>>Nostalgia For Infinity

The news broke today that the Freebutt will no longer be able to operate commercially as a live music venue. Head over here to read their official statement; the gist is that they need £20,000 for the required soundproofing, which they don’t have, and the council have reduced the limiter to 95db which is too low for amplified music. They’ve shut the venue as making £20k from live acoustic music doesn’t seem feasible.

(The Penthouse above the ‘butt will be still be running, though, so do keep heading there. It’s a scrappy little bar that I’m still really fond of, and it has some cool esoteric DJ nights.)

This rapidly follows confirmation that The Providence is being sold by the Barracuda chain, quite likely to Tesco. Make of that what you will; it’s been pointed out that several other Tesco branches are about 5 minutes walk away, and there are already 11 Tesco shops in Brighton (plus there’s the one they’re considering building in Lewes Road too). I wasn’t hugely fond of the Providence as a pub but the sound was decent enough and some long-standing promoters put on a lot of shows there.

In the last month we’ve also heard news that The Engine Room has been closed. No official statements have been released as far as I’m aware, although the word on the street is that there just wasn’t enough money for some payment or another. Anyone reading this got the facts? [UPDATE: minutes after I posted this, an article popped up on the local paper's website explaining that the venue is up for sale. Balls!]

And of course earlier this year came the end of the Hobgoblin, a genuine Brighton punk rock and metal institution, which despite eking a few more months of life after its initial closure late in 2009 has been bought by another chain. They’re currently in the process of entirely revamping it; initial rumour was that it was being turned into a gastro pub (ah yes, no shortage of those in Brighton) although its new exterior paintjob does still tout “live music” as a feature. It seems unlikely that they’ll want to play host to the same D.I.Y. promoters and touring bands as in the past, though.

Several years back the Pressure Point was sold to a developer following a lack of interest from purchasers who wanted to keep it running as a venue. It’s since been converted into a hostel with a bar. The Brighton Gloucester / Barfly remains closed and unused following Barfly / MAMA’s abortive attempt to break into the local music scene around the same time. I assume they still own it and may intend to reopen it in brighter economic times.

The saddest thing is that most of the venues that have bitten the dust were the ones doing the most to support relatively unknown outfits, small touring bands, local groups and musicians and so on.

SIGNS OF LIFE

On the positive side of things the Hydrant (was the Hare & Hounds) is making a huge and laudable push into supporting local music with both a large upstairs function room for shows and regular gigs in the downstairs pub as well. Then there’s Hector’s House which seems to have picked up a lot of the punk and metal shows the Hob would once have hosted – and good on them, speaking personally it’s greatly preferable to the student drum ‘n bass crowd I remember from 5 years ago! Finally one of my current favourite venues, the Prince Albert, is also keeping on rocking – and their P.A. is one of the best I’ve heard in a small venue.

And of course there are other venues like Jam, the Greenhouse Effect, Audio and larger venues like the Concorde 2. So live music in Brighton has taken some major blows, but there are still plenty of places to go and play.

If you’re involved with a local venue, whether as an owner or a promoter, please get in touch via email or the comments below. I’d like to do a round-up of venues in a separate post in the near future, and counteract some of this bad news with a reminder of how Brighton still has a lot to offer!

Gama Bomb + Mutant + Crypsis + Driveby Shark @ Engine Room Brighton, 7th May 2010

I’m not much of a thrash metal fan but my friend Tommy, bless his beard and genial metalhead nature, has been making some effort to convert me. This included getting me to join him for a show headlined by Irish thrash metal legends Gama Bomb. It’s all thrash, all night… and all I’ve heard of any of the bands is Gama Bomb’s album Citizen Brain.

First up is Driveby Shark, who are fronted by a ridiculously tall screaming bloke with ginger hair… or a dark blond, I guess, maybe it’s just the light. Whatever – he reminds me of my friend Ric from black metallers Iceni, who is also a ridiculously tall screaming frontman with ginger hair. It must be a metal thing, right?

» Read the rest of this entry «

(I reviewed the first day of Offset way back in September, but the other half of the review got delayed for familiar reasons. Here’s a vague round-up of who we saw on the Sunday and, er, who we didn’t. Disclaimer: my festival reviews are always kind of vague and anecdotal. I’m there to have fun, not to review, and alcohol tends to addle my poor memory yet further. Expect no setlists here.)

A lesson is learned: I am probably too old, or have developed too strong a tolerance to intoxication, to drink several crates of extremely cheap dry cider and expect to get up the next morning and run around in the freezing cold after a sleepless night in a tent. Yeah, yeah, I need a waaahmbulance to get me to the party.

