Tag: John Robb

Preston Venues 24 and 25

When I left school in 1984, I undertook a one-year course to purloin some more further O’Levels at Newman College based in Winckley Square. I had somewhat to my detriment but to endless fun discovered pubs by this stage and regularly visited Lou’s Longbar in town on a Thursday night as they were somewhat lax in applying the normal age 18 criteria. A further essential part of the social calendar was to attend the legendary college do’s which took place 3 times that year. The very boozy events took place at Clouds nightclub on a Monday night.

At that time, there was a sister establishment in Preston called Tuson College based on St Vincent’s Road in Fulwood. They also held a college do in the same week on a Wednesday and these took place at Brooks Nightclub on Church Street. Rick Clegg and I managed to complete a 100% attendance record at all 6 functions in our college year but on those double do weeks we were extremely jaded come Thursday morning!

Brooks nightclub was based in the former Ritz cinema and was originally Scamps Discotheque and has since gone through various incarnations namely Arabellas, the Place and Aqualenium. Under that latter guise I attended one gig there on 16/05/02.

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Brooks Nightclub. Image Credit Flickr.

I discovered the existence of this hometown gig in a slightly unusual way. Thus, 19 days before I was leaving a And They Shall Know Us By the Trail of Dead gig in Manchester and local luminary John Robb was holding court by the exit door and outlining an upcoming Goldblade gig in Preston.

Calls were made in the morning to gather interest resulting in a group of us, including the enigmatic Matty Allen, gathering in the Black Horse on the gig night prior to heading onto the venue.

As it was a nightclub gig it turned into a very late one and many drinks were imbibed. Goldblade were supported by local band Onset. On a very small stage the main act commenced their performance close to 1am with Action Record’s Gordon Gibson in attendance. I do not think John Robb was enamoured with the sound system resulting in a fit of pique and the microphone being hurled down after a chaotic and very noisy truncated set!   

Action Records located on Church Street is one of those rare but utterly essential independent record stores. It started out as a stall on Blackpool Market before moving to its current location in 1979 and is still run by the indefatigable and Stranraer’s finest Gordon Gibson. I have been going in there since the early 80’s and remember Saturday afternoons delving into the vinyl boxes on the shop floor and unearthing and buying obscure gems such as Dumptruck and Squirrel Bait from my YTS money.  

They have developed their own record label recording output from acts such as the Boo Radleys. They have been a fierce advocate of record store day and have had many in store gigs including performances from Dirty Pretty Things, Bastille, Billy Bragg and a show from a young Muse in 1999.   

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Muse pictured with Gordon Gibson in Action Records 1999. Image Credit blogpreston.co.uk

On the night of 23/10/05 I was out watching Nine Black Alps in Manchester, coincidentally my 200th gig, and Magic Numbers were playing at the venue next door, and I heard on the grapevine they were undertaking an in store set the next day. So, the following lunchtime I gathered in a busy shop with Algarve Ray in attendance to watch a short set from a jaded looking Magic Numbers who hail from West London but model themselves on the 60’s Californian sound. They provided a soothing soundtrack within the confines of a somewhat unusual setting!

Manchester Venue 16 Academy 3 – Part 2

In totality, I have attended Manchester Academy 3 nineteen times thereby placing it in 6th place on my most populated venues list.  

Early in 2001, I began to become aware of the Strokes who released their terrific first album ‘Is This It’ later that year. I adore the way that record is recorded, sounding like they are in a New York basement, in a good way. I read in the NME they were playing Manchester and was fortunate to obtain four tickets from Piccadilly Records to a much-touted band for a sold-out gig.

John, Uncle George and Gill were in attendance on a filthy Thursday night in June. Walking up the steps to the top floor we passed Damon Gough (aka Badly Drawn Boy). He was later ensconced adjacent to us at the bar where a cliched fanboy approached him with the snappy refrain ‘love your album dude…’

The support band was Moldy Peaches followed by the main act who looked nervous initially, but they were excellent and had such admirable poise beyond the tender years.

I was perfectly content in the mosh pit when out of the blue somebody unseen threw a haymaker catapulting me halfway across the pit. Even the band looked taken aback. The assailant must have had a ring on as I had a proper bruise the next day.

Now I am a very chilled chap, but I was incandescent with rage at the sheer injustice of this unwarranted attack. There are unwritten rules for mosh pit etiquette and they were emphatically breached by this muppet!

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The Strokes. Image Credit NME

In April 2005 John Peel faves 65 Days of Static were in town. They had a couple of entries in the previous year’s Festive fifty and were supported by Sons of Slaughter. They were decent live but a tad Mogwai lite.

A couple of years later we headed over to see Goldblade supported by the punk poet Ted Chippington. Everything about that gig was loud including John Cooper Clarke booming out of the speakers in between acts.

Goldblade were thunderous with John Robb vamping it up in his inimitable style. I had imbibed a few sherbets, so when they offered ‘Iggy Pop’ style for punters to enter the fray I grabbed a rare opportunity and leapt on stage with many other like minded folk.

Implausibly, it was even louder up there, and I found myself next to the drummer so proceeded to assist him by slapping away at the drums for one track which was very exhilarating! Another new nickname was christened – ‘Jimmy the Sticks’.

On 22/11/07 an exceedingly rare event happened, namely me driving to a gig! The reason for this unusual anomaly was that we were driving to Centreparcs at Penrith the following day for the weekend.  

We landed in the venue just to catch the last two songs of a rather poor support act Son of Albion and somewhat cringingly for the band you could hear a pin drop when they finished, not even a polite smattering of applause!

The main band was the Raveonettes, a duo from Copenhagen with their fabulous names of Sune Rose Wagner on guitar and Sharon Foo on bass with the assistance of a drum machine. They excel in fuzzed up Mary Chainesque (made up word but describes it perfectly!) sound with gorgeous harmonies but with the additional bite of razor-sharp lyrics.  

To exemplify those contrast shades, they have in their cannon a sugary sounding track in the vein of Strawberry Switchblade, but it then contains contextually the understandingly brutal title ‘Boys Who Rape Should Be Destroyed’. They have produced a suite of excellent albums across their lineage.

They were a captivating experience in the live setting and were immensely enjoyable.

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The Raveonettes. Image Credit Ents 24.

When approaching my 42nd birthday I fancied attending a gig on the day so instigated a search and found that Against Me, a Florida punk band, were playing that night. Uncle George, Dave Keane and I sallied over on the quick train.  

This remains one of the four gigs I have attended on my actual birthday, Neil Young on my 19th and I saw a band in Liverpool and Manchester respectively on my 43rd and 51st birthdays.

They were one of those bands that seem to instil intense loyalty from their fans and that was evident in the fervent atmosphere at the gig. They had an individual sound and it was a fun night.