The
Cavern Club Started up 10 years ago primarily as a platform
for new underground bands. In subsequent years we've
put on thousands of shows from the likes of Hundred
Reasons, Guttermouth, Sick Of It All, Rival
Schools, The Hives, The Bluetones, Ocean Colour
Scene, Mansun, The Cranberries, Muse and Coldplay. There
have also been some great underground DJ acts including
Afrika Bambaataa, The Scratch Perverts, Andy Cato from
Groove Armada, Mr Scruff, Digs & Woosh, Ed Rush
and Optical.
The real roots of the Cavern though were punk rock.
We had promoted bands like FUGAZI, HOLE, VERBAL ASSAULT
at various venues under the monicker HOMETOWN ATROCITIES,
but ultimately needed a dedicated venue (due to the
limited appeal of bands like Econochrist for your average
Exeter landlady!.) The local band scene at the time
was small but active - The Hometown Atrocities crew
consisted of Martin Edmunds and myself (who went on
to be in Annalise),
Thom Yorke from Radiohead, Shack from Lunatic Calm,
and Paul Symes who went onto form Dead Inside. Recent
Exeter based bands who have dominated the scene include
Muse, Kids
Near Water, Tyler,
The
Buffseeds and Appliance. (Also if you were around
in the late 90s you would have seen Chris Martin and
Coldplay frequent the Cavern on a number of occasions.)
Pippa Wragg started a punk/indie night in '97 called
THE PIXIE CLUB which became FREAKSCENE
in 1999 . There have been many great Freakscene shows
including Fugazi, Idlewild, Jets To Brazil, Snuff, Hundred
Reasons, Bluetip, A, Rival Schools, Samiam, Burning
Airlines, Koufax, Ensign, Sick Of It All, Converge,
Clutch. In 2001 we started Freakscene records and have
put out releases by Tyler, Cars
As Weapons, Shoe
and Lamb Quartet.
Recent years have seen the wheel turn full circle with
Tom Capone and Walter Schreiffels from Quicksand (the
first band to step on the Cavern stage Valentines Day
1991) return with their new bands Rival Schools and
Instruction.
We've made loads of good friends including Hell
Is For Heroes, Reuben, Lucky 13 .... and Hundred
Reasons of course - who gave us an awesome secret show
in March 2003 where they played their new songs for
the first time live to a select audience.
So, we've put on around 10,000 bands since we started
up all those years ago - here's to the next big show!
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