The Warehouse

Photos, anecdotes... One topic per house
Post Reply
User avatar
Weed
Posts: 224
Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2008 12:20 pm
Location: Basildon, Essex, England
Contact:

The Warehouse

Post by Weed »

(Concreting the Wharehouse basement)
thanks to Angie for these photos
Attachments
Marion
Marion
John the Song, Marion and others
John the Song, Marion and others
John the Song
John the Song

User avatar
Dominic
Posts: 149
Joined: Mon Oct 27, 2008 3:33 pm

Re: The Warehouse

Post by Dominic »

----------------
I'm not the best qualified to tell the story of The Warehouse because I didn't get involved in setting it up. I hope someone else, who was more involved, will write their account.

Jack had a system whereby he would allow bands to use the warehouse space above for rehearsal space during the day when it was OK to make noise. And in return, they would do a free gig in the basement at the weekend. So every weekend, for a while, there was at least one band playing a proper gig, it was really good.

There was a band that used to rehearse in the Cabbage Patch pub who were then allowed to use The Warehouse. They later became famous and they were the only band that didn't do the free gig in return. That was Genesis.

It all ended abruptly one weekend when it was discovered by 'The Road Rats', a hells angels type gang but worse,- puke and p i s s covered colours but without the necessity for motorbikes.

As I was driving past The Warehouse I noticed that the plate-glass windows had been smashed and there was a large fire-extinguisher sitting in the huge dent that it had made in the roof of a parked car.

That was the last gig in The Warehouse basement. Apparently The Road Rats had planned to come in larger numbers the next weekend and they had their eye on the rest of the building for their club-house. It was decided to close it down and keep a low profile.
Last edited by Dominic on Mon Feb 02, 2009 3:45 pm, edited 2 times in total.

User avatar
Weed
Posts: 224
Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2008 12:20 pm
Location: Basildon, Essex, England
Contact:

Re: The Warehouse

Post by Weed »

Dominic wrote:...The Warehouse... I hope someone else, who was more involved, will write their account.
Jack would probably be the best person -- he (and Scratch ?) were the first to see the potential of the place and i remember him coming round to No 7 to persuade me how it could be used --- and it was about that time that Angie first got involved with the street -- i still have the original leaflet we produced -- planned activities were to be focussed on kids, theatre, workshops, music, video and film -- Jack and i went up to London to CAT to see John (Hoppy) Hopkins to talk about the video stuff, tho like most of our plans, that part of it came to nothing

i collected lots of money from the Street for paint etc and amazingly we always managed to get what we needed -- lots of people put huge anounts of time and energy into the place, especially painting all those white walls -- i remember Sue spending hours and hours there

also, coming up to the 'open day', there was a mad rush to try and get toilets and a telephone installed (thanks to Paul for help with the latter), as well as getting the basement concreted in time so that there was somewhere for the evening's music event* -- i'm pretty sure the bales of straw came from Bushy Park (where myself and Chris J and Steve B were working)... wow... talk about taking fire risks !

yes, the open day was incredibly successful, especially the jumble sale -- and i remember Scratch and another were dressed up as clowns and there was an art exhibition! (including paintings by Artist Jim, and Liz and yourself Dom)

the only paper to fully report it was the Surrey Comet -- they consistently supported the street, thanks to an excellent reporter by the name of Phil Cooper -- the photographer that accompanied him took loads of pics, which unfortunately didn't get used with the article -- for the next couple of weeks i spent ages trying to get hold of him and them, but unfortunately he left the Surrey Comet taking his negs with him almost immediately after and i never managed to trace him -- typical... that's what it was like then, in a world without the internet

after that there were several free gigs put on by local bands (i was looking after the "booking") -- it was always packed, and for the first few there was even free beer

the big window getting smashed was an acident, tho one which was waiting to happen -- it was the first night that the Road Rats had shown up in force and they were showing off to a visiting American Hells Angel (if my memory serves me right) -- they were larking about throwing a fire extinguisher to each other and one of them failed to catch it -- but after that, and the guy getting hurt, it was obvious that keeping the Warehouse open, running the way it had been, entailed too many security risks

however Ken S later moved in to the Warehouse and did a few things (including producing a couple of newsletters) and i think he was the one who arranged for Genesis to rehearse there for a week or so -- they were already a name band by then, with 4 albums out, and i think they needed somewhere private to rehearse for their "Selling England by the Pound" promotion tour (going by the album release date - Oct 1973) -- i don't know if there was a financial arrangement involved, but they had exclusive use of the place while they were there, with rehearsals being off-limits to us -- there certainly wouldn't have been any possibility of a gig, as the Warehouse had already closed as an active venue, and anyway, Genesis's management wouldn't have allowed them to play for free at a completely illegal venue with no insurance, no proper fire precautions, no trained security etc, even if they'd wanted to -- (so i think you've been a bit harsh on them there Dom, tho tho there was a bit of bad feeling cos we weren't allowed to listen to them rehearsing)

