Dj Trev’s essential guide to what’s on in Harrogate.
THURSDAY 1 August 2013
The Sharon Colgan band return to their monthly residency at The Blues Bar this week, the Blues Bar has a handy website that I can get details for what’s on, which IS great, however kind of makes my job here redundant. So I probably shouldn’t bring it up.
Meanwhile, The Alexandra Bar has live music every Thursday, but unfortunatly DON’T have a similar website… now, for the past month I’ve not had any listings so instead have been treating you to jocular hilarity about how I don’t know who’s on but I feel I’ve mined all of the comic potential to be had out of that fact, which is, lets face it, not exactly a rich seam, so I’ve nothing more to say on the matter until I get some more information.
There’s two floors of music at rehab on Thursdays, the top floor has got Dj Tex playing R’n’B and that and downstairs I DJ, but it’s kind of hard to say what I play. It’s mainly a rock night but sometimes I play loads of pop too. I wouldn’t let it keep you up at night like, its just another night of me playing music in a bar, and sometimes people dance. Though increasingly that is not the case.
Viper Rooms runs a night on Thursday cleverly called “Y.O.L.O”, standing for You Only Live once…. tonight they have someone out of Geordie Shores there. Quite what they will be doing there I don’t know and it is difficult for me to convey how self satisfied and smugly superior I felt as I hit the “not attending” button on facebook. But if, unlike me, you really fancy a night of poetry, philosophical debate, intellectual rhetoric, an introduction to Quantum Physics and theoretical string theories, this will be, like, totes awesome. You can probably get to meet whoever it is off Geordie Shore and they might give you some investment tips for your portfolio too, or be able to offer you some sage relationship advice.
I don’t know if that last bit was sufficiently condescending. For anyone who loves Geordie Shores, to be condescending means “to talk down to”.
FRIDAY 2 August 2013
Lewis Hamilton plays the Blues bar tonight. Yep, you read that right. I went and read it, and re-read it, and it’s definitely correct. Obviously it’s not THE Lewis Hamilton… Or is it? No. No it’s not. I could really get into this, but frankly, if Lewis Hamilton can’t be bothered to slightly change his name because it’s the same as one of the most renowned drivers of cars round and round a track, then I can’t be bothered to go on about it.
There’s live music every Friday at Zoso Bar, apart from last week, when it was up at rehab and I misinformed you, which generally never happens. Like, I defy you to find any examples of me giving you duff information. You could try. But you would fail.
A few weeks ago I told you there was a night on at Viper Rooms called Knee Deep. It seems I was wrong, and had listed it a few weeks early. Actually that night is on THIS week. They play deep house and that and the resident Dj’s are quality jocks – Dom Samba, James Moon and Sean Harris play there regularly and they have a guest Dj every month… They’ve not asked me to do it yet, probably a clerical error somewhere, nevertheless this week they have Dene Anthony off Love Not Money records, so I suspect he will be dropping a slightly more garagey style. This night is free to get in, for people who like to bemoan living in Harrogate, you’d be paying a tenner to get into this in Leeds, so shut yer yap and get down to what looks to be a very cool night.
Electro Circus is a night up at Rehab with Sam Moss and Jack Crowley, they play up front electro and stuff, and it’s free to get in. It is on every week and always looks pretty busy when I drive through town after my leeds gig. Now, there is no real reason for me to be driving past at 4am, as I don’t live in the town center, but I have noticed if you drive past nightclubs at 4 in the morning you can sometimes see girls pants.
SATURDAY 3 August 2013
The Blues Bar has Jed Thomas and his band, but, well, I’ve got a big thing on today and tonight and my mind is frankly elsewhere trying to come up with a way to tell you to go to that rather than doing anything else. I suppose I SHOULD give you the rest of the listings in town, before becoming borderline orgasmic about my own activities. Lets see…. how to present everything else that is on with as much fanfare as my own thing….
There is an Alice in Wonderland inspired play on at The theatre.
Disco Dave and Dj Tex are on at revolution. They are good.
