King of Spain / The Wookies / My Device @ The Winchester, Oxford, 04/07/2009

Posted on by colinmackinnon

No, I’ve never heard of it either. And if you walk along Crown Street in East Oxford without your wits about you, you’ll walk straight past it. The Winchester has a shadowy existence, having neither a reputation (for good or evil) nor even a sign. However, with the vital intelligence that “it’s above a pool hall” you may brave the door, unlike Kafka’s hero in ‘Before the Law’. In my case, I had the added clue of hearing Anton Barbeau‘s daft anthem to bananas floating out of the top window through the threatening humidity. With one exception, this was the best song of the night.

My Device are a high-voltage punk and hardcore trio from Brighton and of the three acts that I caught, fitted in best with the ‘Christ, what a heat, lets take all our shirts off’ atmosphere of this cloying, sweltering little room. Some comparisons with Fugazi came to mind, as well as the glory days of Black Flag, at least in the hectic energy and commitment to the performance. In addition they add a bit of pedal-stamping math rock to the mix and they are rather brilliant at what they do, even if the sonic assault allied to the blinding heat was rather overwhelming. There are a number of writers on this site who will love this band, but my attitude is that if I want to be assaulted I will do the conventional thing and wander around Lower Barton in a pink floral dress.

The Wookies took to the stage in their trademark beards and heavy brown suits, which must have been absolute torture, but they put on a spirited show, complete with waltzing lead guitarist. Their stock-in-trade is shouty, slightly camp prog-rock, with a brilliant keys player at the heart of everything good about the band. They fall down in two related areas: they possess three lead singers, but none are outstanding and perhaps due to their vocal limitations, are sorely lacking in memorable tunes. The exception is ‘In the Forest’, a mighty, breathless celebration of life and a fitting set closer.

King of Spain are named after Ashley Giles, a hangdog Warwickshire and England slow bowler of recent vintage. In his benefit season (that is, six months of legalised begging) he ordered a consignment of shirts bearing the logo ‘King of Spin’, but the type-setters had obviously been tanning the bevy and added an egregious ‘a’ to the last word. This had the ironic effect of turning Giles into a cult hero, with the crowds donning sombreros and strumming nylon-stringed guitars whenever the poor guy showed up at deep-fine-leg. Trust me that this story is a great deal more entertaining than the set put on by the tedious indie four-piece of the same name. Giles’ attritional style and workmanlike career are decent metaphors for the tiresome combination of lame rhymes (giraffe/laugh, anyone?), hackneyed lyrical themes (do we need yet more songs about chatting up birds in the boozer?) and enervated rhythms of this awful, awful band. I left after three songs, clutching a Magners in one hand and a saline drip in the other. Never again. Bring back the Port Mahon.

  • Matt

    Anton’s set was great – Olly from Stornoway on bass and geezer from King Of Spain on drums, being completely unfamiliar with the material but making an excellent fist of it.

    Still kicking myself for missing The Wookies and for catching KoS. You missed the bassist moving his pedals so he could jump off the stage and “rawk out!” – twice. Note to bassist: swinging yer long hair about doesn’t make up for things like lack of dress sense, ability, decent songs etc.

    Great venue though – I think it has even more charm than the Port. Cheap booze, friendly pool-playing locals, the lot!

  • Jay Rival

    I really like the sound of the venue (Oxford needs some pokey sweat box venues now the Ports gone) does anyon know if any promoters have got in there yet?

    Sad to have missed The Wookies but glad to see them making some waves in Oxford they are a quality band who dont really sound like anyone else.

    Pioneering is a tune!

  • http://www.gappytooth.com gappy

    Olly does some great stuff as Ant’s bassist, I really like that. I like the cassette (yep!) that Ant sold me too.

    Wookies are a good band, but I think that they really need a big posh PA to thrive, otherwise so many details get lost, and as Colin pointed out, they aren’t really a band with a focal point, so you need to be able to pay attention.

    My Device were good – I thought I’d give them 5 mins when they started, but they had so much humour & reminded me of The Jesus Lizard somewhat. A nice surprise.

    KOS didn’t do much for me, but to be frank after 3 full sets in the oven, I just couldn’t take it, so perhaps I’ll reserve judgment.

    The venue was brilliant – if we hadn’t already sorted it, that’s the osrt of place I’d like to do the Winter Warmer. Doesn’t have a house PA, tho, I think, so it’s an effort to put stuff on.

  • jamess

    as far as i know, it’s osprey who’s putting bands on there, and it’s his pa…….part from that, i know nothing, because i’ve not even been in the venue yet.

  • Joe

    I’ve played the Winchester and enjoyed it very much. Unfortunately it was on a very hot evening and everyone wanted to go to a pub garden instead. It’s basically the old Crown House building, it’s reminiscent of an old style working mens’ club. Used to be a fair bit of trouble there when I lived on Crown Street but that’s fairly typical of certain places and it’s very Cowley Road. We just filled the place with smoke, there was some very interesting lighting and there’s a video of it taken by my friend Jane from London around somewhere. She got up on stage with us amidst the smoke to film us. Anyway, personally I think it’s worth supporting as a venue but don’t expect air conditioning etc and make sure you promote the gig yourselves enough.

