Tag: John Bramwell

Clitheroe Gigs

About 20 miles east of Preston down the A59 lies the town of Clitheroe. The name is purported to derive from the Anglo-Saxon for ‘Rocky Hill’ and the Battle of Clitheroe was fought there in 1138 during the Anarchy (a civil war that took place in England and Normandy).

I have always been fond of the place and visited many times and have memories in my youth of climbing up the steep hill to the castle and enjoying the view from the elevated position. I recall a bandstand being located on the slope, and I have probably seen musical acts there, but they were never recorded in the Jimmy annals so would unfortunately drop into the ‘Lost Gigs’ criteria.

Clitheroe Castle. Image Credit www.rvta.co.uk

Similar to travelling to Southport there are somewhat annoyingly no direct trains from Preston, the route requires one change at Blackburn. Clitheroe is the terminus station so the train heads onwards to turn around and come back the other way, though I do believe there is a linkage from there onto the famous Settle to Carlisle line. 

For a lengthy spell, Gill visited a hairdressers in Clitheroe and on occasions I would head over and meet her afterwards and have a sally around the many hostelries in the town. We once broke the routine and grabbed the opportunity to visit the town of Whalley which is a smidge earlier on the same line, and that transpired to be a fine place to spend a few hours at.  

My good friend Tony Dewhurst has for many years lived in a village just outside Clitheroe, and is a huge Killing Joke and music fan and began to become involved with press duties at the Clitheroe Grand.

The Grand’s first function when built in 1873-1874 was as Clitheroe Public Hall, before morphing into the Grand cinema in 1921 and remains now as a Grade II Listed building. In a change of direction in 2005, the Lancashire Foundation purchased the building and re-opened it in 2008 as a community family focused arts venue also including sponsorship of a skate park in the previously mentioned castle grounds.

They also regularly have live music on the roster and the driving force and promotor behind the musical element was a thoroughly decent chap called Matt Evans who suddenly and sadly passed away during covid. Matt was a huge muso, and his personal favourite band was the Chameleons. Amongst others to grace the stage there was Wishbone Ash, John Bramwell and New Model Army. They also reintroduced the annual Ribble Valley Jazz festival in 2010 after a gap of 40 years.

It lived up to its name as a ‘grand’ venue as it had a homely layout with a decent vantage point from all angles. It reminded me of a more inviting version of the old main hall venue at Preston 53 Degrees.

Clitheroe Grand. Image Credit sseaudio.com

I attended two non-music events when a group pf us headed over in 2011 to see a Q&A with two Lancashire cricketers Mark Chilton and Ian Austin as a celebration of the county winning their first County Championship for 77 years. The other was to watch a woeful England draw 0-0 against Algeria in the 2010 World Cup where the best thing about the match was the very fine curry they laid on at half time. I also recall watching us beat Paraguay 1-0 in the 2006 World Cup in the Castle pub in the town centre.    

I have seen a total of three gigs here, the first was on 27/05/11 to witness an AC/DC tribute band called Livewire who featured both Bon Scott and Brian Johnson eras, the band were suitably thunderously loud. I must say have always struggled with the concept of tribute acts and not seen many and in the main when attending festivals. They on one hand serve their purpose, but they cannot feasibly lay a glove on the real band themselves. Having said all that, I saw them the same band there again on 11/03/16 where we subsequently missed the connection home at Blackburn and had to flag a taxi home!   

The other gig was a belter with The Beat in town and Rankin Roger and Junior Rankin in full flow and they topically transplanted the name David into their version of ‘Stand Down Margaret’. It was a very merry evening, and the train journeys home are a tad hazy!  

Wickerman Festival 14

A degree of sadness pervades as I draft this week’s blog as it details the fourteenth and last ever Wickerman Festival to be held which took place on 24/25 July 2015. There were rumours for over a year around the future of the event, eventually resulting in the confirmation later in 2015 that Wickerman would be no more leaving a huge chasm in my annual gig calendar!

