Jukebox glory

I get inordinately excited when I discover a jukebox in a pub. It becomes central to everything, and every song that gets played is cinematic, all-conquering in the room.

I have never come across a Mega City Four song on a jukebox before, so the other week at an east end pub, I was a very glad person, to the point of dancing !

Sometimes if a run of songs is really good, or there are fun memories attached, I'll be sure to remember the run of songs played. In the summer, recently, I played pool with my dad, which I don't think I've done before, and it was a really nice family moment. The songs really nicely soundtracked things - lots of stuff from when I was a teenager, like 90s europop.

It can get quite dangerous, as I put pound after pound in the machine - suddenly able to avail myself of all the money in the world. It can also get quite serious - though usually I will be welcome others' choices, out of interest and curiosity. I've never heard a run of three Genesis songs before, but that was odd to witness recently.

One of my favourite jukebox pubs was the Hope n Anchor in Islington. But it's a (s)wanky food pub now - ruined! The jukebox is still there, but a swanky electronic one rather than the old CD-drop that you could view through clear glass, which - though not as dramatic and poetic as the old record ones must have been - were just really momentous and heartening to behold. I do like that with electronic jukeboxes you can access an increased range of stuff, though there is something to be said for the more carefully chosen set of albums on display. Saying that, having the different genres or other themes to click on and generate a menu of songs to choose from, is pretty handy if you are drunk and forgetful/not sure what to put on.

This blog wasn't really going anywhere significant, but I like thinking/writing about jukeboxes. They're dying out a bit in places - they need to be kept alive!

Some favourite jukebox pubs:

- The Dublin Castle (has everything general indie/punk/rock you'd want, really)
- The Good Mixer (indie fare)
- The Boogaloo, Highgate (has the whole of Unknown Pleasures, plus The Clash, the Ruts, various other punk and rock)
- The Lexington, Islington (very indie cool and quite 'up to date'. My favourites include: The Dum Dum Girls, Vivien Girls, Best Coast).
- The Half Moon in Putney before they ripped the jukebiox out - this has made the pub lose its heart, and I can't go in there anymore, it's just no fun without it. Memories of The Cure, The Jam, it was like being in a student union bar again - the pool table has also been ripped out and now it's a middle class dining room with a suit of armour in it (dire!).
- Various dodgy pubs in Northampton, including one that involved Pato Banton and Big Mountain songs.

There must be more. I shall come back to this.

Music pub gentrification and loss

Just read in the CAMRA official publication that The Grosvenor pub in Stockwell, south London has been sold to a property developer.

I fear about the future of pubs in general, have done for a couple of years, and seen and felt so many negative, dramatic changes, or losses - especially to music venue pubs.

I had a sad day for favourite London pubs yesterday - first a visit to The Hope and Anchor yielded the fact that it now resembled one of those identikit looking swish eating pubs - all the historical music posters from the punk 70s and post-punk 80s have been removed, replaced with Breakfast at Tiffany's style dainty wallpaper. This isn't what I want as a music fan - The Hope and Anchor was a wonderfully old, historical music pub, famed for its venue, and loved by me (and by many others, I'm sure) for its jukebox music, and rock pub feel, plus pool table upstairs. It was the pub I always took friends of indie/musical mind to, place have a pint and a talk about music, with decent music, and maybe a game of pool soundtracked by decent music. Thankfully, the gig venue remains, as does the jukebox (not sure about the pool). The basement gig venue is the place's heartbeat. Pretty much every punk/new wave band has played there, and there are innumerable new bands starting out from here still. But it's just not the same in the main room of the pub. It's all too sensible now, and has lost much of the feel that made it totally unique, famous, a place to want to go out of your way to go to if you were not local (when I was local, I was in there so much, it's the only place I've ever drunk in where I'd go up to the bar, and they'd already be pouring my favoured pint).

I don't mind that it might serve food to survive - god knows pubs need to do what they can to survive in these harsh times, and food is useful to the drinker - but to strip this landmark pub of its history is unforgiveable, and beyond belief. I saw this happen to The Half Moon in Putney, and I find it too distasteful to go back now it is a wine-glass/napkins-on table eaterie with so much faux decoration and all the musical history torn out - plus, it's painted the most depressingly drab grey in the world (over its beautiful Victorian red brick).

Also yesterday I was floored to walk up to Filthy McNasty's with a couple of its fans in tow, to see that a sign had been put up: COMING SOON! MEAT LOVERS' PUB! A bit of investigation asserted that the pub has indeed been sold. Also, merely looking inside the windows you could see that all the historical music posters had been completely removed - in favour of stark white walling. The place looks completely devoid of character so far. And as a non-meat eater, it will never get my custom in my lifetime. I'm guessing a new food pub won't launch itself under the original name of Filthy McNasty's...

