Roadmender (also Northampton Roadmender or the Roadmender Centre) is a live music venue in Lady's Lane, Northampton, England. Set in a former school building, the venue has left an indelible print on generations of the town's teenagers as the only major live venue in the town and the most recognised indie club remaining in regular operation following the closure of Bass Clef in 1999 and the Irish Centre in 1997.
The Roadmender started life as a youth club built in an entirely different location to the one on which it operates today. Named after the 1902 book by Michael Fairless, the club was established to cater for the "no-collar" bits and girls of the Boroughs area of Northampton. Jill Harrold[ who? ] wrote:
By 1937 the club nearly had 400 members and the club moved its headquarters to Gloucester House in Far Cotton. The departure of founding father Mr Harrison in 1939 didn’t curb the rapid growth of the organisation. The value of Roadmender to the local community was obvious, so money was found for brand new premises despite the imminent war. The Dalgleish-designed building in Ladys Lane which houses Roadmender to this date, opened in October 1940. Back then; the Duke of Gloucester was National President of the Roadmender movement, while Earl Spencer filled the position as President of the Northampton Roadmender Club. However, there is nothing particularly posh about Roadmender, and everyone has been welcomed throughout the years. [1]
In the 1980s The Roadmender hosted a community arts programme that included printing, textiles, music and theatre activities on offer primarily for those same disadvantaged young people for which The Roadmender was established in the first place.
The Roadmender was the preeminent music/arts centre in Northamptonshire from the early 1980s to the late 1990s. The largest venue for touring bands between London and Birmingham, the Roadmender was an essential stop for the likes of Radiohead, Metallica, Oasis, Travis and the Manic Street Preachers until the refurbishment in 1999/2000 reduced the capacity of its main hall from 1000 to 850.
Formerly a county council funded arts centre with a remit for arts, dance, live and recorded music; The Roadmender has had a varied history facing closure and bankruptcy several times during a long and complicated history.
Its most recent closure occurred in late 2005 when it lost several hundred thousand pounds of council funding which forced its then owners Roadmender Ltd into liquidation. After several failed rescue attempts the brand and building were sold to Purplehaus, the owners of a nearby nightclub The Soundhaus, who rebranded it New Roadmender. Notable performances since its reopening have included Idlewild, The Maccabees, Marillion, Kate Nash, Biffy Clyro, Finch, We Are Scientists, Little Boots (supported by Ellie Goulding) , Deftones, Enter Shikari, Happy Mondays, The Dead South and the NME tour.
Senegalese musician Youssou N'Dour played the Roadmender on 18 December 2002. [2]
Northampton is a town and civil parish in the East Midlands region of England. It lies on the River Nene, 60 miles (97 km) north-west of London and 50 miles (80 km) south-east of Birmingham. As the county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is the largest settlement within the unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; it had a population of 212,100 at the 2011 census.
The Cultural Quarter of the town Northampton, England, is a local council initiative to promote the depressed centre of the town. Part of it was referred to as Derngate, the name of a gate in the old town walls.
The Drum was an intercultural arts centre in the Newtown area of Aston, in Birmingham, England; originally established as the United Kingdom's national centre for Black British and British Asian arts. Activities included music, drama, spoken word, exhibitions, visual arts, comedy and dance.
Hereford College of Arts is an art school based in the West Midlands, UK, and is the only specialist college in the region dedicated to the Arts.
The Leadmill is the longest running live music venue and nightclub in Sheffield, England, based on Leadmill Road, lying on the south-east edge of the city centre. It opened in 1980 in what, despite its name, was a former flour mill, originally as a Community Centre. This coincided with the rise of several Sheffield bands, including the Human League, Cabaret Voltaire, Heaven 17, and ABC.
The Barfly was a chain of live music venues in the United Kingdom originally started by Nick Moore, Jeremy Ledlin and Be Rozzo on Valentine's Day 1997. Club nights and events tended to feature rock, alternative and independent music.
The O2 Institute (originally known as the Digbeth Institute) is a music venue located in Birmingham, England. The venue opened in 1908 as a mission of Carrs Lane Congregational Church. It has also served as an event centre, civic building and nightclub.
The O2 Academy Glasgow (formerly the Carling Academy Glasgow) is a music venue on Eglinton Street in the Gorbals (Laurieston) area of Glasgow. It holds 2,500 people. It is one of two Academy Music Group venues in Glasgow; the other venue is the O2 ABC Glasgow.
