Tag: Jesus and Mary Chain

Liverpool Venues 2 and 3

Liverpool has always been a challenge to access via the train network, so it has not been a regular haunt for gig attending. I must grudgingly concede that the many of the Northern trains are now being improved but the Liverpool routes appear to be at the bottom of the upgrading schedule.

I regularly commute to Liverpool with work thereby having to tolerate the inferior rolling stock. Recently I arrived at Lime Street for a return journey and was astonished to see a new Northern train waiting on the platform, with advanced accessories such as tables, though my joy was short-lived as I realised there were two trains on the platform and sighed when I saw my actual commute of Ivor the Engine was awaiting behind!

I have witnessed Jesus and Mary Chain nine times in total across the years ranging from that infamous show in Preston Clouds in 1985 through to a gig at Manchester Albert Hall a couple of months ago. Many of those shows have been chaotic but their gig at the Lomax takes the biscuit!

Gill, John Dewhurst, and I headed over on a Friday night in 1998, with Gill generously offering to be the designated driver. We scouted around a couple of boozers then headed over to the venue on Cumberland St, off Dale St in the city centre.

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An ultimately unsuccessful gathering to save the Lomax. Image Credit Liverpool Echo.

The club was a three floored iconic site for up-and-coming acts with a 300 capacity. Bands such as Radiohead and Muse had graced the stage there.  It was also known as Foxys and it looks like the venue was permanently closed in 2015 following a police investigation where the owner was jailed for six years for openly selling cocaine on the premises.

It was an intimate venue, but the band were literally falling apart on stage exemplified by continuous acerbic exchanges between Jamie and William Reid and many false starts, Gill was ready to jump on stage and bang their heads together! It was a raggedy set with a far proportion off their latest album ‘Munki’.

The only song that really stood out for me on the night was a rousing version of ‘Reverence’ with its haunting screaming refrain ‘I Wanna Die Just Like Jesus Christ’. Based on that performance it was absolutely no surprise it transpired to be their final tour, prior to their reformation around ten years later.

On five occasions, I have attended gigs on my birthday, Neil Young on my 19th birthday, Against Me on my 32nd, an Alicante gig on my 50th and a King St event on my 51st. They have also generously allocated me an extra bank holiday this year the day after my birthday to attend a Lovely Eggs gig. Rumours that it is due to a Queen Jubilee event are patently untrue!

The fifth occurrence was on 02/06/11, my 43rd birthday. Gill and I had booked a night in Liverpool and after visiting a restaurant in Liverpool One, we dived into a random pub called The Ship & Mitre on the way back to the hotel.

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The Ship & Mitre. Image Credit Liverpool Echo.

It was approaching last orders and we sat quietly in an alcove in the corner and were soon the last punters in the establishment. Then somewhat bizarrely and unprompted one of the bar staff grabbed an acoustic guitar and the other chap called Simon Cities provided the vocals. We watched three to four songs of their sea shanties to not appear impolite before taking our leave, requiring them to unlock the door for us, it was literally a bonus closed door gig!

A postscript is that the documenting of the JAMC gig completes all the gigs I attended in the 20th century, however do not be too perturbed as there are veritable shedloads of 21st century gigs yet to review!

Glasgow Barrowland – Part 2

The Barrowland is known locally as the Barras and they once obviously based a Taggart story around the venue and in the opening scenes a body was discovered in the doorway – Murder!

The venue remains the only one I have encountered thus far with a metal detector which identified that Uncle George’s keyring  had a penknife enclosed which was summarily confiscated until after the gig. It was an astonishingly civilised venue bar with no hassle queueing and healthy banter.

Upstairs was the grand ballroom venue with 1900 capacity. The place had a great vibe about it with a good view from any vantage point. It was a big event for us and for the Glaswegian Mogwai boys as it was their first performance at their spiritual home. Pre-gig ‘God Save the Queen’ by Sex Pistols boomed out of the speakers.

Mogwai were in fine fettle and the set highlights were ‘Summer’, ‘Ex Cowboy’ and a thunderous ‘Mogwai Fear Satan’. The cheeky monkeys even turned off the sound system at the end and then briefly turned it back on for a couple of seconds which was a sensory shock!

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Barrowland Main Hall. Image Credit barrowland-ballroom.co.uk

Around that time, I had got into a habit of saying ‘God Bless You’ which nearly got me in a scrape in a nightclub later that evening! A couple of leisurely Sunday lunchtime pints in a plush bar with leather armchairs near Central station before the train home completed a fine weekend.

We have seen two further superb Mogwai performances at Barrowland on 22/12/11 and 21/06/15. At the latter gig I extended the stay at the Premier Inn for a further night as Gill headed up on the train for the second night.

For the first time we discovered that evening some fine bars in the West End including Oran Mor which was a short shuttle train ride out of the city. This is a grand bar in the style of the Piano and Pitcher pubs with a music venue upstairs, but I have never yet had a chance to see a band there. We also had a top Tapas meal that night at Café Andaluz, which also has another branch opposite the Wetherspoons in the city centre.  

My one other attendance at Barrowland was to see the East Kilbride boys Jesus and Mary Chain on 23/11/14. We took Gill to one of the interesting local boozers across the road before the gig.  

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William and Jamie Reid from Jesus and Mary Chain. Image Credit Consequence of Sound.

They were playing a 30-year anniversary tour of their seminal debut album ‘Psychocandy’.It still sounded fresh and vibrant though Jamie Reid was in a particularly truculent mood and it is highly unusual for me to state this, but the guitars were too loud as it tended to drown out his vocals. It was still an enjoyable gig though.

As you headed back into the city from the venue there was a late bar en route called Maggie Mays which we have visited before to ‘have one for the ditch!’. After the Mary Chain gig there was a band called Trembling Bells twinkling away in the corner.