Fandango Take Over The Reigns At The Bull And Gate
7th July 2010
Thrilling news, pop kids – after nine years’ hard work in the promoting trenches scuttling from venue to venue Club Fandango has finally found a place it can call its own. As of June 1st 2010 Club Fandango has taken over the day-to-day booking at the Bull & Gate in Kentish Town. The relaunch will be in September when we dedicate the whole month to celebrate 30 years of the Bull & Gate (30 days hath September - 30 years hath The Bull & Gate) featuring luminaries from past and present.
Is it the craziest decision ever? Perhaps so. But it’s also a dream come true. Since the spring of 2001 when it quietly launched on a timid Tuesday night at the Dublin Castle Club Fandango has expanded beyond all comprehension. What was once a slightly drunk two-man operation is now a mini-empire encompassing a record company (Label Fandango), a wee urban festival (Fistful Of Fandango) and a slew of promotions taking in monthly nights at the Lexington, the Bar & Kitchen and shows at no fewer than six other London venues. But in the midst of all those hoedowns and all those hangovers what Club Fandango craved more than anything else was a home of its own. And here it is.
In these days of Shoreditch dominance and Camden Crawling it’s perhaps difficult to remember that the Bull & Gate was once one of the shining lights on the new band circuit. Consider that for a while in the ‘80s the Camden Falcon, Finsbury Park’s Sir George Robey and the Bull & Gate were the cool places to play in North London. Then consider that neither of those other venues exist any more. And then consider that the Bull & Gate has bullishly spent the past three decades just being…the Bull & Gate. Happily, this means that it never went out of fashion because for the people who loved going there it was never in fashion.
The bands we know about. From Blur to Bloc Party, from Mega City 4 to the Manic Street Preachers, from Carter USM to Keane and - of sodding course - from Bum Gravy to Scrotum Clamp the Bull & Gate has nailed its (frequently dayglo) colours to the leftfield mast. Unbelievably, right at the end of the last century some bunch of chancers called Club Panda put on some bunch of badly-dressed indie hopefuls called Coldplay not once, but twice. Dare we point out that when Coldplay headlined the venue on April 1st 1999 (ok, that’s why nobody believes us…) they were supported by Senseless Prayer, featuring one teenage Fyfe Dangerfield on vocals?
“Some people reckon Nirvana supported L7 here one night,” says another expert onlooker.
That’s how rumours start.
And, in a way, just as important as the bands were the punters. At its height the Bull & Gate was a meeting point for the fraggle rockers, the indie popsters, the gothic troopers; it gave the loners a home and the hopeless a cause, because these people were part of Generation Vexed. And now the music industry is littered with those dreamers as the fraggle rockers and gothic troopers grew up to become record company bosses, radio DJs, live agents, press officers, journalists and, of course, gig promoters. And it is to those people that Club Fandango is turning to now.
The summer will be spent acclimatising to the venues’ foibles and giving the old lady a gentle post-spring clean. Drapes will be washed and rehung, lights and PA upgraded, chairs reupholstered. Throughout this time bands will play, just as they have done, night after night after night, crossing their fingers and hoping that the football or the festivals or something else beginning with ‘f’ doesn’t rain on their parade. And just as the furnishings receive a revamp so we will be endeavouring to help rebuild a sense of community - with the Forum still looming large next door and The Flowerpot bedding in nicely down towards the southern end of the main drag, it is already apparent that, in true council speak, Kentish Town can work. Throw in the fact that the local overground station on the North London Line reopened the day Club Fandango took over the booking and the signs suggest that there is no reason why the Bull & Gate shouldn’t once again become a landmark on the musical map.
And, once the spring clean is finished and the summer is winding down, what happens then?
Well, rock’n’roll statisticians among you may care to note that the Bull & Gate has just turned 30 years old. Working on the cunning premise that 30 days hath September Team Fandango and many, many others are plotting a month-long rock’n’roll celebration in the autumn which celebrates the past whilst forging a new future. To that end all manner of Generation Vexed-ers are bringing their cakes to the party and wegottickets, Key Production, Tigertrap, Rock Sound, Smoky Carrot, Feeling Gloomy, fierce panda, drownedinsound, Steve Lamacq’s Going Deaf For A Living, The Fix and Kilimanjaro are just some of the people who’ve expressed an interest in bringing a bottle or two.
And so they should, because while the world keeps spinning and the music business evolves at a giddying pace so the Bull & Gate remains the essence of…Bull & Gateness. It still has a lovely big stage in a perfectly-formed rectangular room and there are no stairs to negate or scary stares from the door staff to repel. It still has the heroically un-gastro-ised pub next door. And – unique amongst London venues – it has the funny middle reception room which feels a little bit like a musical airlock as you travel between the outside world and Bullandgateland
Now there’s a name which should be put on the map…
MORE NEWS
