Venue Stories - Narratives, Memories, and Histories from Britain’s Independent Music Spaces - Fraser Mann
(Princess) Charlotte and her 1980s Offspring, O'Jays
Venue Stories - Narratives, Memories, and Histories from Britain’s Independent Music Spaces - Fraser Mann
Ruth Miller [+]
Musician
Description
In the mid-eighties, I was a student in Leicester. I often went to gigs at the city’s main small touring venue, the Princess Charlotte pub. When I formed my band Po! in 1987, our debut gig was a self-promotion event at the Charlotte. I paid extra to get tickets printed just like the touring bands. I subsequently attended and played many gigs at the Princess Charlotte. We performed with the likes of The Au Pairs and Husker Du. Around this time, a young staff member, Andy Wright, was promoted to deputy manager and made quite an impact on the pub. He was in touch with music trends and he was able to book unknown bands like Pop Will Eat Itself early on. By the time the gig arrived, they’d be NME darlings and a Charlotte sell-out. The next part of the story is that in 1988-9 Leicester had an idyllic year with a new music scene and a brand new venue. Deputy manager Andy was doing so well at the Charlotte that the brewery offered him an opportunity to run his own music bar also in Leicester city centre. As a keen soul fan, Andy styled, marketed and intended O’Jays to be a ‘Soul Bar’. What happened instead was that the indie-pop kids took over. These were underage fans of Sarah Records, girly bands and low-fi fanzine culture. Instead of urban cool and vibey soul club, the place was full of 16-year old bowl-cuts from East Midlands villages. A group of mates would form a band and play an O’Jays gig that week. There seemed to be little in the way of fighting, sex or even drunkenness. It was simple indie-pop loveliness. Andy, who now lives in Spain, is interviewed for this chapter. ‘Feedback Phil’, the Princess Charlotte sound engineer for more than 15 years also chips in his version of the story.