  • http://www.spiral25.com/ Joe

    I don’t think The Winchester is really a “little room” either, it’s at least twice the size of the Port Mahon, there’s a bar in the same room, the PA was better, the lighting was better and there’s an old armchair which is a bit like a throne what you can sit on and look important, well, as important as you can look sitting on an old armchair in a club.

    When we arrived we came in through the back entrance, which was delightful, I think someone lives there, there were bicycles parked there, I think the venue could do with a bicycle rack.

    Plus some guy who looked like a crackhead came in and sat down then announced “how old are you lot?” to which I replied “what, collectively?” I expected to get a smack in the face or a dirty needle in my arm at least but the guy just looked irritated and left for some reason.

    The guy on the door informed several of my friends that Spinal Tap are playing tonight, which I thought was well out of order, we’re nothing like Spinal Tap, I don’t even look like the bass player from Spinal Tap, our band name is nothing like Spinal Tap and I only build 3D computer models of Stonehenge not real miniature versions! The cheek.

    For those that don’t know, “The Winchester” is from Minder.

    I’ve noticed that there’s no “Moshka” sign above The Bullingdon Arms, how the hell are people supposed to work out where the Moshka nights are being held!?

    Make sure you have a Magners Drip and a pint of saline when you go to this venue.

    By the way – If you need a wee and there’s no toilet free I recommend using 19A Crown Street, Pink door, down the steps just pee in front of the door with the lino covering it.

  • http://www.gappytooth.com gappy

    What you talking bout, Joe?

    The Winchester is (allegedly) the name of the venue, so I’d expect it to be slightly more obvious, much as The Bullingdon’s sign is. Moshka is a promoter who uses The Bully, just as Coo Club is a promoter who uses The Winchester. So, that all seems to make sense.

  • Joe

    Sorry, I didn’t realise that it was the official name of the venue, hence why I didn’t think it would have an official sign. Maybe Osprey and Co need to get their crayons out and make one. They could have a competition.

    In anycase, if anyone needs to know – It’s the Crown House on the corner of Crown Street opposite The Black Swan, there’s a sign above the door which reads “Crown House”, it’s above the pool club, in through the door and up the stairs. I think they should reinstate the dart boards though and don’t bring The Delta Frequency into this either!

  • Joe

    Here’s the address of The Winchester Club’s Facebook page:

    http://www.facebook.com/thejoechapman#/group.php?gid=80956712205&ref=ts


    “Weekend music venue at The Crown Street Pool Club just off the Cowley Road. Great gigs with some of Oxford’s finest musicians. After the metamorphosis of The Zodiac and the closure of other music hot-spots such as The Port Mahon, Oxford really needs to support this venue! Music, dancing, friends, late bar & pool tables – what more could you want?”

  • http://www.myspace.com/thecoocooclub Miss Coo

    I’ve only just seen this review.. so I thought I’d add a comment.

    I’d just like to point that this was a Shifty Disco label night, which had some unfortunate twists and turns as it was part of a “Come Play With me” tour with all the bands on the bill playing various hometown shows in London, Cambridge, Reading, Leicester and Oxford each hosting their own night.
    The Race were meant to be headlining and had to drop out the week before due to illness. The Wookies came in at the last minute, after Shifty decided to go ahead with the show anyway.
    I (Coo) was the promoter during a VERY busy time with organising the bands for Cowley Rd Carnival and then I went on a last minute holiday with my family, so I wasn’t there on the night to sort it all out, so it was a little unorganised re signage etc.
    However – all the bands have a good following – it was just too hot for a gig that day!
    King of Spain have played for me before, and went down really well at the Jericho – they are doing really well for themselves in London and have fans here, I think the review is a little unfair to be honest – it’s all down to personal taste and maybe reviewers should come up with something more constructive to say than “this awful, awful band” just because they don’t like them – we don’t all like every band do we – (only Ronan’s demo dumper can really get away with that as it’s almost a piece of comedy writing!)
    It was one of those Baking hot humid days and the venue isn’t kitted out with air-con – the Port Mahon is a good comparison – imagine how hot it would have been in there that night, I’ve been dying in the sweltering heat in the Port AND got hit on the head by a big metal blind that fell down spontaneously which nearly knocked me out – however – it could be a good replacement for the Port should it not re-open.
    The Winchester is named by Osprey who has started running local band gigs in there since his return to Oxford. It is the A1 pool hall’s function room, run by Annie who used to run Moodys at the Zodiac – which is why I like it as well. I held an Epstein show in there a year ago and it was a fantastic gig, packed, jolly, good vibes, open till 12 – no security or wankers.
    Anyway, thanks to the bands that played on the night, and hopefully there will be more gigs in there in coming months!