There are places I remember…..

……All my life, though some have changed. Some
forever, not for better some have gone and some remain. 

I could carry on but I think the point has been made.  

It occurred to me the other day that a lot of the places I used to go to when I was in my teens and early 20’s are no longer around so I thought I’d take a little trip down memory lane and recall some of the places that were iconic to me or have a special place in my memory.

The Cock Inn, Bilston

I used to almost live in this place of a weekend when I was young. It was one of the few places around that played Rock music and they played it loud.  By the time I had discovered this place it was well established as the place to be and was constantly broadening my knowledge of Music.  It was because of The Cock that I discovered Metallica, WASP, Rush, RATM and many, many other bands as well as meeting a whole hoard of people, some of who are still on the scene but lots of them have faded into obscurity.  Lots of friends and 3 ex girlfriends among them…

It was one of those places where you could go on your own and you were pretty certain that you could see someone you knew.  We all had our own regular seats or corners where we gathered every week.

It was also the place that caused me to discover Newcastle Brown Ale and that foul liquid they call Snakebite.  Just the name brings me out in goose pimples.

As well as seeing a few concerts here I was also fortunate enough to play here a handful of times when I was following the dream of being a musician,  I playing Bass  in a band called Shiver.  This must be the early part of the 21^st century so I am having difficulty working out when the pub itself actually closed its doors.  They tried to keep the pub open after they had stopped having the weekend rock nights and it was a pool hall for a while before it finally had to admit defeat but I do wonder if the DJ’s had been allowed to continue plying their trade if it would have had to close.

Every so often I have to take a trip past the pub and it is so sad to see something that was so vibrant and lively reduced to nothing but a boarded up shell of a building, waiting for the day that someone decides to reduce it to rubble.

Update - July 8. It looks as though that day has arrived.  My journey home took me past this little piece of personal history and the sight of the demolition machinery made my heart sink. So many memories reduced to a pile of bricks. There is talk that this old pub will be a new supermarket.   Let's hope it is turned in to something with a little more soul than that. - The new Tesco on the site of this old pub is nearly completed. Sadly there is no sign that the pub ever existed.

Jb’s - Junction 10,

After a night out in Bilston there was always the option of extending the evening at a Club.  There were a few to choose from, there was a trip into Wolverhampton to either the Civic or the Wulfrun hall or at one time Scruples was an alternative.  I went there twice and never managed to take to it.  Our preferred choice was JB’s, Junction 10 in Walsall. It was a purpose built venue and must have held at least 1000 people so was a good place to catch up and coming bands or a few that are no longer able to fill the larger venues.  I saw Bonham, and Wolfbane among others but Saxon have played there and it was always a great atmosphere.

Saturdays were normally the Rock DJ nights though.  The DJ’s were familiar to a good many people as they were the same guys that would do the sets at The Cock Inn, they just extended the show, added more light or added competitions, who is the best drummer, who can neck a pint the fastest or the yard of Ale etc and the place was mostly packed out until the doors closed at 2 am.

In all of the time there I cannot recall ever seeing any trouble, any fights or incidents that you would expect when you have 1000 people, a load of alcohol and loud, energetic music.

As a live music venue I really do miss this place and I have fond memories of our evening out and some of the concerts I went to.

Shortly after closing the site was developed and is now a plot of about 10 /14 purpose built flats.

 The Woolpack, The Cavalcade &The Brown Jug

When I first started going out for a beer with my mates it usually involved a bit of a pub crawl, We would normally start in the Jolly Collier as that was the nearest one to my house and then we had a few options depending on how far we wanted to walk.  Most of the time it was a trip through the alley way and into the British Oak or the United Kingdom ( occasionally the Whimsy) all of these are still open for business at the moment.

From there we had an option of a left turn and into an Ansells pub.  The Woolpack was nothing special, it was a pub that sold a nice Ansells bitter but I was never really a fan of the lagers.  There was a group of regulars in there that I used to hang around with and if you were at a table with less than 7 people it was normally a quiet night.

I remember this used to be the hang out for a few of the guys that went to the rock places of a weekend so you could always catch up on the gossip from the weekend before.

In later years it was mainly just the local lads and ladies that you’d become close to over the years that you would see.

As with many other pubs this closed down and has now become a residential area.

If we didn’t go left then a right turn took you to the Brown Jug, sometimes this was a stopping off point but this was a rare occasion as most of the time it was a trip to the Cavalcade.  The Cavel was the first place I bought a pint so even though it was never on the list of my favourite pubs it still has history for me.

It was similar to the Woolpack in terms of bumping into people but there was something different about it as it had a video Jukebox so not only could you put your favourite songs on but you could watch them as well.  It was on the Cutting edge of pub entertainment.

The old building has now been completely demolished and is just a patch of waste land.

The British Oak

This is a more recent development.  When I first published this post the oak was still open but sadly this has now closed and the old building has now been completely altered to make way for a Tesco express. 

JAD Engineering

My first job was at a small engineering company.  My Dad worked there and came home one day and asked me if I wanted a few weeks work putting holes in pieces of metal, I had just finished college and I was looking for something and although it wasn’t my ideal job I decided to give it a go. After I had finished putting holes in metal I was shown how to take the rough edges off using a belt sander and then I was shown let loose on the horizontal Miller, Capstan and other machines. All in all I ended up being there for 4 years before moving on to pastures new.

My dad is retired now but before he gave up work the business closed down and the site was closed to make way for more residential space.