Venuewatch: The Cockpit

Sad news from Leeds: The Cockpit, which closed for "maintenance" at the start of the summer, is not going to reopen:

“It is with great regret that we have to announce the permanent closure of the Cockpit.

“After 20 great years as an integral pillar of the Leeds music scene we have decided that it is no longer viable to deliver you the level of service you deserve with the building in it’s current condition.

“We would like to take this opportunity to thank every one of you who came to watch your favourite bands, danced, stage dived, crowd surfed, found your life partner and gave the Cockpit its reputation as one of the best live music venues in the UK.”

It added: “All forthcoming live events will be moved to alternative venues and all original tickets will remain valid.”

According to the BBC report, attempts to make good two decades' worth of skipped maintenance proved overwhelming, closure being the only option.

It's a shame, though. A lot of history in twenty years in those poorly-distempered walls.

Here's Rolo Tomassi playing there:


[Thanks to @CJHutcheon for the tip]

Embed and breakfast man: The Parachute Men

A quick dip into some late 80s northern indie today. Fire Records' finest*, The Parachute Men:



As far as I can tell, this is the only moving video of them online - later on it's going to be stills and music. You've got to love that Carry On Disarming video from the NME, haven't you? After putting in about two years as 'the only thing Planet X had to show on its TV screens', it's now enjoying a healthy afterlife as 'the only online video presence of some great lost bands'.

So, the Parachute Men. Two Greggs, and drummer who also played keyboards; blonde hair and black leather jackets. They were - if you'll take a breath and follow me on this - the sort of band who would be put together to appear in a TV programme which needed an indie band, before their sort of band was considered to be an archetype.

And, perhaps surprisingly, that song up there, Leeds Station, turned up on the Chris Moyles show just last year. Albeit smuggled in by Steve Lamacq.

Buy
Earth Dogs And Eggshells

Background information
Because Midway Still Aren't Coming Back on the Parachute Men
Parachute Men on Last FM

More...
Some more Parachute Men stuff during the next few hours
Sometimes In Vain
If I Could Wear Your Jacket
Every Other Thursday

* - well, up there with Bark Psychosis and Pulp. And Spacemen 3. And... oh, one of Fire's finest.

The illustrated Hello: Vince Hilaire

Vince Hilaire was a black footballer in the First Division at a time when that wasn't always a comfortable thing to be:

"After about 20 minutes, the manager, then Terry Venables, told me to go and have a warm-up. I came out of the dug-out, and I started jogging around the touchline. I couldn't believe the abuse that was coming at me... animal noises and all the names you think of calling a black person. Any name under the sun. And it frightened me a bit, so I couldn't wait to get back in the dug-out. And I thought, 'Well, if this is the sort of reception I'm going to get, then I don't really want to know'"

He didn't back down, though, and went on to represent ChelseaCrystal Palace more than 200 times, played for England's Under 21 team, managed a spell in the American soccer scene and enjoyed a gentle career decline through Luton, Portsmouth, Leeds, Stoke and Exeter.

But he owes his big break to Terry Venables. Venables, who fancied himself as something of a singer back in the day:



That clip did feature some Robbie Williams. To offset it, here's Amanda Palmer with her... tribute... to Hilaire's Leeds United. Probably:



[Part of the Illustrated Hello]

[For more - much, much more - on football and music crossing over, Football and Music is your number one source. Which would make it the goalkeeper.]

[Update: Crystal Palace. Not Chelsea. I regret the error.]

George Best Week'end': Give My Love To Kevin

Oh, he buys you pretty things? And what does your mother think? I just can't bear to imagine you sharing a bed with him...

David Gedge's true songwriting talent was to deliver one side of a converation, like a kind of lovelorn madlib where you were asked to supply the other person's responses. Nowhere is this shown off to better effect than on Give My Love To Kevin.

