Music Venues In Middlesbrough
The year 1990 was the year that music changed for me. From listening to my brothers copied indie albums, playing my parents’ old 60s vinyl and singing into an imaginary microphone stand (a snooker cue) in front of my bedroom bay window I was let loose on the live band scene. I was 15 at the time and hated school with a passion…so music filled that empty void that my schooling…no matter how hard I tried to concentrate…just never could fill.
In the 90s there were three main places to go and see indie bands in Middlesbrough. First there were the two main ones…the Town Hall and The Arena. The Town Hall seemed to have the bigger chart indie bands on in either the Hall or the Crypt…whereas The Arena had mainly unknowns on playing in the upstairs room…it was very dark and dingy…my kinda place…I loved it. The place didn’t have the grand Victorian look of the the Town Hall…to be honest it looked like a right mess from the outside…but it’s the people who made the Arena…for an amazing two years the same people went week in week out…so it turned into one big happy family. In all of that time I never saw one fight in the place…which couldn’t be said for the centre of town that had turned into a bit of an anti-student area…especially down Albert Road.
I saw the likes of Curve there with the beautiful Toni Haliday up front…what a gorgeous sight she was…managed to get a kiss off her on stage before the bouncers threw me head first back into the crowd…I only weighed 8/9 stone at the time…I flew! I also remember seeing L7 there after their fateful and now classic Word moment…where lead singer Donita Sparks pulled down her jeans to reveal everything to live telly. No pants dropping in the Arena that night…well not on stage anyway…but I remember Shit List and Pretend We’re Dead both being played to a frenzy.
The most memorable night happened on my 19th birthday of all days. We went to see a co-headlined gig with two up and coming bands…one that was getting rave reviews… a band named Whiteout and they were touring with a little known band called Oasis…heard of them? They were absolute shite…Liam was strutting about and moaning to the crowd…about 50 people at that point…nothing seemed good at all…crazy to see what they became…next time I saw them they were playing in front 50 times the amount and absolutely nailing it…Whiteout on the other hand were excellent…they disappeard into nothingness…quite amazing! That night was memorable for another major event…just after midnight the music stopped and Smells Like Teen Spirit started playing…the dj then told everyone that Kurt Cobain had been found dead…kind of ended the night really…most people stopped dancing and just sat about drinking spirits and toasting the man that kicked a bit of life into American Rock.
Mid-90s saw the Cornerhouse blossom into a crackin’ little venue where bands like The Libertines, Coldplay and The Music played to rammed dark but small dancefloors. This was always a pre-Arena drinking meeting place…I’m sure 90% of people that drank there ended up in the Arena. Talking of drinks this was the time of the alcopop explosion…Hooch and Two Dogs…and my own personal favourite…Red. If anyone remembers this drink then grand because I can’t find a picture anywhere on Google. I know it was by a firm called Bass who also did lager shandy…but I don’t think it could match the lines like Hooch and Smirnoff Ice. It was more like a flat fruity energy drink with vodka thrown in…I was addicted to the stuff…getting up the next morning after it though to play sunday league football was always messy…and not in the mercurial little Argentinian way!
Where was I…ah yes..moving into 2000 the Empire returned for live bands too…although I didn’t like the setup in there for bands…it all seemed like a mish-mash viewing points and small dancefloor.
The Empire…Theatre (or the Thea’re in local tongue) was a purpose built music hall from the 1890s…and is a lovely looking building…plus I have some great memories from seeing Black Rebel Motor Cycle Club do an amazing near acoustic set, The Rapture do an electrified blast of guitars and synths and the wall of noise that was Danish indie rock duo The Raveonettes and their excellent single Attack of the Ghost Riders…but for me it remained too disjointed to see a band properly…especially when busy.
One of my friends from school started getting into some of the same bands that I was already listening to…and lucky for us his mum worked on the doors to the Town Hall. This meant that now and again we managed to get in free to see bands when they ventured to Middlesbrough. Throughout the 90s we had some amazing bands…The Wedding Present, The Charlatans, Bluetones, Northside, Ride, Lush, Inspiral Carpets, Blur…it felt as if nearly every other week at one time there was someone pretty decent touring through our Town.
The first gig I went to was on Saturday 15th September 1990…to see Scottish indie outfit The Soup Dragons…fresh from their chart success with their cover of The Rolling Stones “I’m Free” and their No.7 album Lovegod…I didn’t know what to expect…so tickets were bought…my dad’s arm was twisted for a lift into town…to stand religiously in the queue along with a few hundred well-oiled fellow music lovers.
What I can actually remember about the gig…it was over 25 years ago…scary thought…was that it was much like being in the Holgate (Middlesbrough Football Club’s West Stand in the old and quite beautiful Ayresome Park) on a Saturday afternoon…at least at the gig you only had the chance of a pint being thrown over you instead of a hot bovril. I was pretty tall at the age of 15 but skinny as a rake so fitted in quite well with the rest of the pogoing crowd. Nearly every song on Lovegod was played..ending with I’m Free and everyone went home happy. All I remember about the end of the gig was that my top half was soaking wet…I stank of beer and fags…I was freezing my nuts off outside but it was ace…this was the start of something amazing.
