# Sir George Robey, Finsbury Park!!!!



## Paulie Tandoori (Oct 5, 2009)

on the basis that the 414/nfz made me all nostalgic, i was curious as to the collective memory of the George Robey on 7 sisters road up finsbury park? scene and setting for punk/ska/oi gigs, club dog nights (club dog nights!!!!), desmond dekker in a white leather suit, far side raves, more things that i can't remember than i can.

and now it is no more. anyone remember the robey?


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## Pickman's model (Oct 5, 2009)

yes


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## El Jefe (Oct 5, 2009)

went there dozens of times - for gigs, Planet Dog nights, the works. Even kept going when it became the Powerhaus (after it moved up from The Angel). Cracking venue, even though they did always seem to run out of beer


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## Pickman's model (Oct 5, 2009)

it was bloody filthy and the toilets were some of the worst i've seen, more reminiscent of something a third world country would reject than anything else.


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## Paulie Tandoori (Oct 5, 2009)

the toilets were legend, knee deep in piss if you were lucky


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## marty21 (Oct 5, 2009)

yep, it was a pit, bit I enjoyed it


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## Pickman's model (Oct 5, 2009)

Paulie Tandoori said:


> the toilets were legend, knee deep in piss if you were lucky



ankle deep, anyway


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## Paulie Tandoori (Oct 5, 2009)

Pickman's model said:


> ankle deep, anyway


i was talking about the later part of the evening tbh....


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## Pickman's model (Oct 5, 2009)

Paulie Tandoori said:


> i was talking about the later part of the evening tbh....



you must be rather shorter than i thought


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## Paulie Tandoori (Oct 5, 2009)

the desmond dekker gig was, ahem, fun. he came on in a white leather suit, i had this young skinhead lad shouting down my ear for the entire night, "skinhead, skinhead, skinhead, etc etc etc", bouncers enthusiastic with crowd control. 

and then he sang israelites and it all made perfect sense.


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## editor (Oct 5, 2009)

I spent many a night there, and I bet it was even grimier than I remember it - but then so were most places back then.


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## Ceej (Oct 5, 2009)

Saw Bad Manners there...never quite reached the same heights of lunacy again. Not a bad place for a beer before the Rainbow...as long as you didn't need to pee.


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## Paulie Tandoori (Oct 5, 2009)

editor said:


> I spent many a night there, and I bet it was even grimier than I remember it - but then so were most places back then.


s'funny innit, you wouldn't have a shadow with some of those places now, they'd shut you down before you'd even opened up iykwim? i loved how rough and ready everything was then. i sound like an auld daytime punter for the place now.....


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## IC3D (Oct 6, 2009)

Think I saw Napalm Death there, a local band called Bay of Pigs (great name) and a few club dog nights, would of loved to see Desmond Dekker but it wasn't my thing then, them being my formative years. The Red Rose is full of strippers now fyi, that was supposed to be a big venue back in the day wasn't it


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## story (Oct 6, 2009)

IC3D said:


> Think I saw Napalm Death there, a local band called Bay of Pigs (great name) and a few club dog nights, would of loved to see Desmond Dekker but it wasn't my thing then, them being my formative years. The Red Rose is full of strippers now fyi, that was supposed to be a big venue back in the day wasn't it



I saw Desmond Dekker there )

And I saw Carter USM supporting They Might Be Giants there as well. What an odd bill....


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## editor (Oct 6, 2009)

I don't think that part of town ever recovered from the loss of the Rainbow.


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## DeadManWalking (Oct 6, 2009)

Used to go to the African Head Charge all nighters there in about 92 I think, not sure how much they had to do with On-U sound's AHC but it was basically a reggae all nighter and very good.  Still got some flyers for night of the living Dub with Zion Train, Revolutionary Dub Warriors etc around the same time.