Lure has a Dj on Saturdays, playing music.
Viper rooms will officially be open.
So will Moko….
meanwhile….
Tonight upstairs at rehab I present the 11th birthday Party of Bottom of the Bottle which is a metal, punk and hard rock night that, obviously, has been running for 11 years now. For the purposes of the birthday party, we’re joining forces with the NYHC who are awesome punk rock promoters for the live part of the event, which, get this, starts at 4 in the afternoon… This seemed like a great idea 6 months ago, but now, reading this I realize I’m going to be in the club for like 16 hours, which immediately means I have to face the slightly unpleasant truth that I will need to go to the bathroom at some stage. For, you know, solids.
Anyway, non of this is talking you into coming is it so I’d better get back “on message”.
Also joining us for the day are the Spa Town Roller Girls who will be running the party games, which include Pantera Pass the Parcel and Slayer Musical Statues… During the day there will be food and stuff on sale, plus the party games plus the bands… And OH! The bands: Doors open at 4pm with The Nebakanezer opening up. Young and superb punk rockers Bad Manifest follow at 4.45, then at 5..30 Bad haircuts take over, featuring member s of the excellent Toy Shelf. Indie rockers Recovery are on at 6.15 and then it’s back to punk at 7 with Reputed. Your Illuminations do uplifting pop punk at 7.45 and super heavy Sworn Amongst get METAL at half 8. Clean Shirts are another very strong NYHC band and are on at 9.15 then battle of the bands winners The Wilde hit the stage at 10. Finally for the live section F**k With Fire headline, leading into the club part of the night where I’m dj’ing until 4am, playing Rock, metal, Punk and party tunes. I’ve somewhat exceeded my remit here and gone waay over my non existent word count, so I’ll wrap it up by saying this is FREE to get in. If non of this makes you want to come, I can’t help but feel I am wasting my life. But not to worry, I’ve been doing that for 37 years now.
SUNDAY 4 August 2013
Dan Burnette’s Blues band are at The Blues Bar on Saturday in the avo, and in the evo they have Classic Plastic at 6pm and Natural Rhythm at 9pm, both of the latter two who show a refreshing lack of the word Blues in their Blues band that is playing at the Blues Bar, which makes for much better sentence construction for me, so thanks.
The Fat Badger has a pub quiz on every week. I got told off by my bird for not listing it last week. To be honest, I didn’t think she read this, as she tries to not stoke my ego by acknowledging that I am perhaps the most important emergence in serious journalism and reportage since that guy who used to jump around on the weather map. Well, obviously I’m not as important as him, maybe I’m as important as that student who streaked across it once? No. Oh, ok.
Sunday Soundcheck is at The Alexandra, at the acoustic end of things, whilst at the “Dj’s playing records by other people” end of things Viper roomshas “Peek-a-boo” with R’n’B and what-have-you, plus I’m playing at Rehab, probably still recovering from the night before so if nothing else turning up just to see how bad I look and, yes, smell should be worthwhile.
MONDAY 5 August 2013
Dj Pieman presents his weekly pub quiz at the Alexandra, this weekly wonder of tricky trivia, accompanied by free chillie for everyone entering! He has a weekly roll over cash jackpot, but I dunno how much it will be as I’m writing this a bit early and someone may have won it tomorrow. Suddenly I feel like I’m in a time paradox, talking about events that have yet to happen, in a preview of next weeks events, last week, the day before the previous weeks event has even started, tomorrow, yesterday.
Dj’s Max & Jake now run Zoso on Monday nights, playing, literally, anything from Deep dubstep to Van morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl”. If nothing else, Max’s afro is truly epic these days and Jakes girlfriend is truly fit. There is also the weekly open mic session at The Blues Bar with Pete Oliver, plus Moko Lounge at the junction of Kings Road and Parliament Street host “Mokioki”, their karaoki night which is quite amusing.
