Tag: X Ray Spex

Liverpool Venues 11 to 12

I am returning this week to the ‘Beatles influenced’ musical haven of Mathew Street in the centre of the city. One of the establishments even goes so far as to name itself after one of their albums, namely Liverpool Rubber Soul. There are a suite of bars that line the street, and they are badged within the ‘Rubber Soul Complex’ and located within the Cavern Walks area.

Rubber Soul Bar. Image Credit go-eat-do.com

I surmise that the bar has been open for many years but can find no detail of this apart from the fact that it unexpectedly closed in 2009 before being extensively refurbished and reopened in 2013. One of the two bar rooms incorporates an exhibition pertaining to its history as a former fruit market and the legendary Liverpool Eric’s nightclub that is situated in the downstairs space.  

Additionally, TP Molloys the site of the previous Tutti Frutti nightclub which was originally behind the venue was changed into a carvery and grill restaurant. That building which dates back to the 1930s had lain empty for many years but this was also restored and is now called Yesterday. Rubber Soul is a fairly basic sports bar showing big screen sports and has DJ’s playing every Friday and Saturday. On one particular night I saw a singer called Callum play there.

The afore mentioned Eric’s opened on 1 October 1976 in the basement of the Fruit Exchange building in Victoria Street. Shortly after they moved to their new location of Mathew Street opposite the Cavern Club. The local promoter Roger Eagle was the driving force and used his experience from previously hosting nights at the Stadium in Liverpool and the Twisted Wheel in Manchester.

He was joined in the enterprise by Ken Testi, who managed Deaf School and Pete Fulwell who was the owner of the ‘Inevitable’ record label and latterly manager of local bands It’s Immaterial and The Christians. The choice of Eric’s name was a tad tongue in cheek and its particular plainness was in response to the trend at that stage of naming disco clubs with funky names such as ‘Tiffany’s’!

The original Eric’s in the 1970’s complete with intriguing graffiti! Image Credit pinterest.co.uk

A lot of life’s successes and failures can come down to timing of ‘sliding doors’ moments and they were very fortunate in this regard as the opening of the club coincided with the explosion of punk. Thus, in the opening month the Stranglers played and there were huge queues for The Runaways.  The Sex Pistols also performed which transpired to be their one and only Liverpool gig.  Other acts to play there include The Clash supported by The Specials (a fine double bill!), The Ramones, The Slits and X-Ray Spex.

They also had the novelty of staging two shows on Saturday’s, one a matinee set in the afternoon for the under 18’s and then a more regular gig in the evening. There was apparently one famous afternoon show when Iggy Pop played a storming set to a posse of school children who took him by surprise by singing a full rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ back to him. He finished the performance with ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ though due to his star quality the price of the show had doubled from the usual price of £1 to £2!

The mention of matinees makes me reminiscent of those days where bands would not arrive on stage before 11pm. It has now gone so far the other way that due to club nights following the gigs in some venues, the event can be finished by the very early time of 9.30pm. There were also in those days’ gigs taking place all year round and I recall Blondie once playing Glasgow Apollo on New Years Eve in 1979 which was recorded for Radio 1 and Old Grey Whistle Test.

Talking of timings and also the recent onset of spring makes me recall when my brother and I were young lads down in London on a weekend when the clocks changed and were heading back to Preston on an early train on the Sunday morning. When we got on the train back into the city, we both commented that it seemed remarkably quiet, little wonder as we had tangled up on our spring forward/fall back understanding. Thus, our thinking was that we were on an 8am train, but the real time was actually 6am, what a couple of plonkers!   

Iggy Pop on stage at the infamous Eric’s gig. Image Credit liverpoolerics.blogspot.com

The club survived until March 1980 when it was raided by police for drugs offences, and the last band to play there was Psychedelic Furs, I never visited in that era as I was far too young. The club was then briefly Brady’s before closing again shortly after. There was a significant time gap after that before the original venue reopened in 2011, with OMD playing on the opening night. I once recently visited the pub at ground level and saw a chap called Teddy playing.   

In 2009 Eric’s history was covering extensively in the tome titled ‘Liverpool Eric’s: All the Best Clubs are Downstairs, Everyone Knows That’. An ethos I can readily attest to as I have found that many of the most atmospheric venues are in cellar spaces, The Ruby Lounge, Roadhouse and Peer Hat in Manchester, EBGB’s in Liverpool and the 13th Note Bar in Glasgow to name but a few!

Nottingham Venues 9 to 14

For my 50th Blog entry I return to Nottingham. While in attendance at my first Hockley Hustle on 17/06/07 I caught a couple of bands in Dogma. Hockley was a suburb in the centre of town with a swathe of venues within its boundaries. The venue was located on Byard Lane and had three floors with a main ground floor bar and a restaurant located upstairs. The music stage was in the nightclub setting downstairs.   

I have always found venues such as this metallic sparsely populated basement nightclub layout to be in stark contrast to a daytime gig, especially on a sunny June day.

I don’t recall the first band Arias Ashes, but the second band Dust Collectors were a peculiar seven piece infused with Victorian jazz influences.  

The venue closed in 2014 following a stabbing and reopened as a Tapas restaurant called Barasca.

Lee Rosy’s Tea Café was situated on Broad Street. As it was a little café its musical direction was strictly in the acoustic mode. I visited there twice, the first witnessing Ying and Herbidaceous in June 2007.

My other attendance was to see Alun Parry at the 2009 Hustle. He was a traditional folk singer with a social conscious streak in the mould of Woody Guthrie. He was also a community music festival organiser and resided in Liverpool.

The physical café closed in 2018 but the business is still alive and kicking as an online entity.

Nottingham Lee Rosy’s Tea Cafe. Image Credit Yell.

On my second Hustle in 2009, we visited Browns on the corner of Park Row and East Street Circus. It was a rather pretentious brasserie and a bar where the bands were playing. First up were Tasty Morsels with their melancholic keyboard tinged vibe.

We also witnessed Free Control and The Amber Herd. We only caught the final two tracks of the latter, but they had a promising presence about them complimented by lead singer Neil Beard’s soothing vocals. They were at that stage obtaining some decent support slots with The Delays and That Petrol Emotion and appear to be still active.

Escucha on Fletcher Gate was another plush late-night bar and we saw the five-piece Matt Chandler Band who sat strictly in the jazz mode and was a bit too sleepy loungecore for me. Matt Chandler was originally from Derby and appears to be quite renowned in his genre playing regular London gigs and working with luminaries such as Youth from Killing Joke and Polystyrene from X Ray Spex.  The venue now appears to be closed.

Situated right next to Broadway cinema on Broad Street is Shaw’s, a small tapas restaurant and bar. We saw a Nottingham soul singer called Natalie Duncan. A couple of years later she appeared on Jools Holland alongside Muse who she must have impressed to the extent that they asked her to appear in the support slot on their upcoming tour.

At the tail end of the 2009 Hustle we were heading back up Pelham Street towards the tram stop when we heard a cacophonous racket emanating from an upcoming shop doorway. We soon discovered it was the delightfully named local band Ocean Bottom Nightmare who were kicking up the racket in one of the oddest venues I have ever encountered. They were ensconced in a retail unit called 28 Barbers with props such as clippers and trimmers in view behind the drum kit. It was a bracing unusual end to the festival!

Nottingham 28 Barbers. Image Credit Local Data Company.