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## El Jefe (Oct 6, 2009)

DeadManWalking said:


> Used to go to the African Head Charge all nighters there in about 92 I think, not sure how much they had to do with On-U sound's AHC but it was basically a reggae all nighter and very good.  Still got some flyers for night of the living Dub with Zion Train, Revolutionary Dub Warriors etc around the same time.



ah, it was a proper African Head Charge deal, Bongo was doing a lot of drum circle stuff and things like that


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## twistedAM (Oct 6, 2009)

Didn't Vince Power take that over for a bit and call it something else?

If it's the venue I'm thinking of I saw a bill with Scud Mountain Boys and Mogwai on it


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## El Jefe (Oct 6, 2009)

twistedAM said:


> Didn't Vince Power take that over for a bit and call it something else?



yeh. The Powerhaus. Post 3


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## twistedAM (Oct 6, 2009)

El Jefe said:


> yeh. The Powerhaus. Post 3



oops...but were you at that gig? must have been one of Mogwai's first forays into London. I think I was actually living somewhere else at the time but was in London that weekend.


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## El Jefe (Oct 6, 2009)

nah, did see them the same week / weekend though


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## marty21 (Oct 6, 2009)

I can't remember any of the bands I saw there tbh, used to go along there for a late drink, so we were normally very refreshed by the time we got there


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## hammerntongues (Oct 6, 2009)

I just had a flashback from the Robey , I`m pretty sure it was a  Three Johns gig , there was a Punk with the original nickname of " John the Punk " he was everywhere at the time , any gig around town he would be there , this night he told everybody that it was his birthday and he wanted to buy everyone a drink , he said it very loudly so the bar staff could hear , he then went on to buy dozens of drinks for anyone who asked , at the end of the massive round he just legged it without paying .


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## vauxhallmum (Oct 6, 2009)

Yayyy Club Dog. Much  youth misspent in there.

Lesbian Dopeheads on Mopeds was a highlight


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## Spandex (Oct 6, 2009)

I loved the Robey. 

Dub all-nighters smoking so much I couldn't move; various crusty bands; Club Dogs. It was at the Robey - the night Kurt Kobain topped himself; off our faces on acid, laughing our tits off - that Mr LJo started calling me Spandex.

Do places like that even exist any more?


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## cozmikbrew (Oct 6, 2009)

Bloody ell!The george Robey,spent many messy nights there,mainly at Club Dog.It was fucked though wasnt it?i remember trying to have a game of pool one time,the baize had a huge triangular rip in it that you had to keep "smoothing"down as best you could before each shot and as you walked round the table the floor was that warped(sort of fucked up lino)itd tilt the table about


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## vauxhallmum (Oct 6, 2009)

The Orb
Ozric Tentacles
Jah Wobble

I saw all of them at Club Dog. I think. Or did I dream that?


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## clandestino (Oct 6, 2009)

I saw Snuff's very first gig there, to about fifteen people, during an all-dayer. I was there to see a mate's band. Also saw Fugazi there. It was slightly fuller for them! I must have been to countless gigs there...


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## clandestino (Oct 6, 2009)

I remember being very excited to see The Charity Case there, because one of The Stingrays was in them. They played to a handful of people too. 

Would love to see a Robey gigography...


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## vauxhallmum (Oct 6, 2009)

ianw said:


> Would love to see a Robey gigography...



Me too, especially cos Mr VM reckons his band played there once and I'm sceptical.


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## El Jefe (Oct 6, 2009)

what were they called?


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## vauxhallmum (Oct 6, 2009)

Crave

No, I hadn't heard of them either


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## durruti02 (Oct 6, 2009)

Paulie Tandoori said:


> on the basis that the 414/nfz made me all nostalgic, i was curious as to the collective memory of the George Robey on 7 sisters road up finsbury park? scene and setting for punk/ska/oi gigs, club dog nights (club dog nights!!!!), desmond dekker in a white leather suit, far side raves, more things that i can't remember than i can.
> 
> and now it is no more. anyone remember the robey?


 fucking great .. tons of ska gigs in the late 8ts  what a waste


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## Paulie Tandoori (Oct 6, 2009)

ianw said:


> I saw Snuff's very first gig there, to about fifteen people, during an all-dayer. I was there to see a mate's band. Also saw Fugazi there. It was slightly fuller for them! I must have been to countless gigs there...


robey all-dayers were something special. mind you, the all-nighters were pretty good too...


