I’ve just heard that the Lomax is being turned into flats, which is a bit sad. The club on Liverpool’s Cumberland Street was my second home for much of the 1990s, coinciding with a) the rise of Britpop and b) another flowering of Liverpool music.
Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant played there with their new band Electrafixion, and Mac described the club as “the best thing that's happened to Liverpool for a long time."
Among the many other local groups who played the club were Cast, Pele, China Crisis, The Real People, the Lightning Seeds, Pete Wylie and Ian McNabb…
Actually, there’s a line in my 1994 Christmas round-up in the Liverpool Echo that says: “Ligger of the year: Ian McNabb for taking up almost permanent residence at the Lomax.” It takes one to know one, I guess.
Here’s an extract from my memoir:
“The up and coming Britpop bands – and the up and coming Liverpool bands – found a home in a new club, the Lomax. Another club in an old warehouse, it was the perfect sized venue: the right place at the right time. They had Radiohead (a warm-up gig: they were already big by then), Supergrass, Dodgy… even Oasis, just before the band got huge, but I didn't bother going. I was in Liverpool. Why did I need a Manchester band that sounded like the Beatles?
“One of my favourite Lomax gigs was Ash, who’d just released their magical single Girl From Mars. The gig was packed, the night was hot and the club had brought in industrial-strength electric fans. We heard that the band had taken time out from their A-levels to go on tour. This made me feel very old.”
Not as old as I feel now, obviously.
Anyway, here’s a review of a typical Lomax gig from 1995. Sadly, the two bands are not now among the big names of Britpop - although I see that Salad are back together now. But the review gives a good flavour of what gigs were like in the days of bouncy pop and Female Fronted Bands.
SALAD/FLINCH
THE LOMAX, LIVERPOOL
MELODY MAKER, June 17 1995
IF guitar bands were last year's big thing... are you ready for bass guitar bands? All the advantages of guitar bands - guts and movement— but bigger and with no messing.
With Flinch, the bass dominates both sound and vision. The bassist/vocalist stands impassive like bassists are supposed to, and sings relishing each word as if it were a threat. Then, once or twice, she bounces on her heels like everyone does these days and breaks the spell. The audience are bouncing already, because this stern, spikey stun is bouncy in an aloof sort of way. But at its best it is, just for a moment, simply ominous. She is staring right at me. I don't flinch. But she doesn't either.
It looks as if Salad are going to have trouble following this. For about 30 seconds, while Marijne's voice warms up and you wonder what is on her head (it is black, furry and misshapen). Then you realise you are listening to a big pop song and everyone else is already humming as they bounce. It’s "Drink The Elixir" and it’s chunky, choppy pop for dancing and singing to.
"Granite Statue" comes next, the song on the new album that is the first to jump out shouting, "I am a pop hit." There are no statues in the house. The audience are moving, where they can find space. Marijne is moving, one minute fluttering her hands like a sensitive artist, the next stamping her feet as her Euro-rocker PVC trousers demand.
That is just about right for this band, full of light and shade, threats and whispers, pop tunes and dark moods. Above the bounce-along melodies, there are strange little things going on. Some you can hear, some are just happening in your imagination as you try to make sense of the words. "Motorbike To Heaven" (the new single) has twangy bits and whispered vocals and could be Portishead if they really were a band you could dance to instead of a "dance" band. And had a singer who really wants to be a star.
One minute Marijne is complaining about her trousers, all pop-star petulance. The next she is standing with one hand on hip and the other playing a sideways keyboard and pretending it is nothing to do with her. This is a woman who doesn't need to pose. And a band which doesn't need to try too hard to be different.