Sea Cadets Hall

Right, so i know it's where all the gigs used to go on back in the day, but can someone explain to me where exactly it was? Is the building still there?

It was on the Riverside next to the engineering museum, just before Stanley Road. One level hall with a first storey brick face at front and balcony. In it's own ground with small car park and little lawn. Was pummelled to make way for those huge flats.

Fisher Hall had some great gigs too... Chelsea, Urban Dogs, Conflict, Vice Squad... local bands like The Claim, Total Onslaught, TBA... ooh, Meteors was there too.

i though it had been knocked down...

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Many goodnights down there 999,Serious Drinking,Ruts DC,Riot Squad,Vice Squad,13th Chime.

Local bands The Claim,Subculture,Strange Brew,Nu Swift etc.

*Takes off rose tinted glasses*

Hanoi Rocks as well - we supported them - they were tossers but I did get to use Razzle's kit.

It was a cool venue... not many neighbours to complain, just the dark unlit riverside with dark fields one way and a dangerous underpass the other way. I saw skinheads throwing punks into the river, I saw punks righting punks in the street... I saw a riot at an Angelic upstarts show which nearly killed a friend of mine... I saw one of my worst gigs there ever... 999 in 1985... in 1988 they had a gig listed there with two of my then dfave US band Toxic Reasons and The Zero Boys... so I skated all the way there with brand new Vans on... to find no gig... I skated back and by the time I got home I had more blister than skin on my feet...

They had cancelled their UK leg of the Euro tour... I do still however own cassettes of their gig in Bielfeld, Germany on that very tour... I haven't seen them for years and years but one is on a TDK high wuality cassette (black card) and the other is on a Maxell gold and black cassette. I'm so sad.

What was the problem with 999?

Subculture... one of the guys lived on Angler's way and worked in Parrot Records in the early days. What was their 7" called... "University City" or summink... they weren't very good. I think they had their material re-released on Captain Oi! Record as a split with dodgy right wing band A.B.H.

ride played there when they released their first ep and gave away signed copies of it to everyone who went.... i stood at the front and found them so dull i threw the ep in a bin (what a twat)
also saw ozric tentacles play a blinder and tons of things like macc lads, snuff, senseless things

was great

Ride were amazingly dull live on the occasions i saw them. They did some good records, but they were the epitome of shoegazing live.

This should be renamed, the old bastards reminisce thread.;)

He was the guitarist Dean something,Matt the drummer is now in Out of Nowhere and the single was University City. Dean was a reasonable guitarist but the material left much to be desired, they also appeared on one of the Oi albums maybe Strength Through Oi.

Saw the UK subs there and at the time the local band de jour The Stormed. It was a VERY VERY long time ago .............

A lot of bands came to Cambridge to record their records as well...

Stiff Little Fingers recorded their first album Inflammable Material at Spaceward Studios.
The album made a brief cameo performance in an american film about a record shop with Jack Black , title escapes me.

^ It was the film of the Nick Hornby book, wasn't it?

^ Thats the one,got it High Fidelity!

Stiff Little Fingers recorded their first album Inflammable Material at Spaceward Studios

I didn't know that! It sounds way better than most punk stuff, maybe that's why.

Iron Maiden recorded their first proper demos at Spaceward - lots of other good stuff was done there.

I like being a reminiscing old bastard!

didn't julian cope record "fried" in cambridge? or was it "world shut your mouth"?

might not have been either of them.

as you were.

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I don't remember them being on an Oi! LP... deffo not on Oi! The album, Strength thru..., Carry on, Oi! Oi! that's yer lot... but then the Oi! LPs were released by a label called Syndicate Son of oi!, Oi! of Sex... ABH were one one of those... since then all that oi! material has been cut and pasted across numerous "new" compilation albums... I can see the cover of that Subculture 7" now... a blue tinted picture of the band sitting on aome steps I think... white cover with blue and red... uni buildings and maybe some crests/swords...

As i said the guitarist used to work in Parrot records... we used to, for a joke and this went on for some tim, go up to the counter with 3 or 4 7"s to buy... then put the subculture 7" down... his eyes would light up and then we'd pick it up and put it back in the rack... we wuz bastards, but it were reet funny.

julian cope record "fried" in cambridge

It was Fried. He also bought the tortoise shell on the cover in a Cambridge antique shop.

Ah the Flare Cadet Hall happy days, good memories of some good gigs (Senseless Things, Mega City Four) as well as some poor ones (Ride, Five Thirty). You could always rely on The Grapevine (off licence) nearby to sell you booze and then neck it in the park on Stourbridge Common before the gig.

haha.... yep i'd forgotten about that place.... i remember once being fifteen and asked what year i was born, i said something stupid that made me be about 30.... he still served me :-)

mad dog, thunderbird and merrydown seemed the staple

Wasn't there something in Fracture at some point about the Sea Cadets Hall? I remember reading about a right old set to in one of them. I shall be digging them out for a good read when I get home!!

Ah Thunderbird and Merrydown.

*shudders in memory*

Andy - yes, I wrote a column in Fracture harkening back to the infamous Angelic Upstarts gig at the SCH which ended in a riot and hammer attacks, severe beatings and chaos.

Mad Dog... the green one will tasty won't it?

I'm going to see GBH in a couple of weeks. Not sure if I should be looking forward to it or not!

