Tag: The Vines

Liverpool Venues 33 to 35

I shall return this week to my ongoing review of the 2025 Liverpool Sound City event, with our next port of call being Liverpool Kazimier Stockroom. As I have discovered when writing these scouse based blogs their background stories of the venues never seem to be simple. So, this particular tale commences with the much touted original arty Kazimier venue in Wolstenholme Square.

The venue opened in 2007 in an old mirror-lined club owned by local boxer John Conteh and came complete with an octagonal dancefloor, outdoor space and a top-deck bar and it was the size of the Titanic. It finally bowed out in some particular style on New Years Eve 2015 after a self-created sci-fi themed Escape to Planet Kronos party with one hundred and eighty performers. A mere four months later alongside Nation, the original home of Cream, the whole area was razed to the ground under the banner of gentrification plans.

Kazimier Stockroom. Image Credit liverpooltheatres.com

A regular performer there was the in-house carnival techno act The Krunk Band. They chose not to perform on stage, instead they mingled into the crowd whilst booting out their tunes and included a mishmash of trumpets, percussions, barrel organ and accordions in their sound. Other bands to play there include Sleaford Mods, Blossoms, Buzzcocks, Miles Kane, Michael Head and The Harlequin Dynamite Matching Band.  

Then in 2016 the newly formed Kazimier Collective opened up a new venue on Regent Street near to the Stanley Dock Tobacco Warehouse. The three storey building comprises of two events spaces, the basement one called Substation, and some artist studios. It was named The Invisible Wind Factory and has a 1500 capacity. Fat White Family, Ride and the Orielles have played there, and it has also been used for daytime rollerdisco events, thereby invoking unwelcome memories of Cliff Richard and Frank Spencer!  

The Collective then opened up the Kazimier Stockroom which is a multipurpose small site with a 100 capacity and alongside being an intimate showcase for fledgling local and national bands they also host film screenings and theatre shows. It has an open courtyard area, and its name derives from its location adjacent to Kazimier Gardens.  

Upon our arrival it took us a moment to find the venue which was located just off from the outside area behind an unmarked wooden door, it was a busy enclosed space and was absolutely sweltering. On stage was a young R&B singer called Immi Dash who was born in Scotland to British and Trinidadian parents, raised between California and Slough and now resides in Liverpool, sounds like an eventful journey!  

Arts Club. Image Credit tagvenue.com

We then moved onto the nearby Liverpool Arts Club on Seel Street, a venue that has existed since 1928 and was before that date The Liverpool Royal Institution. Its original remit under the new banner was as a social club before morphing into a live music venue. Prior to its current moniker it was known also as The Barfly, The Masque and East Village Arts Club.

In the early part of 2023, like many other similar establishments it faced closure, but was subsequently thankfully saved from that ignominious fate by the Manchester based Tokyo Industries. That particular company also own Gorilla, The Deaf Institute and Factory 251 and brought that previous expertise and a major regeneration to this venture. Early gigs by The Wombats and Two Door Cinema Club served to cement its reputation back on the live circuit.

The venue has three individual rooms, the first is the lobby which is utilised as a club space with a capacity of 200 punters. The second is Liverpool Arts Club Loft which has a live maximum of 550 people. When we attended there, we saw a Manchester act called Cooper T who are a duo comprising of two producers Kong and TMNMS. They sported brown shell suits and matching balaclavas and were verging on the grime genre, not dissimilar to Sleaford Mods, a band who has always left me cold, though the crowd around me appeared to be lapping it up!

The Florentenes. Image Credit youtube.com

Along a linking corridor brought you to Liverpool Arts Club Theatre, which was my preferred venue of the two and has a capacity of 550 and the space reminded me of the old Preston Polytechnic venue. First up we saw a local singer called Neil Noa and then later in the day Florentenes. The latter three piece were from Manchester and astoundingly young with the two guitarists aged eighteen and the drummer only fifteen. They reminded me in parts of The View, early Strokes and The Vines and they created a very pleasing racket!  

