Tag: Wolf Alice

Leeds Venues 2 and 3

Underneath the arches on Swinegate near the main train station you would find Leeds Cockpit. It was formerly the Cock of the North pub before opening as a music/club venue in 1994. After a twenty-year spell, it closed in 2014 due to the low number of punters attending club nights, those very club nights subsequently relocating across town to the Key Club.

Luminaries such as Amy Winehouse, White Stripes, and hometown boys the Kaiser Chiefs treaded the boards there and the Fall once played a famous gig were the ever-obstreperous Mark E Smith refused to undertake an encore and sent out the roadies instead to play three more tracks.

There were three venues located inside, with the main room (capacity 500) being the location I have visited twice. The other rooms had capacities of 250 and 125 respectively.  It was a grungy atmospheric venue with its industrial type of location by the railway tracks and I liked it a lot and was mournful when I heard it had closed its doors for the last time.

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Leeds Cockpit. Image Credit BBC.

My first visit was on a warm Friday night in May 2003 to see Mogwai. We had a good mulch around a suite of city centre pubs ranging from smooth wine bars to Barnsley Bitter type alehouses, prior to heading over to the venue.

Mogwai produced a stellar set finishing with ‘2 Rights Make 1 Wrong’ and ‘My Father, My King’ and the encore contained a magnificent ‘Mogwai Fear Satan’. We headed back on the Saturday arriving home just in time to watch Southampton narrowly lose the Cup Final to Arsenal.

My second visit was 11 years later within the remit of our first encounter with the Live at Leeds multi-venue event. We made a last-minute decision to attend the shindig so could only obtain a hotel in the suburbs which necessitated a bus ride into town and a taxi ride home. We did forward plan though to ensure we had some emergency crunch creams waiting for us when we landed back at our digs.  

The first band we witnessed were Darlia, who despite having a fundamental flaw of being from Blackpool were rather enjoyable. They formed in 2013 and despite some considerable press attention and a slot on the NME awards tour they appear to have been on a sabbatical since 2017.  

The second act was a four-piece post punk band from Essex called The Bohicas who garnered support slots with Franz Ferdinand but subsequently disbanded in 2016. Looking back now at the listings for the day I have noted that a young Wolf Alice played the venue later that evening, but as there were so many other venues to go and visit, we moved on at that point.

The Escobar in the centre of the city was arguably two separate areas with a Mexican cantina restaurant upstairs, with a dingy bar and live music room upstairs. In March 2013 Gill and I were away for a weekend in Leeds where we stumbled upon this bar and discovered that there were a couple of bands on.   

 

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Leeds Escobar. Image Credit leedsbeer.info

The main band was The Vendettas, an energetic Leeds based three-piece who I would quantify as garage mod revivalists replete with the requisite garb including the traditional parkas. They were supported on the night by 54 Knockout.

Preston Venue 26 – 53 Degrees Club Part 2

I recall one particular gig at Preston 53 Degrees Club where I was endeavouring to read the set times which were located behind a white line at the side of the stage. This generated an increasingly fraught exchange with an over-officious bouncer who insisted I ask him to have a look as I could not possibly cross the white line. I felt like that mischievous character in Monsters Inc!

In early 2008 I saw another band with a big reputation namely the Courteeners. They were formed in the Manchester area with the lead singer and songwriter Liam Fray being a previous Salford University alumnus. They were three months shy of releasing their gold selling debut again ‘St Jude’. They regretfully didn’t cut it for me as despite some good moments they fell into the ‘lad rock’ category.

October 2008 saw my next visit to see Dirty Pretty Things. They had formed after the breakup of the London band the Libertines and featured Carl Barat and the drummer Gary Powell from said band and had also recruited Didz Hammond from Cooper Temple Clause. They had announced they were going to split 2 days before the gig so we as a result we caught them on their final tour.   

In February 2009 the infamous John Cooper Clarke was in town which coincidentally was mine and my good pal John Dewhurst’s 100th gig together. He was good fun and was cognisant of the location as he humorously embellished his act with anti-Blackpool gags!

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John Cooper Clarke. Image Credit The Daily Telegraph.

Eighteen months later I saw Ash, who I have seen numerous times, but this was the first time in Preston. They had built up a commendable back catalogue by that point and they were very enjoyable.        

Later that year I saw the old timers Wedding Present, a mere 22 years since I had first seen them. They as ever ploughed their C86 sounds to good effect.

There followed a three-year gap before I saw the punk stalwarts Ruts DC who unlike many of their counterparts still hold their relevance. They formed initially in London Town in 1977 and produce a reggae-influenced punk sound. They were originally titled as the Ruts before adding DC to their moniker.

They were in good form and their two mainstay hits ‘Babylon’s Burning’ and ‘In a Rut’ went down a storm. They were supported by Burnley’s Not Sensibles.

 

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Ruts DC on stage. Image Credit Sunderland Echo.

A big local gig occurred on 19/10/13 when my mate Jez Catlow’s band Deadwood Dog performed their first headline gig there. I know it was a big moment for Preston’s finest bouzouki infused punk rock band and they were in tip top form. They were supported by their erstwhile supporter, the singer Dan Donnelly from Belfast who has performed as a live musician for Joy Zipper, the Levellers and Wonderstuff.  I saw them there again the following year supported by Matt Gallagher.  

In mid-2014 I saw Wolf Alice for the second time having witnessed a gobsmackingly good performance from them at the Deaf Institute the year before. They were still good value with their star quality evident but overall not quite as sharp that night, but it is somewhat tricky firing yourself up in front of a half full inactive audience on a cold Tuesday night in Preston!

Completing a full circle from their inaugural performance in 2005 The Subways made a return to the club venue in 2015. They produced their usual energetic performance. 

When the main venue downstairs closed in 2015, they continued to have sporadic performances upstairs which included my final visit on 21/04/17 to see Electric Six. They were as ever good clean fun but not in the same league as their astonishingly good performance when I saw them for the first time at the old University venue in 2003.