You have to feel sorry for Boscombe. Not only did it lose
its weekly exposure on Saturday sports results shows when current English Premier
League football club AFC Bournemouth changed their name (from Bournemouth and
Boscombe Athletic) in 1972, but the venue of The Sisters of Mercy’s only stop
on that part of the South Coast has also dropped the town’s name, being now
known as the O2 Academy Bournemouth (see photo from their website below) as
opposed to the Boscombe Academy moniker it enjoyed back on Friday 29th
April 1983. Following the end of the tour with The Gun Club, the band dotted around
the country getting gigs where they could as their fame began to spread, and
performed in Boscombe two nights after the Swindon Solitaire gig and the night
before the Nottingham Union Rowing club concert.
A recording of the gig now resides in the
comprehensive Dark Circle Room vault along
with a description of the gig by the person who provided it : “This was a
spectacularly good gig…I wish I had the promotional poster for this gig as they
were listed as the Sisters of Mersey! Eldritch mentions this in a rare spoken
moment on the tape.” Before the band launched into a blistering version of
Jolene, Von clearly intones “We are NOT the Sisters of Mersey”. The setlist
contained no surprises, but favoured Valentine over Gimme Shelter, with the
tape provider adding, “I’m not sure if they played a short set because they
came on early, the main band being an appalling local New Romantic crowd.”
(could this have been CaVa CaVa, a short-lived but much-hyped band from that
area ?).
Looking at the venue
in its magnificent refurbished glory (£3 million was spent on the Grade II
listed building in a refurbishment of 2006/7), it might be hard to imagine the
air of slightly faded grandeur which what was originally (back in 1895)the
Boscombe Grand Theatre had in the early 80’s, but thanks to the wonderful Arthur Lloyd website we need
imagine no more, and I am grateful to them for their permission to reproduce
this photo taken by Ted Bottle in 1985, one of several on their site which shows
the interior of the building..
With a
sound and light system now worthy of the third millennium, and with old tour mates
Public Enemy booked in to do a show in December, this is another venue which is
well overdue a visit from the band.
Where was the Nottingham gig? Would it have been at the Boat club venue?
ReplyDeletemore informations here ;) :
ReplyDeletehttp://sistersfan.blogspot.fr/2012/02/nottingham-union-rowing-club-spring.html
I am the person who torrented the Bournemouth tape although I was not the taper, that was a person called Mike who came from nearby Poole. What you cannot see from the above pic is the fact that in the 80s the Academy had a large area near the front of the stage made into a pit that the DJs & their gear would rise up from, however, unlike a normal stage trap door this had no cover to it. For concerts by major artists the venue would construct a raised, false stage but for minor acts they would perform from behind the pit. Such was the case for the Sisters.
ReplyDeleteWhen Eldritch says "We are not the Sisters of Mersey" he then says "Thank you Kelly", Kelly was the venue booker/promoter.
The dreadful New Romantic band was not CaVa CaVa, I'm not sure they were still around at that time. It may have been 7even but was probably another bunch who dressed like Modern Romance, Ay Ay Ay Ay Moosey anyone.
mister_rubbish - are there any photos of the Boscombe gig itself?
ReplyDelete