# Dingwalls in Bristol?



## Sunspots (Feb 19, 2009)

Just looking online at some old gig posters (-mainly from the eighties), and I've noticed mention of a Dingwalls in Bristol.

Anybody here able to tell me where it was/what it is now?


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## Yetman (Feb 19, 2009)

Really? As in the Giles Peterson sunday samba business? Something like this would be great if its still on


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## Sunspots (Feb 19, 2009)

Yetman said:


> Really? As in the Giles Peterson sunday samba business?



Er, sort of.  I'm guessing it was the same company as the Camden one, but probably with a few more goth bands. 



Yetman said:


> Something like this would be great if its still on



Unfortunately, I expect Dingwalls in Bristol was probably turned into a Pizza Hut _many_ years ago!... 

I'm just wondering where it _was_, and if anybody has any memories of gigs there?


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## yardbird (Feb 19, 2009)

Sunspots said:


> Just looking online at some old gig posters (-mainly from the eighties), and I've noticed mention of a Dingwalls in Bristol.
> 
> Anybody here able to tell me where it was/what it is now?



Oh yes!!
It was  Vaux Breweries Beerkeller in  a 'shopping centre' . All concrete.
Was within walking distance of The Nails.

We* had a group of Dingwalls for a year or so.
* nb the use of the word 'we'.

Also at
Liverpool
Blackpool
Newcastle
Hull
Sheffield.
My friends and I had the original Dingwalls Dancehall in Camden Lock and with Harvey Goldsmith did a (failed) venture with Vaux.
However, Dr. John, The Fabulous Thunderbirds ect.

And we did the first Eurithmics tour just as Sweet Dreams hit #1.

Link for posters please 

You've made me go all nostalgic


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## butchersapron (Feb 19, 2009)

Sounds like the bierkeller under another name.


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## yardbird (Feb 19, 2009)

Sunspots said:


> Er, sort of.  I'm guessing it was the same company as the Camden one, but.



^^^
Moi


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## Sunspots (Feb 19, 2009)

yardbird said:


> Oh yes!!
> It was  Vaux Breweries Beerkeller in  a 'shopping centre' . All concrete.
> Was within walking distance of The Nails.



Cheers Yardbird, I knew you'd know the answer to this.  

This, as butchersapron suggests, is/was probably the venue that's still called The Bierkeller.  Your description of it being _'all concrete'_ kind of confirms it, I reckon!



yardbird said:


> Link for posters please



Don't get your hopes up, sorry!  -I've not stumbled across a whole site of posters, I'm afraid.  I saw an Xmal Deutschland tour poster here, that's all.  I've just noticed the poster mentions a Dingwalls in Hull too though.

Then I googled 'Dingwalls Bristol' and found mention of it in some tour itineraries (-variously: Hanoi Rocks, The Enid, One The Juggler, and no doubt 'many many more'...).

I used to go to Camden Dingwalls quite a bit in the late eighties, but I didn't realise 'til now that there were others around the country too.  This seems as good a time as any to say cheers to you Yardbird for the great gigs I went to see there back then.


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## yardbird (Feb 19, 2009)

Sunspots, I've taken your money in the past.

Maybe even personally


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## Sunspots (Feb 19, 2009)

yardbird said:


> Sunspots, I've taken your money in the past.
> 
> Maybe even personally



You might even have kicked me out too. _-Personally._ 

-Only joking; as far as I can remember, I was usually an impeccably well-behaved punter.


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## Sunspots (Feb 19, 2009)

yardbird said:


> We* had a group of Dingwalls for a year or so.
> * nb the use of the word 'we'.



So, the Bristol Dingwalls would've been around in... '83/'84 then?


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## Sunspots (Feb 19, 2009)

Also, can anybody tell me where 'The Studio' was in Bristol?* 

(*-I'm sure I've already started a thread about this a few years ago... )

Another quick google mentions that Hanoi Rocks played there with Johnny Thunders in '84.


