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Supergrass,
Catatonia, Echobelly, The Charlatans, Ash, Moloko, Radiohead and the
Manic Street Preachers all graced the underground bunker-come-dressing
room.
One of the most famous nights of recent years was on 29th March 1994
when a young Mancunian band fronted by two brothers was booked. Oasis’
Joiners experience was typical of many 90s bands – they were booked
by Mint just as they were on the verge of becoming very big indeed.
They had just appeared on The Word and Mint recollects switching them
on the line-up with fellow Creation artists, Whiteout, who were initially
to headline the gig - Oasis still only got paid £100 for their trouble.
"Noel was ok, Liam was Liam, obnoxious as his reputation that preceded
him and still goes on," remembers Mint: "He tried to pick
a fight with my secretary 'cos she was amused at one of his boasting
comments. He thought this was cause to take her outside - but she
just ignored him. During the gig he was trying to rile the audience
but the rather placid Southampton crowd were just interested in having
a good time!"
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| The
underground graffitied dressing room at The Joiners |
Another
night that has entered into local legend was when the Manic Street
Preachers came to St Mary’s Street in March 1991.
At that stage the band still had the mercurial Richie Edwards in their
line-up and had a growing following.
As Mint remembers: "I had them booked for a show in January, they
weren't so well known then – they cried off because one of them was
ill and it was re-booked, but then they had a radio or TV appearance
on the night I needed them in February so they ended up coming in
March.
Add
your memories of great gigs at The Joiners on our messageboard.
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| Were
you there? |
This
was pretty honourable of them, a lot of bands would have said ’we’re
not playing here, we’re past that stage, we’re going to play somewhere
bigger’, so that gives you and impression of what the Manics are like.
It was a great show – it was a busy night, we were turning people
away.
I’ve been told they signed some kind of contract down in the dressing
room in the cellar and fairly unusually for St Mary’s Street there
was a couple of Rolls Royces outside and some very large security
guys guarding these old guys in suits from the record company."
Ged Babey remembers the band's storming entrance: "They were
absolutely amazing. They got changed in the camper van outside and
came in through the open fire doors. They leapt straight onto the
stage and instantly started straight into it. I think everyone who
was there agreed they were just a fantastic band."
Have
a flick through our Joiners picture gallery
The twenty-first gig put on by Next Big Thing
was the first of several shows by The Levellers (The Brighton crusties
also took a shine to a tophat that Mint collected the door takings
in - the band subsequently took it all around the world on tour!).
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| Richard
Ashcroft fronting Verve at The Joiners. |
On
the whole, bands seem to have very fond memories of the Joiners –
remarkable given the lengths of tours and disorientating nights in
the back of transit vans or tour buses.
Richard Ashcroft played with Verve at the Joiners in 1992, and in
a recent NME interview he said their Southampton gig was: "...one
of the greatest gigs that I've ever played in my life because we were...incredible."
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| Ian
Lawton at the Joiners' sound desk |
The
gig was engineered by Ian Lawton: "It was my first ever gig with
The Verve ... it just kicked off, I didn't really do anything and
all of a sudden it became one of the greatest sonic experiences of
my life and the life of everyone who was in the room -it was fantastic,
everyone blamed it on me and said it was my fault that it was the
best gig ever, but it had nothing to do with me at all!"
The Joiners hospitality could go a long way to explaining bands' fondness
for the place. Current house
manager Chris Pullen, along with Pat the Doorman, sometimes cook for
the bands – their only decent meal in weeks on the road.
Not
all bands were quite so appreciative – Primal Scream were one of the
first touring bands to ask Mint for food in their rider. He recollects
going to great efforts to get a vegetarian curry delivered, only for
Bobby Gillespie and his fellow group members to demand something meatier
– they ended up heading to MacDonalds while the staff and some audience
members had a rather nice free feed!
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| The
Charlatans's Tim Burgess in 1990 at the Joiner's busiest ever
gig |
The
busiest ever Joiners night was when the Charlatans came to town on
8th February 1990. Mint had gambled and booked them solely on the
strength of their demo tape, but by the time their gig arrived, they
were all over the music press, touted as "The Stone Roses' favourite
band" and over 600 people queued along St Mary's Street to hear
Tim Burgess and the band's early tunes like The Only One I Know.
Naturally not all the bands, made it big. For every Oasis and Coldplay,
there are fifty others languishing forever in rock obscurity.
However, that’s not to say there weren’t some memorable performances,
as Mint remembers: "We’ve had bands throwing baked beans over each
other on stage – which the cleaners weren’t too pleased about the
next morning … during another show a man and a woman, who were dressed
in leather with metal plates on their arms and chest, and attacked
each other with angle-grinders!"
Add to that John Otway’s performace when he hid in the suspended ceiling,
The Sultans of Ping FC who made the audience lie on their backs and
bicycle kick in the air, Birdland who played the start of their set
in complete darkness, and the singer with Aussie band, The D4, who
played half a gig in a pool of blood after jumping from the PA stand
onto an abandoned beer glass after the crowd denied him his crowd
surf, and you're rarely due a boring night at the Joiners!
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