Memories of The Montague Arms – as was…
As we await
the reopening of the remodelled Montague, everybody seems to be expecting the
worst, I have been thinking about what has happened there over the last few
years, and who has played there. Here are my questions for you .
1-
What
is your best memory of the Monty?
2-
What
was the best gig?
3-
Who
was the most famous / notable person or act you saw there?
So many
major acts must have been through that damn door, that refused to budge without
a major shove or pull, the same to the very end. Acts from this part of London
like Squeeze, Japan, Carter and Fat White Family must have been there.
Apparently comedy acts like Jim Davidson and Mike Lee were regulars. People
like Gary Oldman, Ray Winston and Danny Baker doubtless know it. But who was
the best act of recent years, since it reopened two or three years ago? Jeez ,
I cant decide. I gave Trailer Trash Tracies a big write up, but there have been
so many others. Sonic Imperfections was a monthly night of experimentalism that
occasionally served up music magic from the most avant garde end of the
spectrum. There was a percussionist who had been to the Amazon, and had brought
bird song pipes back. Playing each one in turn through a loop, and then accompanying
it with a drumming storm on his tom toms,
I was transported from the Old Kent Road to the deepest jungle on a
dreary weekday night. Wow, you would only come across that kind of magic at the
Montague. As for the countless acts who thought we would be entertained if they
played their instruments in an unusual way, blowing on a guitar, drumming on a
trombone, that kind of thing, I reached the end of my tether with it long ago. But
the chap who played a tuba while taking it apart was truly astonishing, in a
good way. The band who performed with a photophone – transforming light into
sound – were remarkable as well. The audience
varied widely in size from night to night. But nobody came close to drawing a
crowd like King Krule – the queue went almost to the lights around the corner,
spilling onto the road and literally stopping traffic. Most recently , Adamski reappeared under a new
name with a pink quiff and performing like a cyberage Elvis from Essex. It was
home of the different, for this it will be badly missed.
As for best
memory, I have to refer to an incident that happened outside one night. There
was a group of us chatting shit and smoking when the local geriatric hardnuts
on mobility scooters whizzed round the corner from their local haunt up Queens
Road. Two of them went on down the road, but one of them was on the pavement,
and a bicycle had been locked to the streetlight just beside the entrance. The
bike blocked the way. The old fella screeched to a halt, stood up, and stomped
towards us, effing and blinding about the cnut who had blocked his way. None of
us knew who said offender was, so he went into the pub to find him. While we
waited, one of our number tried to move the scooter. Grabbing it by the seat,
the chassis remained where it had been parked, but the seat came away in our
djs hand. So he was caught red handed when the irate old timer reappeared ,
steam coming out of his ears. How our Blonde hero survived the night I cant
tell you, as we were all giggling to hard to hear. I have spent many nights chatting
shit outside the Monty, lets hope there are more.
What are
your top three? Either comment or send them in and I will publish them.