Leeds Festival 2002

After attending one day of the 2001 festival, we decided to go and complete the full Monty of all three days of the 2002 event. As stated previously we have never actually camped at a festival and this time stayed at the Hilton in the city centre. This allowed us to swerve the unrest involving burning down the toilet blocks that occurred at the end of the festival, because of this incident it was the last event to take place at Temple Newsam before moving to its current home of Bramham Park.

Uncle George, Gill and I undertook the three days while John Dewhurst and his then partner attended Day 1 and Day 3 while Tony Dewhurst was at Day 2 and Day 3. After a couple of drinks, we headed out to the site on the Friday and despite it being a large site it was chaotically busy. We encountered School of Rock and his pals who were in residence at the Bacardi Tent.

The first band we focused on was Slipknot who were fourth on the bill on the main stage. We obtained a decent vantage point and as it was the first time I had witnessed them their full circus glory was abundantly fresh and their potty mouthed antics and the ascending rotating drum kit a sight to behold and they created a decent racket to boot. Following them we caught the Prodigy and the Snuff band wannabees the Offspring and their hit ’Pretty Fly for a White Guy’. On other stages we witnessed, And They Shall Know us by the Trail of Dead and Spiritualized.

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Leeds Festival 2002 Line Up. Image Credit pulpwiki.net

The overall headliners that day were Guns N Roses who were playing the Leeds site only. In their inimitable style they were over an hour late hitting the stage, no doubt inflicting migraines on the organisers in relation to time curfews. By this point we were heading for the bus but could hear their bombastic sound in the distance.     

On day 2, we arrived deliberately early for a 4.00pm main stage slot by my band of the weekend the White Stripes. I had missed an opportunity to see them at the tiny Manchester Roadhouse venue the previous year which was a regret so made doubly sure I was there this time and it turned out to be the only time I managed to witness them.

We spent 20 minutes wending our way through the huge crowd right from the top of the hill to about Row 10 in front of the stage. They did not disappoint and were a compelling spectacle and created such an almighty racket for a two-piece. Jack White’s voice was nothing less than astonishing and was reminiscent of a young Frank Black when I initially saw the Pixies at Manchester International 1 in 1988. As we headed away from the stage we heard Sports Report on a radio playing at a burger van which informed us that PNE had won, so all was well in the world, and it was time for another overpriced cool beer!     

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White Stripes on stage. Image Credit guitar.com

We also caught The Vines, Electric Soft Parade, Feeder, Weezer, Pulp, Jane’s Addiction and the first track of the Strokes set with Julian Casablancas hobbling on in a cast after an accident at a recent gig. I wanted to catch the Reindeer Section, a super group consisting of members of Snow Patrol, Mogwai and Arab Strap. However, when we reached the tent, it was evident that their set was cancelled, and we saw a screechy much inferior band called Vendetta Red instead. The numerous white robed members of Polyphonic Spree squeezing onto a very small stage were also an interesting spectacle.   

The following morning in the lounge area of the hotel we encountered Grant Nicholas, so it was a ‘breakfast with Feeder moment’ prior to them setting off to the Reading slot. Other bands I witnessed over the weekend were Dandy Warhols, Ash, Sum 41, Hives, Haven, Jimmy Eat World, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Cooper Temple Clause, Rival Schools, Easyworld, Bobby Conn, Princess Superstar, Span, International Noise Conspiracy, Ben Kweller, The Streets, Spunge, No Use For A Name, Face To Face, Lo-Fidelity Allstars and Sick Of It All.     

I saw about 20 minutes of Muse’s grandiose set whilst standing on the hill queuing up for some tea. I made one major discovery when I witnessed the sublime British Sea Power for the first time in one of the side tents. They were in their first World War garb and foliage stage of their career, and they were terrific live, and I have seen them many times since.

The weekend ended with us walking to the transport pick up point and the musical accompaniment en route was the headliners Foo Fighters playing their finest track ‘Monkey Wrench’.