Tag: Kasabian

Preston Venue 52 Moor Park – Part 1

Somewhat remarkably I have arrived at the door of my 200th (and 201st) blog so I cogitated long and hard about to what to cover in this particular piece and eventually decided to write about what was arguably Preston’s biggest ever music event in terms of national exposure in my lifetime.    

On returning from a holiday in early 2007 we were informed that astonishingly the Radio 1 Big Weekend was to be held in the sleepy backwater of Preston in May 2007, and not only that but the venue chosen was Preston Moor Park, a ten-minute bumble from where I lived at that time. This event was Europe’s biggest free ticketed event, with 35k punters in attendance over the two days.

   Moor Park with an outdoor stage in approximately 1955. Image Credit flickr.com

Moor Park is Preston’s largest and oldest park. It was the site of the Battle of Preston in 1648 where there was a four-hour scrap between the New Model Army, commanded by Oliver Cromwell (commemorated in song by Elvis Costello) and the Royalist and the Scots. Horse racing was held there annually between 1736 and 1833, and there is still in place the stone that was the starting point for the races.

Also, in 1833 it was rebadged as Moor Park and the original Serpentine Lake and ‘Ladies Walk’ (Moor Park Avenue) remain to this day. Preston North End began their existence initially as a cricket club on the park before changing over to football and moving location onto the other side of Deepdale Road.

During the Great War, it was utilised as a hospital and in the Second World War as a prisoner of war camp. The observatory was installed in 1927 just before a rare occurrence of a total eclipse in that year.

Moor Park with Deepdale in the background. Image Credit blogpreston.co.uk

There was an open-air baths in existence there until the early 1970’s, just before my time though I do recall visiting the other open-air baths in Haslam Park across town before that closed, though from memory the water was brutally cold! I do also remember they had a decent pitch and putt golf course in the middle part of Moor Park in the 1980’s.  

The first challenge was to purloin a ticket for the Radio 1 shindig, and they did thankfully allocate a vast proportion to local postcodes. After submitting applications from several addresses (with prior agreement!) I was notified we had been allocated two tickets for the Sunday bill, though confirmation was only received ten days before the event. The tickets were free though that did not stop many greedy charlatans trying to sell them at hugely inflated prices, before thankfully the sites were shut down!

It was obviously broadcast live on Radio 1, and coverage was also available on BBC Three, with Edith Bowman, Jo Whiley and Chris Moyles amongst others in attendance. There was a huge encouragement for attendees to use public transport as there is very limited parking facilities in that area, two separate park and rides schemes were set up to assist in this venture.   

There were many Fringe events with local bands playing at the Mad Ferret, 53 Degrees, Bitter Suite, Kolor Bar and the Venue. They featured acts such as Jelly’s Last Jam, King Casanova, How’s My Pop and Redwings who had recently had a support slot with the Subways.

King Casanova playing Oxjam in Preston in 2007. Image Credit flickr.com

On the Saturday there was an exciting vibe as festival goers walked past the end of my road and I could hear the music from the bands in the distance. My pal Rick Clegg was in attendance and acts playing that day included Razorlight, Kasabian, The Gossip, Biffy Clyro, CSS, Scissor Sisters and LCD Soundsystem.

Preston Venue 23 The Mill – Part 3

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’.

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Half Man Half Biscuit on stage. Image Credit BBC.

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!

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Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Image Credit saltartists.com