Rock City in the 80's


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Saturday night was a must , also used to see about 2 bands a week off top of my head Yazoo Howard Jones King The Alarm Pogues ( about 4 times ) Blancmange Damned Thomas Dolby Fall Thompson Twins Smiths Big Country Big Audio Dynamite Kid Creole Killing Joke Fun Boy Three Macc Lads Cure Blue Rondo A La turk (one of my best ) Killing Joke Bauhaus P.I.L. Spear Of Destiny ( about 20 times ) Sisters of Mersey

Still get down there for the odd band went to see From the Jam just before Christmas.

I have some old ticket stubs I'll try and dig them out .

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Went to see Blur in 1997 @ Rock City the floor was that sticky it took me 4 days to walk home.

Rory Gallagher Defender tour, 1985 I think. Awesome, unbelievable, brilliant.

Stop it, FLY2 (#69). you're making me jealous.

Must admit I prefer the Rescue Rooms these days - not a frequent visitor but I've seen Steve Winwood, The Zombies and Carbon Silicon (Mick Jones from the Clash) there. Each of those shows was excellent.

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Must admit I prefer the Rescue Rooms these days - not a frequent visitor but I've seen Steve Winwood, The Zombies and Carbon Silicon (Mick Jones from the Clash) there. Each of those shows was excellent.

I did go to see The Beat & Neville Staples and Paul Heaton @ rescue rooms and only just managed to get just inside the door it was packed out , must admit i only heard Heaton never even seen him ?

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Went down to see REM on the recommendation of Graham Neal on the Castle Rock programme. Michael Stipe had shoulder length hair then. Strange. Then again so did I. Also saw UFO and Rory Gallagher. Did anyone go to the Heavy Rock nights on a Friday? Why did so many people refer to it as a Heavy Rock Disco?

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I used to go to the Rock nights that they had at the Astoria in that era.(First thursday of the month IMMSC) Grahame Neal was the D.J. there too

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Have been to rock city on numerous accasions,mainly to see tribute bands. ( AB/CD. GUNZ N ROZES AND MOLETALLICA.) Have also seen SCORPIONS there, who i also went to see when they were at the royal concert hall in about 1985. The last concert i went to were UB40 a few months ago at the nottingham arena. The dj who did the rock nights for a while was DIAMOND DAVE who used to do the rock night at THE VOLO in carlton. Talking of the VOLO if anybody fancies it my brother is bass player in a band called JESTER who are playing at the VOLO this saturday night.

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My week in around 1981/2 went as follows: Monday: Horse & Groom Mansfield, Tuesday: college, Wednesday: Tiffanys, Thurday: Rock City: Friday: Rock City. Saturday: Asylum, Sunday: Blue Boar Hucknall. Unless there was a decent gig going on somewhere

We also frequented. Final Solution in the lace market, La Chic Pt.2 on canal street.

Out of town we went to Sheffield Crazy-Daisies and Romeo and Juliets in Doncaster.

All very New Romantic and zoot suit

I still have flashbacks of the gigs at RC. Was anybody at Kraftwerk?

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Hi Stu. We were there at the Rock City Futurist Evening when it first opened. Some girl handed us tickets in Langtreys and me and my mate Paul Fillingham went down, It was like a freak show - we were in our element. The first night was a bit quiet, but after a few months every exhibitionist in Notts had crawled out of the closet and was down there. We can remember the plastic glasses (we always drank Red Witch (cider, pernod and black), and normal guys in suits, shirts and ties applying eye-liner in the toilets. The video wall always played Bauhaus and that song called 'Fish Heads'. There were several great Numan clones in there, and a load of John Taylors, Mick Karns, Sylvians and Pete Murphy lookalikes. Great times. We used to meet in Langtreys first and then Sunset and Vine, then on to Rock City. Brilliant.

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The opening gig at Rock City was supposed to be the Human League but they/it got cancelled, tickets were then honoured for the replacement which was the Kinks, I was there.

Also saw U2, Defunkt, Gang of Four and many others.

Also used to frequent The Boat and The Union on Trent Bridge, can't remember which was which, saw Magnum, Scorpions, Def Leppard and a local band which played there a lot called Limelight (i think).

