As our move date gets ever nearer (a little over 4 weeks away), the reality of leaving the city I've lived in for 25 years begins to sink in. As for uprooting from Medd Towers (home for nearly 20 years - Number One Son was but a babe in arms when we first crossed the threshold), I've been detaching myself by degrees - with each room we clear it becomes less our home and more the shell we bequeath to the new owners. Don't get me wrong, there's so many memories here, when we lock the door for the last time and drive away, there won't be a dry eye in the house, sorry, car.
We're now conscious that with every visit to a favourite pub, restaurant, park or even venue, we probably won't be returning to them many more times, if at all. With that in mind it was bloody typical that last week Mrs M and I discovered a cracking bar that we'd never been to before. The Roundhouse is a circular building that used to be home to The Eye Hospital. With a fine selection of real ales, a simple but classy menu, good music and attentive staff, I can't believe it hadn't appeared on our radar before. I took a photograph and somehow managed to make it look like the leaning tower of Pisa.
Hopefully, before I go, and with a little help from my old diaries, I'll get 'round to picking out some of my favourite gigs over the last few years in Nottingham's various venues. In the last two and a half decades I've witnessed some jaw dropping concerts at Rock City, The Rescue Rooms, The Bodega, Junktion 7, The Running Horse and The Royal Concert Hall - all places I'll miss and remember with affection.
Charlie Rich: Feel Like Going Home
Where you moving to then?
ReplyDeletePearl Jam at Rock City Feb. '92 or Metallica at the Arena Feb. '09 for me, by the way.
Ones that stick out: The Sweet (Scott, Priest, Tucker), The Damned, Rocket From The Crypt, Dodgy, The Cramps, The Polyphonic Spree, The Slackers, UFO (numerous times), Joe Strummer, Squeeze, Pat Travers, Aimee Mann and Rory Gallagher - all at Rock City. L A Guns and Trippin' Over Wah at Junktion 7. Badly Drawn Boy, Ian Broudie, The Black Keys, Wolfmother, Turbonegro and Bellowhead at The Rescue Rooms. Jah Wobble, Frozen Gin and Kinky Friedman at The Maze. Chuck Berry at the old Ice Stadium. Ian Hunter at The Running Horse. Roachford, Shack, James Yorkston and Wreckless Eric at The Social. Def Leppard and The Supersuckers at The Boat Club. Oh, and Neil Young and The Darkness at The Arena. And way too many more to mention.
ReplyDeleteNorth Yorkshire.
Do you know I've never visited Nottingham - I really should. Gonna be a fair ol' wrench upping and offing like that, what made you make the move John?
ReplyDeleteI hadn't realised you were relocating. What a wrench it must be, but it sounds like an exciting segue into a whole new chapter of your life.
ReplyDeleteI'm very fond of Nottingham. I was a student not far from there from 82-85, and we used to nip over to Rock City for gigs. Happy days...
I too have had some great nights out at Nottinghams Rock City, hoping to see Skunk Anansie there in November.
ReplyDeleteYorkshire has some very beautiful places, I hope you and the family are very happy there.
It's a part of the world we know really well - we've had a little place up there for about three years; it's a bolthole where we've been escaping to more and more. We've got to know a lot of people there and now we've decided to make the move permanent. Everything about it feels right.
ReplyDeletegood luck with it all JM, don't envy the upheaval, but will be great when it's all done eh? I was sure you'd be relocating to Essex tho ;-)
ReplyDeleteThanks Piley. Maybe if I'd watched Oil City one more time I'd be relocating to the Thames Delta!
ReplyDeleteAs someone who is chronically nostalgic and sentimental, I understand for your pre-move emotions - nothing will ever quite be the same for you again in Nottingham. But on the other hand, nothing is ever as exciting as re-locating and settling in a new place. Hope the move goes well.
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