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## durruti02 (Oct 6, 2009)

editor said:


> I don't think that part of town ever recovered from the loss of the Rainbow.


 yes it is nowhere land now unless you are UCKG!! lol  .. one big dirty ugly transport interchange


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## durruti02 (Oct 6, 2009)

and that fish bar ( rainbow fish bar??) that sold beers? its gone i think .. in fact its a brothel or language school or something similar


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## hipipol (Oct 8, 2009)

My band had a residency (well first Friday every month) there back in 83......

My I am old.....


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## Sir Belchalot (Oct 8, 2009)

First went there around '79 for a London PX gig, some of them lived on Isledon Rd IIRC.  The gig room back then was really small.  They made it bigger in the 80's but it was a shithole plus the bouncers were well dodgy.  They killed some punk one night & chucked his body in a skip.


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## Paulie Tandoori (Oct 9, 2009)

Sir Belchalot said:


> First went there around '79 for a London PX gig, some of them lived on Isledon Rd IIRC.  The gig room back then was really small.  They made it bigger in the 80's but it was a shithole plus the bouncers were well dodgy.  *They killed some punk one night & chucked his body in a skip*.


i know the bouncers may have been vigorous but i certainly don't remember any whispers to this effect.

i do remember a punk rocker called skinny, who got pissed on by someone when he went to sleep under the bridge after a night at the robey.


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## HAPPY CHEF (Oct 10, 2009)

I used to go there a lot and see bands like Back To The Planet,RDF,Co-Creaters etc,loads of dodgy acid house allnighters as well,long time ago now though.


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## upsidedownwalrus (Oct 10, 2009)

Paulie Tandoori said:


> s'funny innit, you wouldn't have a shadow with some of those places now, they'd shut you down before you'd even opened up iykwim? i loved how rough and ready everything was then. i sound like an auld daytime punter for the place now.....



I just missed out on it all tbh, I was just getting into grunge when the Robey was in its heyday so it was a slightly different milieu from what I was into, and by the time I was into clubbing, trance etc it had already shut down


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## maomao (Oct 10, 2009)

Went to Club Dog a few times and my band played there twice when I was 16. Happy days.


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## Paulie Tandoori (Oct 10, 2009)

maomao said:


> Went to Club Dog a few times and my band played there twice when I was 16. Happy days.


what was your band called then?


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## hipipol (Oct 10, 2009)

*Boo Hoo!!!!*



Paulie Tandoori said:


> what was your band called then?



No one asked for my bands name........


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## vauxhallmum (Oct 10, 2009)

hipipol said:


> No one asked for my bands name........



Come on. I fessed up to crap husband's back in the day band- your turn


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## vauxhallmum (Oct 10, 2009)

Sorry I meant Husband's crap band. Husband is not crap, he is infact very lovely.


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## hipipol (Oct 10, 2009)

Spleen


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## gaijingirl (Oct 10, 2009)

Used to go to Club Dog - but to be honest, it's all so long ago now I can't remember who I saw there or much about it.  I do remember it being pretty skanky - but no more than loads of other places around that time - or at least the ones I seemed to end up in.  It was great really.  *gets nostalgic*


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## Paulie Tandoori (Oct 11, 2009)

hipipol said:


> Spleen


never 'eard of 'em...


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## maomao (Oct 11, 2009)

Paulie Tandoori said:


> never 'eard of 'em...



You wouldn't have heard of mine either. And we had a really silly name. So not telling.


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## Paulie Tandoori (Oct 11, 2009)

maomao said:


> You wouldn't have heard of mine either. And we had a really silly name. So not telling.


oh go on. you never know....

i have a feeling that i have heard Spleen tbh, it's just soooooooo long ago......


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## Paulie Tandoori (Oct 11, 2009)

for eg, my pal was in a band called Nigel and The Reachy Dicks, which is about as silly as it gets......


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## maomao (Oct 11, 2009)

Ok, we were called Shrubbery Convention. Told you.