And - surprise - this features a much younger Gedge than we've seen so far, as this is from back in 1990 - at a hometown date. Which would be in Leeds:


[Part of George Best weekend]

Downloadable: The Papertiger Sound

Fancy some lovely Yorkshire-meets-Canada electro-dreampop about robots? Of course you do. Get yourself over to CBC's daily download site and snaffle the mp3 of The Papertiger Sound's Tiny Robot Love. It will make your day better.

"Surprising" in no real sense of the word

There was a big surprise at the Kaiser Chiefs Leeds United gig.

Really? A big surprise? Not just the too-be-expected clattering through of Mark Ronson, then?

Um... well, actually...

Because that's not really much of a surprise, is it? It's like Tony Blair being booked and Cherie coming along with him, isn't it?

Yes. Yes, that wouldn't be surprising at all.

So, what would your surprise then?

Erm...

Shout Out Louds shuffle off early

Get well soon, Bebban Stenborg: she fell ill during last night's Shout Out Louds gig in Leeds causing the show to be abandoned.

Bebban says she's sorry:

"Hello people of Leeds," he wrote [Apparently so under the weather she changed gender, according to NME]. "My sincere apologies for the show cut short in your fair city. I was abominably under the weather, hence to blame for the untimely demise of the performance. I will do my absolute best make it up to you all on our next visit."

The band hope to pick up the tour tomorrow in Dublin. Meanwhile, you can enjoy Bebban reading a ghost story from Daytrotter.

I can remember where I was when I heard the news - I was listening to the news

Psychologists at the University of Leeds are carrying out a study into memory using The Beatles as a trigger point:

Professor Martin Conway, who is leading the experiment, said: "We're very interested in how different age groups associate with different aspects of The Beatles.

"The reason why we're interested in this is we're interested in a thing called generation identity. So we're quite interested in how your memory of your own personal experiences is linked into public events.

"And The Beatles are a fantastic way to look at that."

It's unknown if they expect anyone to remember Ringo Starr for anything other than being in the Beatles. You can sign up at Magical Memory Tour if you want to take part.

O2 hangs up on Leeds Festival

Live Nation have decided to can the Leeds O2 Festival after two years of underperformance. The official spin is that they can't do the festival and a series of mini, indoor events as a warm-up for the London Wireless event:

"O2 and Live Nation are determined to bring the flavour of the O2 Wireless Festival to as wide an audience as possible, by arranging a series of pre-festival gigs around the UK during May/June 2008.

"Under the banner of O2 Wireless Weekenders, a number of confirmed artists appearing at the O2 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park, London, will take to the stage in local clubs, giving music fans a unique opportunity to enjoy their respective music.

"Due to this new initiative, we will no longer stage the O2 Wireless Festival in Leeds."

Managers at Harewood House, which has hosted the festival, were downbeat:

"Obviously I'm disappointed that the O2 Festival is not going to have a northern presence this year. It was a popular event and, I believe, was an established date in the festival calendar."

To be honest, we'd completely forgotten it existed, which makes claims of having been established seem a little weak - and since it was at the same venue as the Leeds leg of the Reading Festival, it was totally overshadowed. We're not expecting much mourning.

Simian immobilsed

The planned Simian Mobile Disco/XX Teens gig at Leeds has been axed, afted James Ford injured himself playing a team sport of some sort.

Policing the festivals

So far, police have arrested 25 people across the two Reading/Leeds festival sites, mainly for drugs offences.

However, there have been over 108 thefts in Leeds alone.

Is mopping up some low-level drug users really the best use of police resources when the people who are paying for them to be there are having their stuff nicked?

Pete Doherty DJ set (not a source of Pete Doherty)

We were starting to get a little worried - Pete Doherty's legendary inability to keep a date was starting to let him down. So, it's with relief that we hear he bollocksed up and didn't turn up for his Gatecrasher DJ set at the weekend:

Fans paid £40 each to see troubled BABYSHAMBLES singer Doherty, 28, spin his tunes.

That's what it said on the poster, we bet - "see troubled Babyshambles singer spin his tunes."

Anyway, he didn't show up, and to add insult to injury, they got Preston out of the Celebrity Big Brother before last to step in. Surely if you expect Kate Moss' boyfriend and end up with the bloke married to Chantelle instead, there's an argument for a refund?

