The entrance to Rock City.
Rock City is a club in Nottingham, England that focuses on live rock music gigs. It has a capacity of 2450, and is known for its intimate atmosphere and sticky floors. It has been described by the NME as "sweaty, but truly indie". Rock City is divided into three rooms which are the main hall, The Basement and The Rig, with five bars and seating available. However, it is an all-standing venue during gigs.
The club has a wealth of history due to its 25+ year long lifespan, and is a major club on the toilet circuit. Bands of various sizes, on their way up and down, have played the venue in its history including The Smiths, Def Leppard, Saxon, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Cure, U2, Paul Weller, R.E.M., Blur, Guns N' Roses, Pitchshifter, Linkin Park, Slipknot, Madness, David Bowie, Oasis, Robbie Williams, The Hives, Nirvana, Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, Cradle of Filth, The Stone Roses, Slayer, Motörhead and pretty much every other band in between. Typically, Rock City is the host for medium sized gigs, from smaller upcoming bands from the underground to bands that are getting limited chart success but are still too small to play much larger venues. However, on some occasions largely popular bands still choose to play there; eg. Deftones, Megadeth and The Killers, less than a year before headlining Glastonbury. Rock City's smallest room holds 350 and its largest room holds 1,900.
History
Taken from the Rock City website.
Before Rock City, there was nothing. No Ice Arena. No Concert Hall. After bands stopped playing gigs in cinemas by the late 60s, Nottingham was a Rock Village, a barren place where the top bands if the day couldn’t be arsed to tread. Sure, the Boat Club would come up trumps with fledgling bands like Led Zeppelin and the Pistols, but those moments were few and far between. If you wanted to see the like of The Jam, The Specials or Dexy’s you had three choices; you either bunked the train to Leicester and kipped on a bench in the station because you missed the last one back to Notts, or gave a vast chunk of your hard-earned to Way Ahead for a mind-numbing coach trip to Birmingham or London, getting home at 4am. Or you stayed at home, listened to John Peel, and wished you lived somewhere else.
Actually, there was a fourth alternative; if you were of a Rockular persuasion, you could go to the Retford Porterhouse, which was run by a chap called Sammy Jackson. Despite being out in the sticks, the Porterhouse had gained a hard-earned reputation as a vital stop-off for bands such as AC/DC, Motorhead, The Damned and The Clash. Sammy was looking to franchise the Porterhouse brand across the East Midlands in bigger venues, and before too long he ran into George Akins, a local bookies and amusement arcade kingpin who was infuriated that he couldn’t see his fave bands like Sex Gang Children in his hometown (alright, maybe not – he was a sharp operator who astutely clocked that Nottingham was gagging for a decent and credible music venue).
Before too long, a venue was found – The Heart of the Midlands, a former bakery which had mutated into a hallowed residence on the Chicken-In-A-Basket circuit. The kind of place where your mum and dad would go when they were feeling flush in order to be entertained by Marti Caine and the Grumbleweeds whilst dining upon scampi. As you can imagine, it was not the coolest of venues (although Nile Rogers and Bernard Edwards are alleged to have formed Chic after they backed an unknown Soul singer there), and was pretty much on the way out by the end of the 70s. George pulled out his chequebook and bought the place, Sammy worked out how to turn it into a decent rock venue, and the two scratched their heads over a decent name. ‘Porterhouse 2’ and ‘ The Venue’ were mooted, but before too long a top London agent suggested the moniker that was to be spelled out on none-more-futuristic Rollerball lettering across the entrance; ROCK CITY.
By December 1980, ‘City’ was good to go, with a frighteningly eclectic melange of top bands booked for the first week; Iron Maiden, who were at the forefront of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, were given the honour of opening the place, followed by a still-very-much underground Human League, Mod revivalists The Lambrettas , and the Climax Blues Band. Sadly, it never happened; the fitting of the electrics took longer than expected and the first week was cancelled. The true opening date was Thursday 11th December, when The Undertones came to town (Feargal Sharkey remembers the gig as the first time he head Blue Monday by New Order, and realised that guitar bands were on their way out). The second gig at Rock City was by, erm Shakin’ Stevens.
It’s impossible to overstate the importance of Rock City to Nottingham in the 80s. For one, we finally had a venue befitting our size and status, and for the first time in ages the cream of Pop Aristocracy walked amongst us. the 80s were an era that threw up a staggering range of youth cults, and Rock City catered to them all- it would be rammed with Goths on night for Sisters Of Mercy, and packed out with Soul Boys for Level 42 the ext. if you were New Romantic, you could shake a tartan trouser-leg to Japan and Duran Duran. Grebs could finally get their patchouli-fumed jollies to Gillan, Nazareth and Vardis, and catch the last bus home. Even your younger brother and sister wasn’t left out – there were Saturday afternoon under 18s sessions featuring the Rock City Crew, the club’s own break dancers.
