at that stage between John Higgins and Judd Trump.  I walked home through the park with a spring in my step after an entertaining afternoon and the realisation of the birth of thankfully another commendable venue in Preston. 

My next appearance was a bonus one as it was on the Sunday where we have just returned from Wickerman Festival 2011 and decided for some inexplicable reason to drag our tired bods out to a gig. We initially caught a Sheffield Steam Punk band in the Dog and Partridge before sallying down to the Conty.

The first act was Best Friends Forever, a wonky bedroom sounding lo-fi band but not without charm and they are coincidentally not unlike the recently mentioned Wave Pictures.

The headliners were Let’s Wrestle, a three-piece band from London. They were promoting their second album ‘Nursing Home’ which was produced by Steve Albini of Big Black fame. They subsequently took a hiatus and disbanded in 2015. They had a plethora of influences in their sound, however for the best descriptor I would have to defer to a BBC’s Collective quote which memorably coined them as ‘the accidental 4am lovechild of eight bottles of £2.99 merlot and a wheelbarrow full of Cutter’s Choice’. This is arguably the best quote I have read since early Idlewild were described as ‘the sound of a flight of stairs falling down a flight of stairs’!    

The band were an engaging presence, but we understandably flagged towards the end of the set as the weekend’s festivities caught up with us and a taxi was called to curtail the evening.

At the tail end of 2012 we went to see the old punk band Eddie and The Hot Rods whose constant member throughout their existence was Barrie Masters prior to his death in 2019. Their famous top ten hit ‘Do Anything You Wanna Do’ released in 1977 still stands up to this day, but their set was a tad limp. They were supported on the night by Dirty Swamp.

In November 2011 there was an unusual event which piqued my interest. They showed a screening of the ‘Anyone Can Play Guitar’, a Jon Spira documentary narrated by Stewart Lee about the Oxford music scene covering the period from 1978 to 2007. The film name was derived from a Radiohead track, and they were naturally a key reference point alongside Oxford counterparts Supergrass. 

Alongside the successes, it also concentrated on other bands who didn’t quite make it, one such band was the Candyskins, who were about at the inception of Britpop. They had limited success but must have driven over a black cat at some stage because they could not have encountered worse luck, including legal disputes over royalties and record companies going bankrupt at inopportune moments. I am just listening to some of their back catalogue as I type this and I am hearing strong shades of Boo Radleys in their sound, which is never a bad thing in my book!

The Candyskins. Image Credit alchetron.com

Another band referenced was one of the shoegaze forerunners Ride and their guitarist Mark Gardener was in residence and after a Q&A performed a short acoustic set. That was followed by a decent set by another Oxford band Rock of Travolta who sat in the instrumental post-rock genre.