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## butchersapron (Feb 19, 2009)

You did, the studio was top of the ice rink. 

The biekeller has got loads of old posters stored away.


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## Sunspots (Feb 19, 2009)

butchersapron said:


> You did



Yeah, I thought so.


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## yardbird (Feb 19, 2009)

Sunspots said:


> So, the Bristol Dingwalls would've been around in... '83/'84 then?



Yep, that's when.
I used to visit them without warning several times a month.
Change all the tills/ tickets/ old stubbs please and a couple of hours office work.
The occasional staff dismissal may occur!

I recall a large exterior staircase close to the front door. That should fix the place.


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## Sunspots (Feb 19, 2009)

yardbird said:


> Yep, that's when.
> I used to visit them without warning several times a month.
> Change all the tills/ tickets/ old stubbs please and a couple of hours office work.
> The occasional staff dismissal may occur!



^You kept 'em on their toes, eh!^ 

Must admit, I've only ever been to The Bierkeller once, but I remember it being a bit of an unusual venue.  -All that bare stone/concrete interior!

I wonder what it's history was before it became a Dingwalls?  I presume it's always been a music venue?...


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## Geri (Feb 19, 2009)

Sunspots said:


> So, the Bristol Dingwalls would've been around in... '83/'84 then?



I don't think it would have been as late as that, as I can only remember it being the Bierkeller and I used to go to Frogmore Street in the early 80s (to a nightclub called Scamps).

I could be wrong though as it was a long time ago and all a bit hazy.


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## yardbird (Feb 20, 2009)

It was 82.
I remember going to see Bladerunner one afternoon in Newcastle, to kill time before doing my lets check the bankings/safe/petty cash act.
It had only just come out - so 1982.


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## Danny Rose (Feb 23, 2009)

yardbird said:


> It was 82.
> I remember going to see Bladerunner one afternoon in Newcastle, to kill time before doing my lets check the bankings/safe/petty cash act.
> It had only just come out - so 1982.



It was still going in Jan 85. I saw the Redskins in Bristol Dingwalls about that time, and one or two other bands I'm struggling to remember. Possibly The Men They couldn't Hang and/or Killing Joke?


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## butchersapron (Feb 23, 2009)

Danny Rose said:


> Possibly The Men They couldn't Hang and/or Killing Joke?



On the same bill?


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## Danny Rose (Feb 23, 2009)

butchersapron said:


> On the same bill?



No. I just went to see a lot of bands during that period, and those were two I thought I might have seen at Dingwalls around that time. It would indeed have made for a strange line-up though...


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## butchersapron (Feb 24, 2009)

maybe of interest?


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## BlackArab (Feb 25, 2009)

butchersapron said:


> You did, the studio was top of the ice rink.
> 
> The biekeller has got loads of old posters stored away.



Being pedantic I know but it was to the left in the now demolished part of the complex that also housed The Mayfair Suite. Gone but not forgotten also:

Yesterdays
The Granary
The Moon Club 
Western Star Domino Club
Busbys


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## butchersapron (Feb 25, 2009)

Busbys


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## BlackArab (Feb 25, 2009)

I remember seeing Guru Josh doing a PA there about 20 years ago at the 'Vision' night. Oh dear.

oh and just remembered...Tropics!


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## Geri (Feb 25, 2009)

BlackArab said:


> Yesterdays
> The Granary
> The Moon Club
> Western Star Domino Club
> Busbys



I used to go to all those places, apart from the Granary. 

Yesterdays was weird, it had a phone box inside and a double decker bus. What was all that about?


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## 3_D (Feb 27, 2009)

The memory's a bit naused, but wasn't that place originally the Hofbrauhaus? Forerunner to the Bierkeller with strippers & the like?

Then it became Dingwalls sometime in the early/mid 80's and I think at some point it may have been 'The Venue', but possibly only for about 14 - 15 minutes.

Was def the Bierkeller by about 85/86 as I recollect seeing the likes of That Petrol Emotion there around this time, also a Venue Mag party with the Housemartins must have been thereabouts.