Even more important than the gigs were the club nights. Remember, this was Nottingham in the 80s, and Rock City was an oasis of alternative culture n a desert of Gaz and Shazness – a place where you didn’t have worry about getting started on by meat heads for wearing a lick of eyeliner, or have the piss ripped out of your extravagantly wrong haircut. Under the management of Paul Mason (who went on to run the seminal Hacienda in Manchester until it closed), Johnathon and Mark Spivey (who went on to be a producer and music leisure advisor to the council), the club held massively popular Funk n’ Soul All-nighters that attracted people from all over the country, including Jazzie B of Soul II Soul. After a while, the nights fell into place; Thursday was Student Night (as it still is, and ever more shall be), Friday Night was Rock Night (which quickly caught onto the Glam Rock wave that was in vogue at the time), Saturday was Alternative Night (which was rapidly taken over by Goths).
By the late 80s, Glen Mason and Andy Copping were drafted in to run the place, and Rock City carved a reputation across the music industry as a Rockular stronghold with a reputation amongst bands for mental audiences, that always seemed to get hold of bands just before they went massive. The Pogues nearly caused a riot when they introduced Neville and Linval of The Specials onstage for A Message to You Rudi. Ozzy Osbourne caused a proper riot when he couldn’t be arsed to get out of his hotel bed for a gig. Public Enemy’s first gig at Rock City was described in Mojo as the 40th most important event in music history (is was the first time they played Bring The Noise, which they assumed that no-one in England would have heard of, unaware that everyone in the crowd had bought the import from Selectadisc). A Japanese and flew in hundreds of fan club members for a one-off gig. And New Model Army, the only band in the world to have their own touring clog-repairer, seemed to be playing there every other week.
There’s never really been a golden ear for Rock City – like all decent music venues, every gig means something to somebody – but if you want to be picky about it, you could point at the early 90s as a true defining moment for the club. Pearl Jam and Nirvana had completely ripped up the Rock rulebook, and big hair leather jackets with Rainbow patches on the back were junked for plaid shirts. Obviously, both bands played Rock City on their first tours (the Nirvana gig was widely seen as the definitive Rock City event, while Eddie Vedder ended up covering behind a fridge in the food bar – but more of that later), and for a while it was almost like a little chunk of Seattle that had floated from its moorings and landed in the East Midlands. Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Mudhoney, Dinosaur Jr. – they all played here, ensuring the club’s continuing success in and era when other venues went to the wall thanks to the Rave Boom.
By the mid 90s, George Akins’ son, also called George Akins, took over as General Manager and booker. The first thing he did was turn a huge chunk of the backstage area into the third room of the club – better known as The Rig, of course. this was a crucial development – it jacked up the capacity by 750, and became a venue of it own right that could put on promising bands who weren’t big enough for the main stage just yet. Even more importantly, it meant you didn’t have to squat on the stairs with a fag and pint on when you needed a breather anymore and risk being trampled by pissheads.
The other huge change George made was bring in Love Shack, a cheesetastic 80s night that started long before the current 80s revivalist movement and still runs today. The recent history of the club has seen the booking of acts that hardly ever play traditional venues (David Bowie stands out as an absolute coup, even though he demanded Persian rugs backstage). There has also been an expansion into alternative venues such as Stealth, The Rescue Rooms and The Social.
In 25 years, Nottingham has transformed itself into one of the country’s finest cities for live music, and it’s no exaggeration to say Rock City has been a main factor in that progression. Scores of venues have popped up in its wake, and they all have their own particular charm and offer to the city. ‘City’ did it first and did it best. Show us someone from Notts under the age of 60 who has never stepped through the doors of Rock City, and we’ll show you someone who’s had a wasted life.
Here’s a scary thought; the kids of some of the people who met each other in the club in the early 80s are now going there themselves and throwing up in the very toilets here they were conceived. And on that romantic though, and on behalf of everyone who has ever worked their bollocks off to make the club such a vital place in the hearts of all proper Nottinghamians, we’d like you to raise a pint of cider and black, spill it on the floor, and tread it in until the carpet goes all sticky.
Bands that have played at Rock City
- The Smiths,
- Def Leppard,
- Saxon,
- Red Hot Chili Peppers,
- The Cure,
- U2,
- Paul Weller,
- R.E.M.,
- Blur,
- Guns N' Roses,
- Pitchshifter,
- Job For A Cowboy,
- Linkin Park,
- Slipknot,
- Bring Me The Horizon,
- Madness,
- David Bowie,
- Green Day,
- System Of A Down,
- Oasis,
- Robbie Williams,
- The Hives,
- Megadeth,
- Nirvana,
- Iron Maiden,
- Radiohead,
- Rage Against the Machine,
- Cradle of Filth,
- The Stone Roses,
- Slayer,
- Ozzy Osbourne,
- Motörhead,
- Franz Ferdinand
Recordings made at Rock City
External links
|