I wake up about half an hour before Crocus play but it’s all I can do to inch half out of my tent and breath in some fresh air; anything more might lead to explosive vomiting (or, worse, dry retching). Bleeurgh. Some hours later our campsite is awake and there’s solidarity in suffering. We miss Holy State. We miss Brontosaurus Chorus – an extra shame since I’d previously persuaded everyone that the best way to deal with a hangover was to listen to a man playing twee pop songs on a ukelele. We miss KONG.

Eventually we drag ourselves out to see young screamo noisemakers Maths. » Read the rest of this entry «

There’s a new page on the site (replacing the somewhat pointless ‘gubbins’ page) that I’m using to list upcoming gigs here in Brighton. I got fed up of writing about shows I wanted to attend in intermittent posts that became out of date really quickly. No doubt this static page will also be out of date quite a bit, but at least it won’t keep showing up unwanted in RSS feeds. Pow!

Click here to check out the gigs I’m hoping to get to.

I moved away from Essex eight years ago and as good as swore to never return. Grr! Place of teenage upbringing! Shitty county full of yuppie values I do not share! Source of much angst and rage! Of course I’ve been back there since, albeit for the stag do and later wedding of a close friend, because these sort of geographical vows rarely mesh with pragmatic reality. But my point is that I really don’t like Essex, and it takes a lot to tempt me back there.

Offset festival is based in Hainault Forest Country Park, or at least a big field in the middle of it, and is not far outside of Romford and accessible by tube. I could convince myself that this means it’s actually Greater London, a totally distinct area from Essex, but I would be as full of shit as those impassioned vows I made. Yes, Offset is in Essex, a fact underscored by the repeated chav invasions. On the Sunday night a gang of about twenty local tracksuited youths took over the security tower, after failing to topple it, and the security company went home. Fan-fuckin’-tastic!

The lineup, though, looked awesome, and at £55 for a weekend ticket it was a snip. Five stages over two days was surely an antidote to boredom, and there was enough variety between those stages and their acts that most attendees wouldn’t have to bemoan too many clashes. So far so good. » Read the rest of this entry «

See here for the reason why I post these lists.

It seems that the Freebutt is no longer owned and run by the Joiners, and is now under the command of a local consortium of four blokes who have the good taste in music (I met one of them on Friday; he was wearing a Holy Roar t-shirt and played the Murder City Devils and This Will Destroy You among many other fine bands). Since independently owned and run venues are rare and getting rarer in today’s Brighton, I hope you’ll join me in supporting the ‘butt and the Penthouse bar when you can.

Aug 16th – World Inferno Friendship Society – Engine Room, £8.50

Aug 16th – Spraynard, Bangers, Break The Habit, Big City Plan – Hector’s House, £free

Aug 18th – Wooden Shjips, You’re Smiling Now But Soon We’ll All Turn Into Demons, Soul Punch – Freebutt, £7.50

Aug 18th – Voodoo Glow Skulls (yes, again!) – Engine Room, £?

Aug 21st – Dinosaur Jr – Concorde2, £17.50

Aug 27th – Subhumans – Engine Room, £8.50

Aug 29th – Fake Problems, Riverboat Gamblers – Freebutt, £7.50

Sept 3rd – Paint It Black – Freebutt, £8.50

Sept 17th – Kayo Dot, Manatees, Blackstorm – Freebutt, £7

Sept 25th – Citizen Fish – Engine Ro0ms, £8.50

Sept 27th – Fuck Buttons – Audio, £8.50

Oct 4th – Obits (ex-Hot Snakes, Drive Like Jehu) – Freebutt, £?

Oct 9th – Johnny Foreigner – Audio, £7.50

Oct 10th – The Slits – Concorde2, £13

Oct 18th – This Will Destroy You, And So I Watch You From Afar – Audio, £?

Oct 19th – Dalek – Audio, £9.50

Oct 28th – Dananananaykroyd – Audio, £8.50

Dec 14th – Dillinger 4 – Engine Room, £8.50

A couple of friends accused me of never telling them about gigs I’m planning to go to, which I was initially outraged about but… actually, it’s probably pretty true. Just through absent-mindedness rather than malice or a desire to enjoy social events on my own. Foolish. So, I promised to put a list of gigs up online somewhere, and this seems like a semi-logical place to do it. So here are some Brighton shows I would like to go to. I won’t make it to all of them, and no doubt a few shows will spring up at short notice and surprise me with their existence, but this is a start.

If no supports are listed, or the price is £?, that means I don’t have the details, couldn’t remember them, or was otherwise too lazy to go and find out. Sue me.

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My review of Canadian hardcore punk outfit Fucked Up has gone live over at the Dreaded Press – check it out. That’s my first live music review in some time… I think since I wrote a short review of Zettasaur and others when I started this blog. Before that? Shitty student newspaper reviews, dating from back when I knew even less about music than I do now.

I’m not sure where the two reviews I’ve written for DoG have gotten to, but I expect they’ll go up early next week.