No Rock And Roll Fun

CURIOUSITY ADDS TO CURIOSITY: Rumours that Liverpool's Lomax is set to franchise have now been confirmed, with the news that the good people of Stoke are due to receive a 2000-punter sized version of the former Liverpool legend sometime in September. Meanwhile, the reasons for the move from a self-contained venue in Liverpool into living cheek-by-jowl with Cream, sharing the Nation, seem to have been changed. Now, the line is that while the Hotham Street venue was "great for train access", being in "the city centre should now attract passers-by, not just regulars." So, a venue that people could and would travel easily to is less of an asset than one that might attract vague passers-by, is it? (How many people actually decide to go and see a gig on a whim, anyway? Unless it's a pub band, in for two quid sort of deal?) The Lomax are apparently also now claiming that "every club and venue has a lifespan and the skill of succeeding is knowing when that lifespan is up", which sounds to us as close as we're likely to get to "nobody was coming to the clubnights anymore."
What's even more bemusing is how The Lomax is hoping to balance its historic position as the heart of Indie Liverpool with its new role, having taken over Braveheart, as The Lomax Entertainments Arts Academy. Slightly massaging the truth, the venue that can rightly claim to have resurrected the Bunnymen and created the classic indie nightspot of the 90s is now also trying to take the credit for Kym Marsh and Atomic Kitten. Perhaps the move was so that the people who supported the club in the glory days didn't have to see the 'Max become bland manu-pop's bitch?