On Mansfield Road, at the junction where Forest Fields commences sits the Forest Tavern pub. The hostelry is a real ale paradise, and you could happily quaff your way down the drink’s menu in the small front tap room. This was a regular haunt and quite often a last stop prior to stumbling across the dark forest fields on the way back to my brother’s residence.
In the back of the pub was a more spacious gig venue called the Maze. It was always a decent venue with a cracking sound system and was mainly a roots and ska place but did cover other genres. Despite a successful crowdfunding scheme to raise 20K in 2017 to revamp the premises, the venue sadly closed its doors for the final time in 2019 and there are now plans to convert the building into student flats.
My first visit there in August 2009 was for a double bill with Minus Society providing the support. The headliners were a radical leftist punk band with the natty name of Leftover Crack from a squat in Manhattan, New York who produced a vibrant noisy set.
My next foray was in 2011 to see a fairly limp performance by a local band called Kick the Rabbit with Youth in Revolt in support. A couple of years later a dub band from Brighton called the Resonators were in residence and produced a suitable skanky set.
My final visit there was on 08/05/15. The previous night we had watched North End beat Chesterfield 1-0 in the Play Offs in a pub further down Mansfield Road in the Sherwood area. The gig was originally planned for a café venue in town which I had not attended previously, but for the life of me I cannot recall the name of the place. Anyhoo, they moved it at a late date to the Maze venue.
First band on was Eyre View and the main support was Flyying Colours from Melbourne, Australia who I had totally forgotten I had seen until I checked my notes. I think I see too many bands which I don’t view as a problem, but it can cause bouts of partial amnesia! The reason for my surprise is that I adore this band now and had tickets to see them earlier this year, which was naturally cancelled by the pandemic, but will catch them at their rescheduled date in 2022. I recall enjoying their Slowdive influenced shoegaze heavy set.
The main band was PinkShinyUltraBlast, a fabulously named shoegaze band hailing from St Petersburg in Russia. Listening to their recorded material beforehand I heard elements of Asobi Seksu, Sereena Maneesh and Cocteau Twins in their sound and they portrayed all that in a live setting. What was so astonishing was the volume, and I mean thunderous white noise pin you to the walls sonic attack type of volume, which was all encompassing in a fun way but did lose a smidge of the subtlety.
As a result, I would have to include them in my Top 5 loudest live bands list alongside more recognisable luminaries in this genre of Mogwai, My Bloody Valentine, Swans and Pelican.