Tag: Jez Catlow

Preston Venues 61 to 62

I am returning to the area of my hometown and birthplace of Preston this week by delving into the nearby town of Chorley which is a short ten-minute train ride away. It is the home of the Chorley cake, certainly not to be confused with Eccles cakes! Previous famous residents include Pauline Clare, UK’s first woman chief constable, comedian Phil Cool, speaker of the house Lindsay Hoyle, League of Gentleman’s Steve Pemberton and musicians John Foxx and Starsailor.

My pal Jez Catlow has been a member of various bands over the years with one of the latter ones being Deadwood Dog. The lead singer Mick Pike recently took over a bar in Chorley town centre and obviously was always going to stage music there, including spots for his own bands!  

Chorley Foxtails. Image Credit tripadvisor.co.uk

So, situated on a street called Pall Mall, you will find Chorley Foxtails Bar and Music Club, which is a fine cosy friendly establishment, and is a family run bar. They are open between 3 and 10 from Thursday to Sunday, but those hours can be extended as and when desired.

They have Thursday night community events incorporating music quizzes and craft & draught and games evenings. They stage regular gigs, normally on either a Saturday night or Sunday afternoon, mostly free but with the odd pay event. Stourbridge punk balladeer Jess Silk is playing there this very evening at a sold out gig.       

Gill, Uncle George and I decided to make a sabbatical over to this new bar to see Deadwood Dog in action on the last day of February this year. As Preston North End had a big FA Cup tie at high noon the next day, we sought alternative approaches as it made no sense to return home in the interim. We landed on the option of finding some cheap digs nearby and Chorley North Premier Inn met that brief perfectly.

So, on the Friday we navigated the M60 rush hour traffic to land at the hotel which had the very busy Malthouse Farm pub located right next door. We then purloined an uber into the town centre and purchased some tea at Calico Lounge near the train station.

Chorley North Premier Inn. Image Credit lancashire-hotels.com

We met George off the train and had a couple of refreshing sherbets before gravitating over to Foxtails. We sampled a couple of local ales and chewed the fat with Jez and Hughie who was also in attendance. The opening act was a decent blues covers band called Mojo Rising followed by an enjoyable set from Deadwood.  

After the gig we gravitated to the award-winning Chorley Shepherds Hall Ale House & Victoria Rooms. Itwas the first micro pub to open in Chorley in August 2014 and became a trend setter that many others have followed. The driving force behind it were three brothers named Stuart, Graham and Thomas Hardyman (no it is not the start of a joke or a Harry Potter script line!). 

Shepherds Hall Ale House. Image Credit tripadvisor.in

The name derived from the ancient order of Shepherd’s friendly society that used to be based in the building in the 19th century. It is located on Chapel Street near to the bus station and took over the former S&F Newsagents and is open seven days a week. It was refurbished in December 2020 and in the tail end of 2021 it expanded by taking over the adjacent larger shop unit next door.

It is an inviting establishment with a plethora of ales on tap and one we regularly visit when carousing in the town. It has a traditional Tap room, and the adjoining newer Victoria room is a larger space with extra seating dotted about. They now have sporadic music acts and are part of the Chorley Live roster. On the night of our visit a very noisy punk covers band were playing.

After encouraging George to head off and catch the midnight train, we encountered a delay before managing to bag a cab back to the hotel. We were both rather jaded in the morning but were revived by the chirpy staff and a belly busting breakfast and lashings of hot tea.  

I then went to pick up my father-in-law and then onto the match where we had a famous 3-0 victory over local rivals Burnley to reach the quarterfinals of the FA Cup for the first time in 59 years, and thus the first time in my lifetime.

Michael Palin playing Golden Gordon in Ripping Yarns. Image Credit BBC.

On arriving back, the result and achievement felt momentous enough to consider an impersonation of Michael Palin in the Ripping Yarns episode ‘Golden Gordon’ where he reappears after the football and when asked the score, he shouts out ‘eight -one, eight bloody one’ before trashing the crockery in celebration!

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.