Again, another significant pub. Owned in part, I believe, by Shane MacGowan of the Pogues, and a place where there was always a good atmosphere, and a welcome if you were an alternative music fan. A place that hosted book readings, off-kilter gigs, showed films, and was just generally an individual place to enjoy the night. Lost forever. Its owners do still have the Boogaloo up in Highgate, thank goodness (let's hope that legendary joint is secure). And there is also the New Rose down on the Old Essex Road, which is nearby to Filthy's but that place is not quite the same in look and feel. However, it does play excellent music (yesterday enjoyed a slew of stuff, mainly 60s garage rock and pop, and some newer stuff. Particularly The Box Tops' The Letter, and Let's Pretend It's Summer by the Brian Jonestown Massacre - tell me anywhere where you can hear all that of a casual afternoon!), and it is helpfully located a stone's throw from a couple of excellent record shops (Haggle and Flashback Records).

So, three London pub blows in one afternoon/evening for me yesterday. The future feels quite threatening, and so so sad and empty. That's why it is a political act where you choose to go and what you choose to do. Supporting your favourite (and especially those that are independent or small in operation) pubs, shops, etc is more crucial than ever. Rising prices for pints and pretty much in everything else, plus so many other factors (rent, wages, licensing laws, the smoking ban), have throttled pubs' abilities to survive so much. But should this really result in pubs becoming identikit or dull/conservative looking over-priced/unaffordable dining houses? Is that what people really want?

Under this government, property sell-offs and development are like a (cold) soul to everything. Anything that can be bought up and refurbished or sold for big bucks seems to be in danger of being up for the taking when times are tough - but how many more ugly looking mini/express big-name supermarkets and 'luxury' high-rise flats do we need? It feels like gentrification has taken over, and beyond the loss of communal places like pubs/cafes/libraries, lies not only the loss of community, but moreover for crass money-orientated individualism to succeed over all - combined with other current factors (and many more just kicking in), so many people are going to be pushed out of the city of London unless they are rich. The message seems to be clear: rich people welcome, we want to cater for you above everyone else.

There are few gigs I genuinely can/want to go to nowadays, so it's really sad to find that one I have already bought tickets for (British Sea Power) clashes with another I was so passionate about going to - A Hawk and a Hacksaw ! I double checked the dates, and am so deflated. They seldom play live in this country, as they're from Albuquerque (even though they make eastern european sounds, and for ages I thought they were so obviously from Russia). I have seen them live once, years ago, and it was a sort of crazed accordion-led/boozed up hoe-down. Oh well, I shall have to buy all those albums of theirs that I never got onto pursuing, instead.

Speaking of gig venues, I am still sorely disappointed at news that The Bull and Gate in Kentish Town, one of the last sticky-floored indie hide-aways of my youth, is going to not only become one of those horrible dining rooms where you can't feasibly sit and have a pint; but it will also lose its music venue. The music venue that has broken many a tiny band (including Coldplay, if you must!), or quite simply just been a vital little platform for indie rock bands in their infancy for years and years.

I shall be going to as many gigs there as I can before it closes in May, but before that, I went to the pub as soon as I possibly could after hearing the news, for pints. So many memories, gigs, pints. It's a pub I have always felt glad to see standing in its same old ways whenever in Kentish Town - because it's a pub and venue that seemed to continue to defy stupid gastropub fads and any kind of large, ugly, corporate branded enterntainment format or trended style. It was a good old pub, a good old venue.

Immediately on being served at the bar the other week, I found myself having a really decent chat with the landlord about what had happened. He said the place had been up for sale for a few years, and how not one person from the music industry had come forward with an offer to take it over. How shameful.

But he did bear the good news that the pub would have to retain its decor and architecture, because it is Grade II listed. So there is a sliver of hope. Because the pub's history and the place as a building is so important too. Opposite The Bull and Gate, you have a glassy estate agents (probably a big part of the change in the area, catering for/aiming at new sorts of people), and a really soulless looking glassy eating place (I forget its name), plus The Assembly Rooms seem to have lost the feel of a relaxed pub and are now more like swish dining rooms themselves.

I despise gentrification. I will always love history and character. I would always rather a bit of paint peeling and a touch of scruff to show a place has been lived in/enjoyed, than permanently pristine/new looking places that are essentially only for the wealthy. Poorer people need pubs too! Pubs should welcome anyone, but when The Bull and Gate becomes a gastro pub many people will be alienated or simply no longer welcome. Club Fandango (Fierce Panda Record lable's clubnight) will move on, but this is still such a huge loss to the indie music world.

And what of the Grade II listed pub's side-sign that boasts the word VENUE?