TUESDAY 6th August
According to the website, the massive TBC are playing at The Blues Bar. Now, to be fair, I’ve never heard their stuff but TBC seem to play lots of venues all over the country so they must be good. They are probably as big as TBA, I think the only band that are bigger are Special Guests, or Plus Many Many More, but you know, those guys are never gonna play Harrogate.
There is the Folk night at the Tap n’ Spile, which I always list, but I’ve not been for a bit. Could someone go and let me know my information is correct? Also, could you write next weeks column for me, as I’m tired.
Once a month the Fat Badger runs a Beer Club night. I’ve been to quite a few of them and they are really good nights out. It costs £20 and for that you get 4 pints of beer from the guest brewery, who this month is Thwaites, plus you get a 3 course meal. So its a cracking way to keep tab of your expenses and have a full night, beginning middle and end, without blowing a load of money you cant afford. Before then deciding to go on to a nightclub and somehow ending up dazed and confused at 4 in the morning nearing a state of chemical coma because of the 46 jager bombs you decided would make you the most fun person in town.
The ideal venue for that type of thing is Moko, in the VIP Room Jaey Selway presents her Rock Box, playing alternative and hard rock anthems, whilst in the main room Dee J Wyer plays upfront stuff.
Zoso plays host to The Electro Jam, which is an “open Decks” Dj session with an open invite to anyone to rock up and play. So if you’ve been unlucky enough to hear me Dj recently, why not turn up and prove that “I could do that better”, which is what I know you were thinking.
Revolution has got a fairly new night going, until recently I didn’t know what it was called, but thanks to the wonders of people “interacting” with me on the facebook, I can reveal it’s called “Back 2 Rev”. Cheers to Simon, who is officially my most attentive reader, and therefore ladies I would speculate, is also a very attentive lover.
WEDNESDAYS 7th August
I can no longer think of an interesting way to say that every week on Wednesdays there are the following two options:
Dj Pieman at Rehab.
Paul Middleton’s Angst band swearing through the night at The Blues Bar.
These will both be good nights, but as ever, I feel like I’ve been writing this for months and just want to go back to bed for a bit. Why not leave a comment suggesting a way for me to still be upbeat and enthusiastic by this stage that doesn’t involve latte’s, red bull or smoking banana skins.
OTHER
Now, bearing in mind this is a guide to whats happening in Harrogate, I do try to avoid listing gigs in Leeds and that, cos yeah, we get it, Leeds is bigger, ok… However, The Wilde, who are a great band from Knaresborough (and are playing Bottom of the Bottle this Saturday the 3rd, tenuous link spotters) have got a gig NEXT Thursday, 8th August. I’m possibly gonna do an interview or something with them in the future, as mainly they are just quite attractive people to be near and I love nothing more than basking in a bit of reflected glory. However for the mean time I’m mentioning this gig as it is a re-scheduled one, cos one of the boys got sick on the original date, so if you fancy a bit of a Leeds gig check it out, and also have a watch of their video, which you can see here:
www.youtube.com/user/TheWildeTV?feature=watch as it is damn fine. Like a cup of coffee in the morning, or a good pair of socks.
SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION
As I’ve no doubt managed to shoe horn in in the course of this article, I dj the following places and nights: Thursdays at Rehab (rock-ish pop) Fridays at Revolution Electric Press in Leeds, (dance-ish pop) most Saturdays at The Den (indie-ish pop), but not all of them, cos this week I’m doing Bottom of the Botle which is a metal night (metal-ish metal). I will DEFINITELY have mentioned that…. and Sundays at Rehab (request-ish pop). You could, if you WANTED, go to mixcloud.com/djtrevuk and listen to some of my radio shows that I have gone and done and put on there, they don’t really give you much idea of what I’m like at Djing live, but I do talk on them and sometimes I say something that is not totally pointless.
To send me listings or to read irregular ill-informed offensive rants, befriend me at facebook.com/djtrev but please note, I swear and sometimes decry organised religion.
So don’t get mad, get heathen.
Thanks for reading, drink responsibly and don’t be loose with your affections.
Trev x x x