Stve from ThEHorror/Out of Step Records saw GBH and Discharge recently and said they were both still great live bands. I've always had a soft spot for GBH... early Discharge is boss too... "Decontrol"...

Playing in Newport TJ's on 22nd March. MDC are here to soon as well!

The Meteors @ Fisher Hall? Bloody hell!

Are the Meteors still going?I remember going to see them at West Hampstead Moonlight club and various other small London venues. I can also remember them at the Astoria with Screaming Lord Sutch and I think the Stray Cats. I even had a flat top (aka a Mack Curtis) at the time

I saw the Stray Cats at The Lyceum but the support was King Kurt...

Long time ago, and thinking about it, it could have been King Kurt

King Kurt played the Town Hall too... the one next to the market place... and the Newtown Neurotics...

Yeah the Meteors are still playing and bringing out new albums - check out These Evil Things 2004 & Hymns For The Hellbound (2007) both on I Used To Fuck People Like You In Prison records. King Kurt, Frantic Flintstones, Guana Batz - all those psychobilly bands are around again (which is great 'cos I was too young to see them the first time!) Have a look at Speedfreaks Ball www.speedfreaks-ball.co.uk and Bedlam Breakout http://bedlambreakout.com they are 2 really good al dayers/weekenders.

Anyone have this back in the day? http://rideyourpony-twighlightzone.blogspot.com/2006/06/psychobilly-is...

i supported 'The Macc Lads' at the sea cadets,got covered in spit and pelted with beer cans.I thought we had it bad but then when the Macc lads played they got it 100times worse.

was that arcana?

I don't remember if I ever went to a gig at the sea cadets, but this thread prompted me to look in my record boxes, where I found a copy of the Subculture single 'Loud & Clear' b/w 'Rogue Trooper' and 'University City'. Have been trying to scan it and put it up here, but the technology has beaten me.

http://www.captainoi.com/details.asp?CatNo=AHOY%20CD%20085

Hey marcos & space_bubble & Henry & anyone who was into psychobilly check this out, it's this Saturday....

LAST GANG IN TOWN presents....

THE ROCK-IT DOGS - Psycho-Rockin’ 3 piece from the Midlands who pull together the styles of psychobilly, rockabilly, surf and horror B movies. Signed to Crazy Love records, the band have played at many psychobilly festivals including the Kings Of Psychobilly in Germany, Speedfreaks Ball and Bedlam Breakout.
www.myspace.com/therockitdogs

HATEBALL - A most anticipated return of this Punk Rock'n'Roll band from Eastbourne who are influenced by Social Distortion and Rancid.
www.myspace.com/hateball

LAST GANG IN TOWN DJ’s - Psychobilly / Punk / Rockabilly
www.myspace.com/thelastgangintownuk

Saturday 22nd March
Man on the Moon, Norfolk St, Cambridge
Doors 7:30pm
ONLY £5 on the door
Ticket reservations email lastgangintownuk@yahoo.co.uk

Melody Maker...

http://homepage.mac.com/aaront/ride/old/ridearticles/mmmar390.html

Someone mentioned this to me the other day and they are right: The new block of red flats where the cadets hall used to be, plus the new white block behind Tescos. Has anyone ever seen anyone come in or out of either of these? I've lived very close to these for over two years and I've never seen any sign of life in either. It's very sinister now I think about it.

Yep, I have.

Must be just me then...

to ababoonsass; re your comments on Subculture; just for the record -

Subculture were on Oi Oi That's yer Lot, on Secret records. Plus numerous other punk compilations after that. They also had their track Loud and Clear covered by a dutch band called Funeral Dress. They were managed for a while by Alan McGee, yes that Alan McGee, and were the only Cambridge band to really break out of the stifled Cambridge scene of that period.

As for anecdotes about winding up the guitarist Dean at Parrot Records "... we used to, for a joke go up to the counter with 3 or 4 7"s to buy... then put the subculture 7" down... his eyes would light up and then we'd pick it up and put it back in the rack... we wuz bastards, but it were reet funny"

You should have bought the Subculture records instead of the whatever else it was I sold you. The Loud and Clear E.P goes for 70 to 100 quid now. Now who's laughing? Cheers! Dean

Now who's laughing? Me.

£70 -100 eh? I have that EP.

Re Sea Cadets - was talking to a bloke last week who was reminiscing about it - he was the bassist in a heavy metal band called Strontium.

I remember Strontium - them and The Axe Band were pretty much the only metal bands in Cambridge - plus almost metal bands like Necromancer and Thumper.

remember Spider from up t'north, hard rock and spandex... they did the Hall a few times... we supported them once.

Bands who wore spandex - did they get changed after playing or just walk around like that?

from what I remember they walked around like that after the set and even at the sound check... our bass player asked the drummer with Spider very politely where he came from (he meant geographically) and he came back in a broad scouse accent 'out of me mams fanny' ... and then walked off in his fetching pink stripped spandex and teasing his long peroxide hair... wasn't really a good match as we were a last minute stand in for a cancelled band due to that bands singer having an unfortunate accident with a pair of electric hair straighteners... strange but true...

r.e . Comment from :alternation (not active) at 12:15pm on Fri 14th March 2008.

I saw Ride at the Sea Cadet hall in 1990 and I'll be damned if I got a signed EP. I did get a set list and crushed to buggery. I also had no idea it had been knocked down. I clearly it's been too long since I was on Riverside. I also saw The Sensless Things and the Night Jars there in 1990.