Preston Venue 10 Guild Hall – Part 1

Slap bang in the centre of town lies the Preston Guild Hall. It sits within the Guild Hall shopping arcade with the main access in at ground level from Lancaster Road. Upon entering via that route, you encounter about twenty retail units and for years there used to be a newspaper kiosk at the bottom of the corridor that I frequented regularly to purchase the Lancashire Evening Post. Next to there was a chicken shop called Gabbots Farm (somewhat cruelly renamed Maggots Farm!).

Beyond there, during the 80’s and 90’s was a Morrisons store in the days when supermarkets where more regularly located in town centres. I used to visit their books and record store in the basement and Gill had a weekend job there when at college. It is now an indoor bowling alley/bar called Level.     

A side entrance takes you out to Tithebarn Street and in bygone days there were a couple of pubs, the Guild Tavern which latterly became Lionel’s which closed in 2006 and the other being the Jazz Bar, also known as Harrys Bar and Gaiety Bar at various points which closed in 2012. I regularly visited the Guild Tav back in the day.

The Guild Tavern pub in 1990. Image Credit Jim Holderness

Up the escalator takes you to the booking office area and a corridor heads off past the Guild Centre (Tower) where I worked for many years. This route continues to a pedestrian bridge over to the Bus Station and car park. The gangway is highly visible from the street below and provides an ample opportunity to do a Dustin Hoffman Graduate impersonation if you were so inclined.

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The Graduate. Image Credit pinterest.com

The bus station is a huge seven floor brutalist listed structure and I think still remains as the biggest in Europe. The car park is never full unless the graduation ceremonies are taking place.

I have spent countless hours on that bus station whether departing or disembarking. I quite often used to catch the 11.00 last bus from there where the lights would go down and about 15 buses departed at the same time. I was once 10 seconds late and had to scamper across the apron, vaulted the wall and ran down the market Usain Bolt style to catch it at the next but one stop. Somewhat breathless but content that I had avoided a three mile walk home!

The Guild Hall complex contains three separate venues, namely the Grand Hall (capacity 2034), Charter Theatre (780) and the Foyer (350).

As implied in the name, the Charter is more of a theatre venue and only sporadically had gigs and I never witnessed one there though regretfully did miss Proclaimers playing there. My abiding memory of that venue is being dragged there as a child to watch Joseph and his Technicolour Dreamcoat.

Across from the ticket office are banqueting suites where weddings have taken place and where I have made blood donations in the past before crunching on my custard creams!

Upon entering the actual venue there is a foyer area with a bar and steps taking you up to the Grand Hall. It is an ok venue with a decent size standing area with seats behind.

Aside from music I have attended many different events there, namely school events, one of Gill’s numerous graduations and comedians Peter Kay, Lee Hirst and Ben Elton.

Preston Venues 8 and 9

Just behind Preston prison, on Ribbleton Lane was the Preston TUC Club (also known as the Ribdale Club). It was a scruffy slightly battered venue with a decent sized gig room on the left-hand side of the building.

My first visit was in 1985 on a Thursday night with the band in question being the Food Scientists. They had some truly suspect barbecued beans with baked potatoes on sale which I really should not have purchased. The band were instantly forgettable and did a short set allowing me to jump on the 11.15 bus home.

My other visit was on another Thursday 10/12/87 to see Chumbawumba. Astonishingly there were five gigs on in Preston that night, a true tsunami of music and a feat possibly never repeated. They included Tank at the Guild Hall and Frank Sidebottom at London Road Labour Club, I cannot recall the other two events.

There was a group of us out and we also ran into Tony Dewhurst in the Greyhound prior to them going to the Frank Sidebottom gig. I headed to the other gig on my lonesome before catching up with John Dewhurst inside the venue.

We witnessed a couple of supports prior to the main band coming on at 10.30. This was prior to their ‘Tubthumping’ 15 minutes of fame period. There was about 10 of them in the band and they very interactive, anarchic and overtly political, creating a vibrant moshpit.

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Chumbawumba promo pic. Image Credit last.fm

They did one song in the style of Dylan’s ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ with the discarding of the placards and encored with an acapella version of ‘The Diggers’ for which Billy Bragg had previously performed a cover. They played about an hour set and were good fun overall.

Couple of years later I missed a Snuff gig there as I was recovering from a tonsillectomy. I can find no records there of any gigs into the 90’s so assuming the music part of the venue closed around then.

Down by the River (not the Neil Young track!) in Preston lie the linked Parks, Miller and Avenham Park. The latter has a natural bowl effect and we used to partake in the local tradition of rolling eggs down the hill on Easter Monday.  

Avenham Park on an Easter Monday (before my time!). Image Credit Blog Preston.

There used to be an old stage at the foot of the slope, which was utilised during the Preston Guild events which take place every 20 years (in place since 1179) and this venue was used extensively in the 1992 event. The stage has long now and there is a café and tourist information where it once stood.

I saw four different gigs there over the years. The first being a short impromptu one when traversing the park on the way to another gig in town after a couple of bevies in the Continental pub. This was on 31/05/92 and we caught a portion of Jools Holland and Rhythm and Blues band’s set.

I witnessed two local bands events, the first in July 2000 witnessing Lorane, Bridge and Cujo and the second was on 26/07/03 to see sets by Gotukola, Free Parking, Idiom Lifeline and Neocoma.   

Between 1994 and 1996 Gill and I lived on a flat off Fishergate Hill which was 5 minutes-walk from the park and remarkably a free Heineken Festival was scheduled to take place there.

We headed down on a Saturday in June 1994 and were chatting to a couple of friends whilst a young bunch of upstarts from South Manchester called Oasis were playing in the tent about 100 yards away – I can claim I heard them at least!

We now live within 5 minutes’ walk to where the Gallagher boys grew up and the record shop they frequented and my pal Marcus lives opposite the house where the Definitely Maybe album cover picture was taken

I am sure I saw more than one band that day but did not record the details so the only one I definitely clocked was a superb set from Boo Radleys. The fact that I could witness such a fine band for free on my doorstep was a rare boon. Their best track was ‘Lazarus’.  

The festival continued the following year but with a significantly more commercial slant with Spice Girls playing. I decided to swerve that one and reminisce on the previous year’s show!

I appreciate this is a first world problem, but today marks 100 days since my last gig, my longest gap between gigs since 1994. I am hoping and praying that all these venues, especially the smaller ones  survive the pandemic.