On the bill were the Waterboys, who I recall I first become aware of when they played the Tube on a Friday teatime on Channel 4, also playing were Squeeze whose set I enjoyed. Glasgow post punks Catholic Action and electronic synth band Ubre Blanca, bizarrely named after Fidel Castro’s favourite cow were also in residence, alongside Errors, Belle and the Beast, Beth Fourage, Be Charlotte, Wayne Devre Set, Sister Fox, Vaselines and the grungy Tuff Love.  

The punk contingent was covered by Amphetameanies and stalwarts Eddie and the Hot Rods with their timeless Top 10 hit ‘Do Anything You Wanna Do’, their only constant member being singer Barrie Masters, prior to his death in 2019. 

Cellist Calum Ingram headlined the Acoustic Tent and the reggae/ska corner had Jimmy Cliff with his ‘Many Rivers to Cross’. There was hip-hop from Hector Bizerk and main stage performances from Lulu, Stereo MC’s, the ever-impressive Neneh Cherry and Pere Ubu who I did once own one album by, namely ‘The Tenement Year’ however the only song I can recall is ‘George Had a Hat’.  

Neneh Cherry. Image Credit djdmac.com

Folk tones were ensured by Glasgow five-piece Washington Irving, John Bramwell, frontman from I Am Kloot, Chichester’s Tom Odell, Novantae! from Galloway and Rick Redbeard which was the solo performer stage name for Rick Anthony, lead singer for the Phantom Band.   

My notes also inform me that I saw SLUG who were promoting their debut album ‘Ripe’ though I cannot recall their performance. In the last two or three years they have received a lot more attention and received considerable radio airplay from the likes of Mark Reilly.

Aiden Moffett (of Arab Strap fame) and Bill Wells were also on the roster. We also headed over to the third stage to see the excellent Pains of Being Pure at Heart, who I was watching for the fifth and final time before their subsequent break up.

Many of my favourite Scottish bands had played this festival over the years including Teenage Fanclub, The View, The Proclaimers, Idlewild, Aerogramme and The Rezillos to name a few, however the cream of the crop Mogwai had never graced the festival.

This was partially rectified by Stuart Braithwaite, Mogwai main singer appearing for a solo set on the Acoustic stage which we obviously attended. I managed to have a brief photo shoot and chat with him and who knows if there had have been a following year perhaps Mogwai might have played, we shall never know! 

John Dewhurst, Uncle George, Stuart Braithwaite and me replete with dubious festival hat in the Acoustic Tent. Image Credit Mrs Braithwaite.

So, before we depart the South West Scotland amphitheatre permit me, if I may to take you on a final tour of the site. From the initial taxi/bus drop off point you would traverse through the tents to the wristband collection point then onto the main entrance which in reality was a hole in the wall.

Opposite the entrance you could purchase a stage times list before turning left past the funfair, circus or cinema, dependant on what they chosen to incorporate that particular year. Onwards past the Acoustic Tent, behind which in later years there was a craft beer and Mojito tent.

At the apex of the hill was the shop, Third Stage and Solus and Scooter Tents, of which the latter in the early years resembled a Mash Tent where they had stellar DJ’s playing. From here, you had a superb vantage to watch the Wickerman burning at midnight on the Saturday night. I seem to recall one year they had a little mini golf course next to the statue.  

Traversing down the hill rolled you past the VIP area and main beer tent, where occasionally bash em up bands would play. In the natural bowl was the main stage followed by the Dance and Silent Disco Tent. Just in advance of fully circling back to the main entrance you would find the fabulous Reggae Tent which was always erected on an incline. This tent was a regular final stopping point of the evening where you could purchase a hot mug of tea and a flapjack whilst being dually soothed by the Bob Marley inspired soundtrack and stoned by the pungent aroma permeating all around.     

A couple of years later, when in attendance at another Scottish festival, one of the gig brethren said the festival was good, but it is not Wickerman and we all murmured in assent, I can think of no more fitting epitaph than that!