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24 June 2004
15:23:00 o'clock BST
Hearing Hope of the States - The Lost Riots
You’d walk up the stairs & sometimes you’d get stopped & asked your age, or asked to confirm your name, address & age into a tape recorder, but once you were in, you were in. The Bistro in Rhyl in the 1980s was ‘the’ alternative nightspot in town. ‘Normal’ people would refer to it as a place for freaks, or a no-go area as it was sure to be rough. Those same ‘normal’ people would then go out to a ‘proper’ club, get arseholed & watch someone get glassed or beaten into hospital; but hey, that’s normal.
The Bistro, with its early 70s décor of sticky red carpets & red & black walls, patched up over the years with woodchip wallpaper, then painted again & again, was the safest place in town to go to. The idiots in their nice white shirts avoided the place thinking they’d get a beating off the alternative crowd; the punks, goths & indie kids, so they mainly stayed away. As far as alternative was concerned, it was more the people who went there rather than what the DJs played, oh how I yearned to hear Dead Kennedys or The Dickies or Crass being hammered over the sound system but alas it wasn’t be until I got to DJ there myself in 1989 & 1995-96. In the early 80s The Clash (London Calling), The Jam (Going Underground) & David Bowie (Queen Bitch) was about as alternative as it got, and that was only on Thursday & Friday night when Pete Bethell was at the decks. Saturdays were a no-no as Kim would be DJ-ing his disco records. But the trend changed, Kim left, Pete took over the whole show & the alternative elements began drifting in on a Saturday as well. But youth culture was also changing, the club used to be open 5 nights a week (closed on tues & sun), mid week was quiet & inevitably the owners (The Trehearns) realised we punks weren’t spending too much money in there. They took measures to attract other people, banning jeans, doc marten boots, mohicans, leather jackets at varying times. It didn’t work; it only succeeded in alienating their core customers & the bans were lifted. It was too expensive to be out every night of the week & Rhyl as a whole noticed a decline in midweek drinking & soon the Bistro cut down to a Thursday, Friday & Saturday. Younger brother to proprietor Pete Trehearn was Martin, who came home to roost after a stint at the Splash Point, he came in & wanted to utilise the club as a venue for live bands, & by 1988 The Bistro had regular live acts booked on a Thursday night. The nights went from strength to strength, prompting Martin to invest in a stage & house PA. What went against the venue was the quality of the music scene in the late 80s / early 90s. There were a lot of bands, but not too many of outstanding quality & a lot of mediocre pub rock bands got on the bill when they really should’ve stayed at home, or better still, had been shot. Bands from memory that were good & played at The Bistro; Dr Phibes & The House of Wax Equations, UK Subs, Adams Family, Wizzards of Twiddley, 4Q, Psychosexual Sex Terrestrials, & probably loads more, but I do remember a lot of rubbish like Mantra, Dirty Weekend, Destroyed, & 4Q.
That’ll do for now, I’ll write some more on the place when I can be arsed…
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15:23:00 o'clock BST
Hearing Hope of the States - The Lost Riots
Bistro
You’d walk up the stairs & sometimes you’d get stopped & asked your age, or asked to confirm your name, address & age into a tape recorder, but once you were in, you were in. The Bistro in Rhyl in the 1980s was ‘the’ alternative nightspot in town. ‘Normal’ people would refer to it as a place for freaks, or a no-go area as it was sure to be rough. Those same ‘normal’ people would then go out to a ‘proper’ club, get arseholed & watch someone get glassed or beaten into hospital; but hey, that’s normal.
The Bistro, with its early 70s décor of sticky red carpets & red & black walls, patched up over the years with woodchip wallpaper, then painted again & again, was the safest place in town to go to. The idiots in their nice white shirts avoided the place thinking they’d get a beating off the alternative crowd; the punks, goths & indie kids, so they mainly stayed away. As far as alternative was concerned, it was more the people who went there rather than what the DJs played, oh how I yearned to hear Dead Kennedys or The Dickies or Crass being hammered over the sound system but alas it wasn’t be until I got to DJ there myself in 1989 & 1995-96. In the early 80s The Clash (London Calling), The Jam (Going Underground) & David Bowie (Queen Bitch) was about as alternative as it got, and that was only on Thursday & Friday night when Pete Bethell was at the decks. Saturdays were a no-no as Kim would be DJ-ing his disco records. But the trend changed, Kim left, Pete took over the whole show & the alternative elements began drifting in on a Saturday as well. But youth culture was also changing, the club used to be open 5 nights a week (closed on tues & sun), mid week was quiet & inevitably the owners (The Trehearns) realised we punks weren’t spending too much money in there. They took measures to attract other people, banning jeans, doc marten boots, mohicans, leather jackets at varying times. It didn’t work; it only succeeded in alienating their core customers & the bans were lifted. It was too expensive to be out every night of the week & Rhyl as a whole noticed a decline in midweek drinking & soon the Bistro cut down to a Thursday, Friday & Saturday. Younger brother to proprietor Pete Trehearn was Martin, who came home to roost after a stint at the Splash Point, he came in & wanted to utilise the club as a venue for live bands, & by 1988 The Bistro had regular live acts booked on a Thursday night. The nights went from strength to strength, prompting Martin to invest in a stage & house PA. What went against the venue was the quality of the music scene in the late 80s / early 90s. There were a lot of bands, but not too many of outstanding quality & a lot of mediocre pub rock bands got on the bill when they really should’ve stayed at home, or better still, had been shot. Bands from memory that were good & played at The Bistro; Dr Phibes & The House of Wax Equations, UK Subs, Adams Family, Wizzards of Twiddley, 4Q, Psychosexual Sex Terrestrials, & probably loads more, but I do remember a lot of rubbish like Mantra, Dirty Weekend, Destroyed, & 4Q.
That’ll do for now, I’ll write some more on the place when I can be arsed…
Written by neilcrud Blog about this entry |
Add to del.icio.us | digg this
This entry has 2 comments: (Add your own)
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Hah! I remember copping off with a girl called Aubyn Dyke at the Bistro .
22/08/06 14:45
I used to go to and work at the Bistro around the time Corey, Ricky, and Taz worked there... I'm tryin to put together either a site about the Bistro or a myspace group, contact me? Already in contact with Martin T, but need as much material as poss to go on it!