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’.
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!
