Soldato
I was inspired by @Junglist who posted in the Bad Dates thread about going to the Thekla. This was a nightclub-boat in Bristol.
I now live in Stafford but I was in Bristol for 50 weeks from early Oct 2000 to late Sep 2001 on a work placement in between uni years 2 and 3. This made it a sandwich course.
I lived just off Filton Avenue as a lodger. Basically I had my own room then shared the rest of the house with a landlady. There was a Co-Op right by me, a library, plus a barbershop, a taxi rank an off-license and a few pubs, but my go-to pub was King George VI. Filton Avenue was served by bus numbers 70 and 73, going into the city centre, and the far end of route 70/73 being Cribbs Causeway shopping centre. I liked the city centre and the seafront.
I went to around 10 nightclubs in my year there, most walkable from each other, except for the Depot which was a taxi job. Sadly I never got the chance to go to the Thekla but it was one of the clubs I really wanted to go to. The 3 big dance venues were Creation, The Rock and Cafe Blue. Creation was my favourite club as it hosted Slinky and it had a great laser system with mirror balls. The 2 smaller dance venues were the Maze, the Depot and of course the legendary Lakota which I believe is still running now! The Works was a cheesy nightclub but it had good production and aesthetics. The other cheese venue was Evolution at the far end of a pier called the Watershed if memory serves. I wasn't keen on Evolution as I didn't like the atmosphere and the drinks were expensive at £3.50 a bottle, when the normal club rate was £3 back then.
The September 11th attacks took place near the end of my placement, with about 10 days remaining. I worked in the library and we were told by the boss to watch the footage on a big 48" flat screen TV (unusual and expensive back then) then got sent home early. Bristol was eerily quiet in those last 10 days especially the clubs in my final weekend of clubbing.
I like Stafford and can now go clubbing up and down the country via hotel / city breaks, but I miss Bristol and I still get the odd dream that I'm still living there as a lodger. I miss the people too but I certainly don't miss the work due to office politics. My other nostalgia / association with Bristol is that I was madly into Final Fantasy 7 and 8 on the PC, so when I wasn't working or clubbing, I 'lived' in those 2 games.
Bristol had its own local magazine called "Venue" which sometimes had a cover CD with decent tracks on it from local dance acts.
I now live in Stafford but I was in Bristol for 50 weeks from early Oct 2000 to late Sep 2001 on a work placement in between uni years 2 and 3. This made it a sandwich course.
I lived just off Filton Avenue as a lodger. Basically I had my own room then shared the rest of the house with a landlady. There was a Co-Op right by me, a library, plus a barbershop, a taxi rank an off-license and a few pubs, but my go-to pub was King George VI. Filton Avenue was served by bus numbers 70 and 73, going into the city centre, and the far end of route 70/73 being Cribbs Causeway shopping centre. I liked the city centre and the seafront.
I went to around 10 nightclubs in my year there, most walkable from each other, except for the Depot which was a taxi job. Sadly I never got the chance to go to the Thekla but it was one of the clubs I really wanted to go to. The 3 big dance venues were Creation, The Rock and Cafe Blue. Creation was my favourite club as it hosted Slinky and it had a great laser system with mirror balls. The 2 smaller dance venues were the Maze, the Depot and of course the legendary Lakota which I believe is still running now! The Works was a cheesy nightclub but it had good production and aesthetics. The other cheese venue was Evolution at the far end of a pier called the Watershed if memory serves. I wasn't keen on Evolution as I didn't like the atmosphere and the drinks were expensive at £3.50 a bottle, when the normal club rate was £3 back then.
The September 11th attacks took place near the end of my placement, with about 10 days remaining. I worked in the library and we were told by the boss to watch the footage on a big 48" flat screen TV (unusual and expensive back then) then got sent home early. Bristol was eerily quiet in those last 10 days especially the clubs in my final weekend of clubbing.
I like Stafford and can now go clubbing up and down the country via hotel / city breaks, but I miss Bristol and I still get the odd dream that I'm still living there as a lodger. I miss the people too but I certainly don't miss the work due to office politics. My other nostalgia / association with Bristol is that I was madly into Final Fantasy 7 and 8 on the PC, so when I wasn't working or clubbing, I 'lived' in those 2 games.
Bristol had its own local magazine called "Venue" which sometimes had a cover CD with decent tracks on it from local dance acts.
We've had the one main nightclub on Newport Road, decades old now and it changes its name every 10 years or so. Then we have the usual late night bars like Spoons, Yates, Vodka Revolution etc.
That ****** me off when that happens to good venues. Looks like Cafe Blue got turned into a Laser Quest type place.