Another rock venue circa that period was on St James' Street could have been at the back of the Imperial.

And let's not forget Brendan Kidulis at The Old Malte Crosse (sic) saturday dinnertime

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Jogged a memory there with the 'Red Stripe' and 'plaggy' glasses

My fella and I drank half pints of wodka (as we called it) in the plastic glasses when we were feeling flush, and I distinctly remember, after the vodka, dancing to the 'reggie' (again as we called it) music whilst sitting on a stool. I think we were being ironic or sarcastic or something. Everyone used to drink tins or bottles of beer as you ended up with a dicky tummy if you drank it from the taps. I can't think what the reggae music could possibly have been though as we were VERY Goth types. Must have been the drink!

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I frequented rock city EVERY sATURDAY night from 1985-1989... Do you remember the floor refurb? The disgusting carpet [from heart of midlands days] you used to stick to it... The then dj was a guy called Jonathon.. I went to see quite a lot of bands, my hero at the time was gene loves jezebel and managed to sneak back stage to them once. I also remember seeing Hawkwind, the place was like a fog that night and I'm not talking about the dry ice!!!When I first went down there it was very Sisters of mercy then became very glam rock [my fav. time] In about 1987 we would alternate between rock city and the garage [another great place where you would bang on a door to be let in] At rock city the ladies toilets were always full of 'chaps' wanting to borrow your hairspray - quite annoying really. Funnily enough 2 years ago I went back to rock city [hadn't been since 1989] to see Human League - it was packed. Phil Oakley still had it but the girls were terrible- both girls bra less and really looked there age!!! Still it was a good night still serving plastic glasses and cans of red stripe

I was at the Gene Loves Jezebel gig- and the Virgin Prunes. I remember popping into my local shop as I was setting off for the South Notts bus from Loughborough and telling the bloke behind the counter I was seeing a band. I can still remember the peels of laughter when I told him their name. Now, a few years on, 'Virgin Prunes' does sound a bit daft. Great band though.

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I actually cried when friday night changed to townie night.

I grew up in RC and still pop in now and then on a saturday (At 41 you feel a bit ot of place upstairs!)

Went to see Hawkwind there last month, great fun, but the smoking ban was a bit of a bummer.

Mind you, at least I can remember the gig this time!

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I actually cried when friday night changed to townie night.

I grew up in RC and still pop in now and then on a saturday (At 41 you feel a bit ot of place upstairs!)

Went to see Hawkwind there last month, great fun, but the smoking ban was a bit of a bummer.

Mind you, at least I can remember the gig this time!

I went to see Hawkwind at rock city must've been around 1986.... it was like a fog in there... can't say I'm a great fan but boyfriend was at the time.... all these nightclubs must truly stink now that there is the smoking ban which must've masked a lot of other smells.....

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Bet no one's seen Hawkwind with Samantha Fox on vocals? or Channel 4's Matthew Wright doing Spirit of the age? There is/was a Nottingham connection with Hawkwind, for awhile I was booking rock bands at the regency rooms at ilkeston, can't for life of me think of name of the band involved but before they arrived their lightshow did, got talking to the guy who told me he was with hawkwind, to be honest I thought "yes, heard it all before" but couple of weeks later at demonfort hall there he was, got to meet the band (lemmy and stacia with them then) anyway this guy John lee? started building light rigs and later portable studio setups in old bakery up an alley at back of Drapers Gun and Machete Centre on Hartley Rd, later had big workshop in former Vedonis factory on bar lane, (he did the sound system at royal concert hall and others all over the world) haven't seen him since I gave up my place at bar lane so not sure if still in Nottm, hence the is/was term

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Hey great! I wish I could play better (bass or guitar) am ok up to certain level then loose it! not sure if imagination thing, just lack of musical ability, or not disciplined enough to practise? my lad for example within weeks was better than me, why? another thing I've noticed is I get to a level and get stuck, then without any "tuition" not even looking at new song chords or lead etc (bass/guitarmasta) I'll find another level esp if not been on it for a bit? it now being a strat copy (got bored with bass, and sore fingers!) At 63 given up hopes of stardom though! !inthebin!

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I started to learn to play bass. I learnt how to play a b and got signed up for a gig............ smile2

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