* i thought that the basement was concreted before the open day -- but i could be wrong on that
Last edited by Weed on Mon Dec 29, 2008 5:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Guv
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Dec 28, 2008 12:32 pm

Re: The Warehouse

Post by Guv »

[quote="Weed] tho there was a bit of bad feeling cos we weren't allowed to listen to them rehearsing [/quote]

I used to sit for ages and listen to/watch Phill Collins practice his drums. Nobody stopped, or bothered me. It was jolly nice...a bit of sanctuary in a crap time.

User avatar
Joviale
Site Admin
Posts: 378
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:59 pm
antispam: I am Not
Location: provence

Re: The Warehouse

Post by Joviale »

Couple of photos of the wharehouse. I'm thinking of changing the topic to: the wharehouse and moving it to who lived where, any objections?
Attachments
wharehousepainting.jpg
wharehouse.jpg
If i can't dance to it, it's not my revolution

User avatar
Dominic
Posts: 149
Joined: Mon Oct 27, 2008 3:33 pm

Re: The Warehouse

Post by Dominic »

I think the painting was done by Scratch.

Welcome Guv, - I'm glad you chose to register rather than drop out. I'm also glad that you / someone got some pleasure from Genesis rehearsing in The Warehouse. --- (your quotes don't seem to be working properly, maybe someone knows how you can rectify that.)
Last edited by Dominic on Mon Feb 02, 2009 3:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Joviale
Site Admin
Posts: 378
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:59 pm
antispam: I am Not
Location: provence

Re: The Warehouse

Post by Joviale »

Dominic wrote: (your quotes don't seem to be working properly, maybe someone knows how you can rectify that.)
Well the way i manage it is to click on the quote button top right of the message next to edit and then do a bit of cut and paste with the begining and end of the quote instruction if i want to cut the message to answer different bits, like this:
Dominic wrote:I think it would be a good idea to edit the title of this topic.
Done
Dominic wrote:I'm glad a better version of that picture of The Warehouse has been posted. It's a shame it's so badly framed. If I see Carol I'll ask her if she has the original. I think the painting was done by Scratch.
Yes correct it was scratch, and i just scanned the postcard and did a bit of photoshop, not very good, would be better to find the original of course. And i have a very faded photo of scratch and some other guy dressed up as clowns for the "offical opening". I'll try and scan it if i can it is very faded, one of these old camears that developped immediatly, i can't remember what they were called.
And wasn't there an adventure play ground on the top floor or did we just think about it?
If i can't dance to it, it's not my revolution

User avatar
Dominic
Posts: 149
Joined: Mon Oct 27, 2008 3:33 pm

Re: The Warehouse

Post by Dominic »

Guv, - I may know why your quotes aren't working properly, Just above the 'submit' box there's a string of 'tick-boxes', make sure the BBCode is enabled. (untick the box).
Last edited by Dominic on Mon Feb 02, 2009 3:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Weed
Posts: 224
Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2008 12:20 pm
Location: Basildon, Essex, England
Contact:

Re: The Warehouse

Post by Weed »

Dominic wrote:...Guv, - I may know why your quotes aren't working properly...
more likely to be the missing closing quotes after 'Weed'

User avatar
Joviale
Site Admin
Posts: 378
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:59 pm
antispam: I am Not
Location: provence

Re: The Warehouse

Post by Joviale »

Weed wrote:and i remember Scratch and another were dressed up as clowns
Well i^m amazed at the possibilities of photoshop. I had that totally faded photo, almost white, taken with a polaroid, and this is what i managed to do with it. Someone more expert (dominic?) could probably do even better, i didn't actually clean it just work on the colours and luminosity and contrast.
Attachments
Clowns.jpg
If i can't dance to it, it's not my revolution

Post Reply