About

In October 2006 the Dirty Water Club celebrated its tenth anniversary with a three day event, with the undoubted highlight being the first (and only) visit to the UK by legendary sixties group The Monks. As Joss Hutton says on i94bar.com: "From the moment our black-clad heroes hit the stage and into Black Monk Time, the place went apeshit."

Back in the mid-1990s one of the few people to be providing a space for garage-punk bands (along with the much-missed Frat Shack club) was a chap named Slim who put on gigs in the Wild Western Room at the St John's Tavern, just up the road from the Boston. Billy Childish's then group Thee Headcoats had a monthly residency.

When the owner of the St John's Tavern needed to use the gig room to hold a wake for his recently-deceased brother, a gig by Thee Headcoats (on 22 August 1996) was hurriedly moved down to the Boston, where Professor Blinding was employed to organise the sound system.

A couple of months later, for a variety of reasons, Slim decided to move his gigs permanently to the Boston and asked regular gig-goer, PJ (who'd been DJing for a few years already, starting out at More Than Vegas in Soho, as well as the aforementioned Frat Shack), to help out by DJing and designing flyers. Slim named the club night at the Boston, Dirty Water (after the Standells' 1966 US hit single of the same name which contains the refrain "I love that dirty water, Boston you're my home").

However, come March 1997 and Slim, for personal reasons, found the time had come to quit the gig promoting business/game/hobby (delete as appropriate). PJ and the Professor wondered what was to be done. The Professor said: "Let's carry on with the six weeks' worth of gigs that Slim's got booked up and see what happens."

And what did happen? Well, we'd have been surprised that we were still there and still doing it all those years later if we had given it a second thought. What kept us going was our love of real rock'n'roll.

Hosting an early gig by the White Stripes saw the club get trendy for a few weeks in 2001, which was interesting and curious. Seeing Billy Childish month after month after month for all those years and always finding him entertaining and inspiring is a privilege. And seeing so many other great bands too numerous to mention, as well as all the great people we meet along the way (amongst the audience as well as those in bands) was a great pleasure indeed.

What kind of music was the Club all about? Mostly it was a sound directly (or sometimes less directly) influenced by sixties garage rock - stuff like the Sonics, the Thirteenth Floor Elevators, the Standells (of course), the Seeds, the Chocolate Watch Band, the Velvet Underground, Captain Beefheart. We like it when there's a hint of the blues in amongst the punky guitars. We prefer to call it "rock and roll". Rock is good, but not if there's no roll. And vice versa.

Of course, these days there are more kids picking up guitars and thinking that they're in a garage band than when we started out (as well as so many more venues who are receptive to and interested in the music). Often it bears little relation, on the surface, to what WE would think of as a "garage band". But youthful verve and enthusiasm can all too often make up for what's lacking elsewhere. By which I mean, yes the Dirty Water Club did have a certain musical ethos - but it wasn't too rigid.

But to really understand what we're all about you had to have been there. You might not have heard of all the bands that played each week but, I promise you this, there won't be too many you wouldn't have like.

The last Dirty Water Club gig was on 19 June 2009 with legendary 1960s garage band GONN (supported by The Masonics and Speak & the Spells). Since then the record label, Dirty Water Records, has organised gigs, though less frequently than the Club and at a variety of venues.

For more information email: pj [at] dirtywaterclub [dot] com