Tuesday 29 July 2008

So, Farewell Then, The Castle...

With an exciting August FLC date (The Housewives, The Favours and The New Royal Family) all confirmed and September (Go Lebanon, Starfighter Pilot) in readiness, the demise of our venue, The Castle, has come as quite a blow. It's very unlikely that Filthy Little Clubnight will continue, unless we can find a venue who will allow us to put it on for £cheap. We'll send a few Press thingummies out to possible venues in the next week or two, but the FLC future ain't bright.

The Castle was the only venue in Manchester willing to put on bands for free. This was free for the organisers and free for the punters (unless, like us, you wanted to pay the bands). We would take £3 on the door, split it evenly between the bands who played and owe nothing to the landlord or the bar manager. They took their money out of the extra bar takings that our clientele and bands would provide them with. Everyone went home happy and bands took home money between £5 and £50 depending on the success of the night.

We were first associated with The Castle on 2nd August '07 when we played a gig to seven friends in the backroom. We clambered around, we fell, we played an encore and we hurt some equipment. Despite the lack of clientele, the atmosphere was wonderful and we kept it in mind for future events.

The event would by the Filthy Little Festival, on 23rd and 24th September 2007. We were meant to organise the 23rd, but instead ended up organising both days due to horrible personal crises on behalf of the organiser of the 24th. We put on And What Will Be Left of Them, Balor Knights, The Fountain and The Leatherettes on Day One (Das Wunderlust died in transit). It was an excellent day with a good crowd. Day Two saw ourselves, Vichy Government, Dirtblonde, The Colt .45s and Natalie Findlay and was another treat with another great turnout.

At the start of 2008 we set up the monthly Filthy Little Clubnight, to run on the 3rd Friday of each month. January saw the excellent clatterpop of And What Will Be Left Of Them?, headlining over the first gig from Manchester's currently hugely tipped First Black Precedent, who brought along an unimagineable army of friends and fans. The surreal and scary world of the Plague Doctors supported, as well as a two-man line up of the Ruffian performing their own brand of Ruffeoke.

February saw us squeeze The Generalissimos, ourselves and Julius Martov and the Sexy Mistakes onto someone else's bill due to a double booking. The Martovs scowled through an excellent opening set and the Issimos bounced merrily and brought sunshine into the dark and dank back room.

In March we tried for A! Big! Band! and got Das Wunderlust. Unfortunately, due to it being Good Friday, the students had fled the city so it wasn't quite the success that it could have been. Nevertheless, the Wunderlust were excellent as were the Plague Doctors (again), who played after FLA favourites Dirtblonde and The Colt .45s.

In April we had the excellent Starfighter Pilot headlining over ourselves and the great Liverpool girl punk of Town Bike and Awesome Wells. Excellent atmosphere, excellent crowd.

In May we had The Lovely Eggs (starring Holly from Angelica), ourselves, Dirtblonde and the unforgettable Hyperbubble, featuring American indiepop's answer to David Hasselhoff.

Later that month we hosted a whole day of entertainment at The Castle for Maps Festival. We showcased Whitstable's unique and wonderful Psychotic Reaction, Manchester's rawkish The Dead School, the tweepop of The Lovely Eggs, Liverpool's rather good and rather well attended The Affection, FLA favourites Starfighter Pilot, Colt .45s (best set I've ever seen by them) and Dirtblonde before The Plague Doctors took to the stage and gave us their reworking of 'Earth Song'. Pink Riot and Town Bike followed before ourselves. Finally, after the excellent Housewives (who I would heartily recommend), First Black Precedent headlined, bringing another huge crowd. The day was a huge success. We finished only twenty minutes over time, and all of the band went away happy at playing on such an excellent bill.

In June we had The Affection, ourselves, The Fountain and The Dead School. A sort of 'greatest hits', if you will.

July saw us with Buxton's snarling, noisy and brilliant The Ascension, a wonderful acoustic set from Politburo, a fascinating and wonderful set from The Man Amp (ex-Car Crash TV) and the Ladyfest sounds of Hug Party.

So, there we have it. Excellent bands, excellent times. Many thanks to The Castle for its unstinting support over the last year, and many thanks to you all for coming to our nights!

No comments: