Nearby the Lace Market tram stop at Unit 6 on Warser Street you will found the Lofthouse. The arts space venue is located on the third floor of an industrial unit and they sporadically had gigs and I visited there just the once on 24/10/15.
It was a late gig, so we decided to future proof our entrance by visiting earlier and purchasing tickets but unfortunately the chap did not have a hand stamp available at that point. This nearly burned us later after we returned to the venue after watching the Hooton Tennis Club at the Chameleon, as we had to persuade a different chap on duty that we were honourable gig goers with a valid right of entrance and not a couple of blaggards!
The band in question was a local band called Sunset Nebula. They hit the stage about 11pm and I would place them in the ethereal spacy post-rock bracket (if such a genre exists!), they were excellent and greatly assisted by a terrific sound system which created a crisp as a bell acoustics.
On 14/05/16, the night before my brothers 50th birthday party we somewhat unsurprisingly decided to head out and watch a couple of bands. There was a venue I had been targeting for a while called JT Soar out near Sneinton marketplace. It was previously an ex-fruit and veg warehouse that has been converted into a DIY music and arts space containing a recording studio and rehearsal space frequented in the main by local bands.
After visiting a couple of grubby, not grungey nearby hostelries we sallied over to the venue. On first impression it resembled a squat with a battered doorway and settee to the right and a very small stage but in truth it had an undeniable charm. It looked like it had regular punters who frequented each week and you probably couldn’t exceed 100 people in the venue. It was a friendly vibrant place and a perfect example of one of those grassroots venues that absolutely need to survive.
We were notified at the door that it was BYOB, so we skelped off to a local off licence and purchased some Tyskie Polish lager before re-entering. The support band was Throwing Stuff, a hardcore group originally from Manchester in the mould of Black Flag and Minor Threat. They were somewhat erratic but frenetically enjoyable.
The headliners were the Bennies, a lively ska punk band from Melbourne, Australia. They formed in 2009 under the original name of Madonna before predictably encountering legal issues and changing to their current name a couple of years later.
In 2001, we heard about a small, short-lived event called the Treefest Festival which was held at Newstead Common on the outskirts of Nottingham. So, on a sunny Saturday afternoon in July, we decided to drive out take a gander. It was a very low budget affair and we saw two artists, Naomi Hillman and Ana Gracey, a singer/songwriter from London.
The most interesting amusing moment occurred when we were sat on the grass in the sunshine surrounded by young families. The background DJ music was of a decent level, and I think it was a Faith No More track playing, when suddenly the lead singer screamed out ‘MuthaF%#*@r’, the look on some of the kids’ faces was a picture!
That scenario recalled to me an incident at the local Asda in the Sherwood area in Preston when a freshly sacked employee decided to depart in style. He commandeered the tannoy system and proceeded to turn up the volume and play at high volume the non-radio potty mouthed version of Rage Against the Machine’s ‘Killing in the Name Of’. I wish I had been undertaking my weekly shop at that point as I would have flown around with Zack de La Rocha’s strident vocals ringing in my ears!
So, this completes my Nottingham story incorporating a grand total of 71 gigs across 48 different venues!