Franklin's Gardens is a purpose-built rugby stadium in Northampton, England. It is the home stadium of Northampton Saints. The stadium holds 15,249 people. The four stands are: Carlsberg Stand; Elite Insurance Stand; Church's Stand; and Barwell Stand. It is also a conference, meeting & events venue as well as the only UK Aviva Premiership Rugby ground with its own cenotaph, the setting for a ceremony every Remembrance Weekend.
Sue Townsend Theatre is a theatre in the city of Leicester, England. The centre hosted live shows and films of the arthouse and world cinema genres. It would have been flattened years ago if not for the work of Julian Wright in the 1980s and again, upon his return from abroad in the 2000s. In 2010, after a new Phoenix Square opened on the other side of the city centre, it became the Upper Brown Street Theatre, a music training and performance venue. It has since been re-branded as Sue Townsend Theatre, in honour of the late Leicester author and playwright, Sue Townsend.
Sixfields Stadium is a 7,798-capacity all-seater sports stadium in the Sixfields area on the west side of Northampton, England. It has been the home ground of Northampton Town Football Club following their move from the County Ground in October 1994. It was also rented by Coventry City between July 2013 and August 2014. Aside from being a sports venue, Sixfields also houses conference facilities.
Northampton Square, a green town square, is in a corner of Clerkenwell projecting into Finsbury, in Central London. It is between Goswell Road and St John Street, has a very broad pedestrian walkway on the north-west side between university buildings and is fronted chiefly by main buildings of City, University of London.
Rock'n'Bowl® is a live music venue located on S. Carrollton Avenue in New Orleans. It is a unique venue that combines a bowling alley and a music club together in one place. The club features various live music of local musicians, and is also famous for booking many zydeco acts. The past performers include Beau Jocque, Boozoo Chavis, Geno Delafose, Chris Ardoin, Snooks Eaglin, Wild Magnolias, and Anders Osborne.
Sol Northampton is a leisure complex in Northampton, England, with a multi-screen cinema, gym and beauty salon among other facilities. It was constructed in 2002 to replace the Barclaycard head office building previously sited there from the 1970s before relocating to the nearby Brackmills industrial estate.
Jacksons Lane Arts Centre (JLAC) is a multi-arts venue in Highgate, north London, located in a Grade II listed former Wesleyan Methodist church. The building is home to a 166 capacity theatre, a large scale dance and rehearsal studio, a cafe-bar and four other multi-purpose spaces.
Royal & Derngate is a theatre complex in the Cultural Quarter of Northampton, England, consisting of the Royal Theatre and Derngate Theatre. The Royal Theatre, established as a producing house, has a capacity of 450 seats and since 1976 has been designated a Grade II listed building; Derngate Theatre seats a maximum of 1,200 and is a multi-purpose space in which the auditorium can be configured for a variety of events including theatre, opera, live music, dance, fashion and sports. The Errol Flynn Filmhouse, an independent cinema built to the side of the complex, opened in 2013.
The South West Snooker Academy is located in Gloucester Business Park. It was purposely built for snooker in July 2010 but is now home to the owner Paul Mount's business MIUS.
Knaack was a nightclub in Prenzlauer Berg in Berlin, Germany. It opened in 1952 as a youth club and occasional disco. It then developed during the East German era into a live music venue where many notable German bands played regularly. Gentrification of the surrounding area in the late 2000s led to complaints about the club's noise from residents of newly constructed apartment buildings nearby. A court case resulted, placing restrictions on the noise levels, which the owners judged made the club financially untenable, resulting in its closure on 31 December 2010. After efforts to reopen in another district, the club secured new premises in Prenzlauer Berg and announced in February 2013 that they planned to reopen in 2016. Delays due to construction permits pushed these plans back to 2018.
The Blind Tiger Club was a mixed music, arts and community venue in Brighton, England, which opened in 2010. The venue closed in 2014, and Time Out described the venue as "semi-legendary", in its round-up of Brighton's live music scene that year. In 2015, Gigwise included the club in their list of the UK's Greatest Lost Venues.
El Sieco's is a pub, bar, and music venue in Newport, Wales which opened in 2016 on High Street, Newport, following the closure in 2010 of TJ's.
Coordinates: 52°14′25″N0°53′57″W / 52.24028°N 0.89917°W
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