(Not) the end of the pier

Photograph - Alan Plant (September 2015)

Please don't think that I'm in cahoots with the Cleethorpes Tourist Board or anything (is there such a body, one wonders?) but the seaside town on the east coast that nobody remembers has now had its second namecheck on this blog in as many days. There never were such times.

Cleethorpes - what's not to like?

Reports have reached Medd Towers that the town's old pier has been dramatically rescued (it was, quite literally, all at sea), restored to its former glory and will soon be basking in a late Indian Summer positively thronging with flat landers eager to seek out its charms. I'm not sure if they have a Novelty Rock Emporium, but I'm sure they have establishments that will both quench your thirst and fill your belly. There may even be dancing.

Having only been to the C word twice in my half century wandering this earth, I feel a return visit coming on. That's right, I'm still living the dream.

Good times

Time was when any band worth their salt, gigging relentlessly up and down the highways and byways of this sceptered isle, would pitch up in crumbling ballrooms, sweaty rock clubs and falling down theatres: to boldly go where (probably) all the other hard working bands on the UK circuit had been the previous week. Or the week after. These clippings from a 1981 issue of Sounds showed just how far and wide your average transit van was expected to travel in order for it to count as a proper tour - and not just a casual jaunt. Imagine the countless books of Green Shield stamps you'd have racked up in gas stations navigating the nation's trunk roads.

As you can see, Girl, in April and May, pulled in a pretty impressive 31 gigs in 50 days. Upon closer inspection you'll see that it's a gazetteer of (mostly) bulldozed clubs and theatres in towns where live music probably doesn't exist anymore. Cleethorpes Winter Gardens anyone?

I saw them at least five times on that tour and I know that none of those venues exist today; car parks and apartments now I think. Perhaps one of them will have a Blue Plaque on the site recording the fact that good times used to be had there? I hope so.