So yeah, Hofbrauhaus. Ring any bells?


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## Geri (Feb 28, 2009)

It does ring a vague bell with me.

I was at that Housemartins gig - or at least, I saw the Housemartins there so I assume it was the same one.


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## BlackArab (Mar 2, 2009)

Geri said:


> I used to go to all those places, apart from the Granary.
> 
> Yesterdays was weird, it had a phone box inside and a double decker bus. What was all that about?



Geri, I've been racking my brains about this, I have vague memories of the phonhe box but can't remember the bus for the life of me. What I would like to know is, where was it? I'm sure it was around King St somewhere but then something tells me it might have been around St Nicks market?

Jesus wept, anyone remember Why Not? on Park Street!!!


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## Geri (Mar 2, 2009)

BlackArab said:


> Geri, I've been racking my brains about this, I have vague memories of the phonhe box but can't remember the bus for the life of me. What I would like to know is, where was it? I'm sure it was around King St somewhere but then something tells me it might have been around St Nicks market?
> 
> Jesus wept, anyone remember Why Not? on Park Street!!!



It was in King Street, the opposite side to the Old Vic. Not sure what's there now. If I remember rightly, it wasn't a proper bus but more of a large model.

I don't remember Why Not? Whereabouts on Park Street?

Did you ever go to Tiffanys, with it's plastic palm trees?


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## Gerry1time (Mar 2, 2009)

Incidentally, anyone know exactly where the dugout was? Always wondered...


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## Geri (Mar 2, 2009)

Gerry1time said:


> Incidentally, anyone know exactly where the dugout was? Always wondered...



Park Row, it was a bit before my time though.


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## Gerry1time (Mar 2, 2009)

Yeah, the web says Park Row too, which is what's confused me, as used to be told it was down the bottom of Park Street. Just wondering what building it was on Park Row, if indeed the building's still there.


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## Geri (Mar 2, 2009)

Apparently it's now the Thai Palace? Not sure whereabouts that is, I don't go up that way very often.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bristol/content/articles/2005/06/23/dugoutwebsite_feature.shtml


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## Gerry1time (Mar 2, 2009)

Ah, didn't read the comment, good spot. Thai Palace was a pretty ropey Thai restaurant that went under a couple of years or so ago, just a few doors down from the esso garage towards the triangle. Think it's now been through various reincarnations as restaurants since, not sure though.


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## BlackArab (Mar 3, 2009)

Geri said:


> It was in King Street, the opposite side to the Old Vic. Not sure what's there now. If I remember rightly, it wasn't a proper bus but more of a large model.
> 
> I don't remember Why Not? Whereabouts on Park Street?
> 
> Did you ever go to Tiffanys, with it's plastic palm trees?



Why Not's was grim hole that described itself loosely as a restaurant. The only reason for going is that they served alcohol after the clubs had shut (2am, how quaint that now sounds!!!). The food was awful but a group of you could get away with a plate of chips between you which was left untouched while you carried on drinking. 

It was about halfway up Park St near the Cooler and to get in you rang the bell and the doorman peered out of a hatch to see if you were 'known' before letting you in. 

I never went to Tiffanys or to the Dug Out as I just missed out for being too young *sighs*


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## 3_D (Mar 6, 2009)

Yesterdays was the home of the legendary Bastille Club, a kind of punk/goth shindig that I used to go to on Tuesday nights and was frequented by such Bristol rock royalty as Wayne Hussey of Sisters of Mercy/Dead or Alive/The Mission fame.

We also used to hang out at the Dug Out, where Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon swung by one evening, confirming its status as the coolest night out in the world. It was a club largely devoid of attitude and trouble, yet the old bill had it closed down following an isolated knife incident in Park Street, that probably had nothing to do with any Dug Out clientele. This despite the massive amount of violence that occured nightly outside the city's more 'mainstream' nightclubs. Cunts.


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