The
Dublin Castle is not a castle and is not in Dublin. It is however an X-factor
rich Public House and it is in Camden Town. It is also an internationally famous
music venue noteable for spearheading various musical movements over the last
couple of decades or so.
The first impression of The Dublin on entering of an average evening is one of excitement, sass and cool. Every aspect of yoof culture is shoulder to shoulder enjoying a drink and comparing notes whilst one of the best juke boxes in London blasts out a seismic soundtrack.
Extemely friendly barstaff and the most gorgeous spangley tabletops plus enough mirrors to keep the most narcistic of glam faces happy ........
But we are here to rock...or atleast rhythmically swing our heads to some crunching toons, so what's the coup with the venue that is The Dublin Castle??
The
Castle was second home to Madness in the 78/79 epoch of North London Bluebeat[they returned for a week of legendary gigs as The Dangermen in 2004],
captured the Blues n beer boom of the early 80s and played host to the quifftastic
Camden Rockin scene of the late 80s.
Following
a brief lull in the early 90s some so called 'Indie' promoters entered the frey
to bring the place kickin' and snortin' into the post modern day; bang on time
for the Brit pop cultural revolution.
Some superfine clubs introduced a myriad of soon to be big names. Club Spangle turned mondays upside down and presented soon comes like Supergrass, Travis and The Cardigans before bowing out in '95 with the superb swansong of a Blur secret gig.
Club Zitt hosted tuesdays-starting off in 1993 with Gene playing to 8 people!. But things picked up, with all manner of artists from Kula Shaker to Gillian Welch being squeezed together on tension packed four band bills. This sort of thing led to hapless promoter Vaughan Fotheringay being physically attacked by guitar lead wielding punkettes so he sought solace in ambient chin strokery-showcasing Autechre to 150 bemused Techno anoraks who did not actually seem to know what a pub was.
Plastic
Factory featured a fine selection of Noisecoere slacksters such as Ligament, Headcleaner,
the esteemed Penthouse and nutjob geniuses The Shockheaded Peters,before embracing
the new breed of post Pulpers and sellout shows for old guard gurus like Glen
Tilbrook.
Plastic Factory's flypostering campaign was so effective that all
Camden's street furniture sports an Artex coat to this day.[Please note kids, these days all flyposting is taboo and possibly satanic so don't go there!]
Bugbear
is proud to be involved in the furthering of this fantastic tale and with a lump
in our eyes and a tear in our throats will host this Website for the bands and
punters who flock to The Dublin Castle.
A
huge holler of appreciation goes out to the Conlon family for being excellent hosts and letting us get on with it.
The
Dublin Castle is not a castle and is not in Dublin. It is an institution and we
are ecstatic to be incarcerated. So check it out ........