Benn denies Reading/Leed slip

Although Digital Spy have renamed Melvyn Benn as Melvyn Bragg, they're reporting his denial that last week's Reading/Leeds ticket cock-up was down to them. Apparently, everyone misread their "this isn't a confirmation email" as "this is a confirmation email":

"There were no tickets for Reading and Leeds that were cancelled at all, there were a number of applications that were rejected but at no time was a completed and confirmed application ever cancelled.

"Everybody got a note that said thank for your application and this isn't a confirmation, confirmation will be sent within the next three or four hours and some people took that as being that they'd got the tickets.

"But they didn't get the tickets because either they'd inputted the wrong card number or the card didn't have enough money on it."

Curious - you'd have thought that since you can sit in a cafe in St Petersburg and pay with a card which instantly is accepted, the Reading/Leeds computer would have been able to check cards faster than "three or four hours".

Leeds/Reading ticket sales screwed up

Leeds-Reading ticket sales - which usually go quite smoothly - hit a glitch this year when people well sent confirmations which were subsequently withdrawn. The Mean Fiddler is blaming its own efficiency:

Melvyn Benn, managing director of festival organiser Mean Fiddler, said: "Cards were rejected either because their numbers were inputted incorrectly or they did not have sufficient funds.

"The sad thing is they got a confirmation and then relaxed and it wasn't until the next morning they were told there was a problem, by which time the weekend tickets were gone.

It's not entirely clear why the company sent out confirmations when they hadn't confirmed the sale.

Reading/Leeds headliners announced

You never thought you'd be pleased to see Razorlight anywhere, but at least the presence of Johnny and The Borrells on the headline list makes you able to pin down what year we're in - the other two headlines, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Smashing Pumpkins suggest we're just at the dawn of the 1990s.

Also announced: Ash, Nine Inch Nails, The Gossip, Maximo Park, Bloc Party and The View. Yes, Barbara Walters, live in Reading. Or maybe not.

Tickets will be on sale about an hour before they all sell out.

Hit St Pes (5,6,8,8)*

Coca-Cola's very own White Stripes are going to make just one jaunt to Europe this year, and that will be to headline the roaming Wireless festival. This year's event is a confusing four-day affair in London, and three in Leeds - the difference being a day featuring Faithless, Just Jack and Badly Drawn Boy at Hyde Park not being replicated in Harewood House. All shall have the Kaiser Chiefs, CSS, Editors and The Cribs, along with Jack and Meg.

* - White Stripes Headline Wireless

Round the Bloc a few times

Bloc Party are laying plans to complete the summer treble: appearances at Glastonbury, Reading-Leeds and T in the Park.

They're aware that's carrying a risk of over-familiarity:

Gordon Moakes, who spoke exclusively to 6 Music News:

"I don't know which ones have been announced from which one's haven't, I know we're playing T In The Park, I think we're playing Reading Festival, Glastonbury, so I think we'll be ever-present over the summer."

Gordon also gave the story of the Aberdeen coin incident from the band's perspective:

"Somebody threw a coin and it kind of threw Kele's concentration more than anything else, because he was in the middle of a song. When we got through to the end of it, I said 'do you want to go off stage?' So we came off, and I think we were all a bit shaken by the whole thing."

"There was this general feeling before we went on that the crowd was different to the sort of crowd we're used too. We're used to very enthusiastic, carefree audiences, but for some reason there was quite a muted tone to the whole evening and at least one person wanted to make them their presence felt."

Chiefs at home

Tomorrow night, the latter-day Fagin's gang that is the Kaiser Chiefs are playing Doncaster, live, for the benefit of Radio One listeners. In order to be at their best for this occasion, they're doing a somewhat hastily-arranged warm-up at Leeds Poly tonight. (Oh, alright, Metropolitan University.) You have to buy a ticket in advance, whereupon a wristband will be slapped on you to ensure you don't get lost. Or tout the tickets, or something.