Do You Remember The First Time?

Do you remember the first time?

It’s amazing to me, that this year will mark the eleventh anniversary of the annual Boxing Day bash at the Brickyard: do you remember the first time? / (reinventing the wheel).

I couldn’t have predicted how popular the 80s / 90s Indie retro evening would become back then. Now, over 200 people turn up each year, many of them very familiar faces.

And while I continue to supply the tunes from my old vinyl collection; they supply the energy, moves and inspiration to keep going well into the early hours of the morning.

Many people still tell me that it’s their favourite night out in the city.

But what made the sadly defunct Twisted Wheel so special back in t’ day?

Debut

My first memory of the Twisted Wheel comes from a sixth-form party. No, I wasn’t of age that first occasion! Where you? No, I thought not.

The main thing I remember, apart from the sticky dancefloors, was the sense of danger in the place – and being pinned up against a wall by a jealous boyfriend wasn’t even the primary cause of my unease…

Upstairs they usually played fairly mainstream bloke-rock by bands such as U2, Simple Minds, The Jam, The Clash or Talking Heads.

Downstairs, however, I couldn’t even begin to tell you the names of the songs I heard on that first occasion: it was very dark, smoky, and felt very unwelcoming to such an 80s fashion victim – oh yes! I admit it… well, what was your haircut like, back then?

The rhythms were heavier; the melodies more angular; many of the songs had an eeriness about them that would make you shy away on first acquaintance – the faces crammed into the dingy alcoves seemed to look out at you with morlock eyes – I didn’t stay long.

Going Underground

Maybe six months or so passed. I was now at ‘Tech’ and the night to go out was: Wednesday, and the venue: The Twisted Wheel.

My next few visits I would pay £2.00 entry, which allowed you to go both up- and downstairs. It meant I could retreat to the relative normality of the ground floor when the basement got a little too much for me.

Before long though, I would pay the £1.50 that only allowed you downstairs but not up-. I was becoming a regular, and stayed so for a dozen years.

But, what made the ‘Wheel’ special to me, and to my contemporaries

wasn’t the seedy atmosphere; or the raucous music; or the number of people you knew, no.

What made it unique was the mix of ‘yoof’ culture that it contained.

The In-house Tribe…

As the 80s hurtled through an orgy of consumerism into the 90s, the nightclubs of Carlisle became more and more a reflection of that, and those who preferred more alternative grooves were marginalised.

The ‘Wheel’ was the one place that continued to play different music. The number of genres you could encounter on any given night was huge with many subcultures sharing the same dancefloor, waiting for the 20 minutes when ‘their’ records would be played. You could even take your own records and they might (with a little persuasion) get played.

With Goths, Psychobillies, Soul Boys, Shoegazers and Crusties all mixing in with fans of Dance, Electronica, Baggy and Punk: there was a broad acceptance between the tribes, that really, we were one tribe.

The music played over that period was so eclectic. You might have a Smiths song followed up by James Brown and then the Mission, and then later Madness might lead to the Meteors and onto the Stone Roses…

Special times, indeed. Music evolved.

What was pushed under the radar emerged some years later as: Madchester, Britpop, Grunge and of course Indie (which now means a type of guitar based rock music rather than its original designation: music made on an independent label).

But, while those days of who was snogging who (and who they wished they’d been snogging) maybe behind us now; on Boxing Night each year at the Brickyard we can try to rewind the clock a little.

Perhaps, you might even get your favourite Post-Punk record played; or a classic Northern Soul number; or even an epic slab of Goth Rock. So long as you are nice to the DJ, that is.