File download is hosted on Megaupload
Stars and Stripes, was a nightclub at the bottom of Botchergate, Carlisle. It was at the bottom of London Road, a long road heading south towards Penrith and south Cumbria. It is lined with shops and bars, nightclubs and a few churches; in the 1980s it had a cinema and lots of 2nd hand-shops. It was a run-down area of Carlisle’s city centre, the buildings looked as they were falling down (and today they have been pulled down). I used to walk down that road to rehearse with bands: Nightmares in a Damaged Brain, Havana Affair, and to do gigs with the Red Aligatorz; it was a troubled area of town.
You entered Stars and Stripes, though a small unimposing door and immediately climbed a flight of narrow stairs. At the top of the stairs you either turned right to go to the toilets or left to enter the main bar, dance area and stage. Seats lined the outside walls and there was a spacious area for dancing. At the top end of the room was a small raised area (stage) where bands stood and the DJ resided. Behind the stage was a glass panel and behind that was a small room where a recording studio was located, next to the recording studio was a small dressing room (Some of the videos on the Havana Affair page show the stage area).
I think for most people who used to go to discos and to see bands in the 1980s, they would have been in Stars and Stripes at some point in their lives. It used to be called “Kreeps” and it used to hold Heavy Mental discos on a friday night. I do not know at what point that it changed to become a hang out for the punk/psychobilly bands and that sort of crowd, but it became of the the most popular nightclubs to go too, and to see touring bands; and to hear local bands play (perhaps more so than Micks 1?).
On a wednesday night it used to have a Jam Session, here a lot of local bands went and played, often to an empty room. There was a resident band who played mainly RnB music, and the same people who played in that band (Bob and Martin) often did the sound desk for the Jam Session as well; they also mixed sound for any touring band that came through Carlisle. In short Stars and Stripes was the place to go for regular live music.
The owner of the venue was Les Griffith [photo: man in white shirt; I do not know the origin of this photo or else I would credit you, sorry]; a ex-door man (if I understand correctly) who took on the role of running the venue; he was a character and although there were a lot said about Les, the truth is a lot of the music that happened in Carlisle just would not have happened if it was not for his willingness to let people play; he gave a lot of bands a venue to experiment, and to have a platform to focus on. He did not pay you much…if at all, but you played and if you could stand the “experimental mixing” techniques of Bob and Martin behind the desk you even got a very strange demo to take home with you! A lot of the live recordings on this blog were recorded at Stars and Stripes.
Les, hosted Carlisle’s answer to “Live Aid” in 1985, which was a great turn out and collected a lot of money for the Live Aid Appeal. Havana Affair played that night as well as a lot of other local bands all in aid of the famine in Ethiopia.
There are too many to mention (even if I could remember them), but Les hosted touring bands such as The Icicle Works, GBH, King Kurt, an early Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Guana Batz… and local bands were often Support for these bands.
As a lot of venues in Carlisle, Stars and Stripes was also the home to teenage antics: love making, violence, drunkenness and drug taking; the recording room was so full of hashish that you were stoned just by walking in there.
Today Stars and Stripes is long gone, rumour has it it is being turned into flats…I laugh at this as if the people who will eventually rent/buy these flats knew what went on in there I guess they would demand a a sort of property “sterilization” whew!!!!