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## Paulie Tandoori (Oct 11, 2009)

did you do any gigs with ?!


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## maomao (Oct 12, 2009)

Not that I remember. But I don't remember much.


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## blossie33 (Oct 12, 2009)

I used to live in Finsbury Park about eleven years ago - the place was closed by then I think but I have heard it mentioned by friends 

What intrigues me is what is supposed to be happening to the building? It's got scaffolding up and has been partly demolished for some years now and I can't understand why they haven't finished the job.

Does anyone know anything about it?


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## hipipol (Oct 12, 2009)

I wuz, we were were stupid, etc.....


We had read a load of these,,,,

SPLEEN

by: Charles Baudelaire

'M like some king in whose corrupted veins 
Flows agèd blood; who rules a land of rains; 
Who, young in years, is old in all distress; 
Who flees good counsel to find weariness 
Among his dogs and playthings, who is stirred 
Neither by hunting-hound nor hunting-bird; 
Whose weary face emotion moves no more 
E'en when his people die before his door. 
His favourite Jester's most fantastic wile 
Upon that sick, cruel face can raise no smile; 
The courtly dames, to whom all kings are good, 
Can lighten this young skeleton's dull mood 
No more with shameless toilets. In his gloom 
Even his lilied bed becomes a tomb. 
The sage who takes his gold essays in vain 
To purge away the old corrupted strain, 
His baths of blood, that in the days of old 
The Romans used when their hot blood grew cold, 
Will never warm this dead man's bloodless pains, 
For green Lethean water fills his veins. 


We were pompous gits, looking back.....


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## Paulie Tandoori (Oct 12, 2009)

nowt wrong with some decent poetry imo


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## stethoscope (Sep 19, 2015)

Not much of the Robey left 

Derelict London - Autumn updates
(bottom of page)


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## Blagsta (Sep 19, 2015)

Sad


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## MrSki (Sep 19, 2015)

stethoscope said:


> Not much of the Robey left
> 
> Derelict London - Autumn updates
> (bottom of page)


I bet the bits that are left still stink of piss.


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## Fozzie Bear (Sep 19, 2015)




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## MrSki (Sep 19, 2015)




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## Chilli.s (Oct 12, 2015)

Did this place used to have weird fish in a fishtank behind the bar?


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## nino_savatte (Jan 25, 2016)

I used to go to the Robey quite a bit back in the 80s and it's a real shame to see it in such a state.


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## blossie33 (Jan 25, 2016)

It's totally demolished now and the ground has been cleared.
I don't know what they are going to do with the space.


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## planetgeli (Jan 25, 2016)

stethoscope said:


> Not much of the Robey left
> 
> Derelict London - Autumn updates
> (bottom of page)



I knew the Robey well from the 80's (sorry, haven't heard of any of the bands mentioned in this thread). Interesting bit from the link you've posted 

"The pub was taken over by the Mean Fiddler Group and renamed the Powerhaus. It closed in 2004 and suffered a fire."

Mean Fiddler Group. Fire. Hmmmmmm. 

Nothing to see here. Move along now.


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## blossie33 (Jan 25, 2016)

I used to live in the area and thought it closed earlier than that - maybe 1999.
Could be wrong though.


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## boohoo (Jan 25, 2016)

sad it went. Had some nice nights there - can't remember them  - must have been good.


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## Mr Moose (Jan 25, 2016)

Chilli.s said:


> Did this place used to have weird fish in a fishtank behind the bar?



A remember a bloke with a Rod Stewart mullet behind the bar, Mullet hair that is not fish. Around 1982/3.


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## rich! (Jan 26, 2016)

Are there any "yeah, I'll just bimble in and see some bands" venues any more?


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## Black Halo (Jan 26, 2016)

The Unicorn in Camden has free gigs on most nights of the week, they tend to the louder end of the musical spectrum if that is the kind of thing you're into.


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## Doojeen (Sep 5, 2016)

Gig list January 1986


https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...2120006615344.915398.737935343&type=3&theater​


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