No music gigs at Newport's new leisure centre

Newport's new leisure centre will not be staging gigs, ending a musical era in a city once dubbed the New Seattle.

The hall in the current building has played host to hundreds of shows from Elton John to Run-DMC.

It opened in June 1985, but is now set to be flattened to make way for a £90m Coleg Gwent campus.

Goldie Lookin Chain's John Rutledge, or Eggsy, said its loss was "gutting", but Newport council said there was a host of other venues available in the town.

Eggsy believes including a gig space in the new centre should have been taken into account by planners.

According to leisure centre manager, Carl Williams, GLC was the last band to play the centre, on 21 December, 2019.

"It's a real shame that we were the last gig in the centre," Eggsy said.

"You took the place for granted because you always knew something was happening there. To have it gone is a real shame.

"I'm gutted with TJs and the leisure centre now gone."

TJs nightclub, famous for Nirvana's Kurt Cobain apparently proposing to Courtney Love there, closed in 2010 after the death of owner John Sicolo.

Dean Beddis, who runs Newport's Kriminal records, which was in the city's market until that closed for redevelopment, said: "It was a massive attraction for Newport, bringing in people for the pubs and hotels."

"In the past it was on lots of main tours for heavy metal bands and the like."

He recalled Iron Maiden playing there before heading to TJs, where they were booted off stage because the landlady was trying to sleep.

The new venue needed a concert hall, Mr Beddis said, to "put Newport back on the map, which we desperately need".

Without an events space "opportunities for Newport's future cultural, musical and sports events will be lost" and the city would be left stuck in a "quagmire".

In April 1988 a black book was started that holds a record of performers who have graced the centre's stage.

Manager Carl Williams called it a "fantastic record" and hoped it would be made accessible to the public.

It details artists, gig dates, the name of the promoter, attendance figures and ticket prices.

The first listed was a show by The Drifters where tickets were £3.50, and the last a June 2007 Kasabian gig, entry £25.

He regrets missing Kasabian: "I had to go out that evening and left just as the show was starting, but the crowd response to the first song was electric and the whole venue was rocking," he said.

However, the book is no longer used as ticket sales are now managed digitally.

Newport Live's former marketing officer, Dee Montague, 38, who worked at the centre from 2016 to 2018, said bookings at the centre were hit by the emergence of other venues.

She said it was a venue where a lot of bands chose to go before the development of often larger venues in nearby Cardiff and Bristol.

"The black book blew my mind, and made me wish I had been born about 30 years earlier," she said.

Every time she looked through its pages she'd spot another group that had played.

"I'm not sure Newport will see gigs like that again," she said.

The first gig she saw there was Skunk Anansie, supported by Muse.

"It was amazing, I still like both those bands," Ms Montague said. "You would see bands where the support bands would end up bigger.

"The acoustics in there were incredible. It was built for sport but also to be a music venue."

Eggsy remembers one of the first bands he saw there were Stourbridge indie-rockers Ned's Atomic Dustbin.

"A Canadian band called The Doughboys were supporting them," he said. "It was the first big loud gig that I had been to."

Eggsy said: "It has been really good to us the leisure centre, for gigs and stuff, because it was the next step up. There was TJs but the leisure centre gave you that next leg up."

Wales Arts Review editor Gary Raymond said: "In the '80s and '90s, Newport Leisure Centre held a much cooler place in the hearts of music lovers than your average municipal building.

"It may have served many with its swimming pool and squash courts, but it was the first venue over the bridge from England for the best touring bands.

"And the best bands played there, not just the mainstream acts from Top of the Pops."

The 42-year-old was too young to catch The Smiths when they played in October 1986 - a show that became notorious because singer Morrissey was yanked off stage by the crowd.

He ended up being rushed to casualty, the show was cancelled, fighting broke out and arrests were made.

Mr Raymond said: "Morrissey came back a decade later on the ill-fated tour when he supported Bowie. Mozza quit the tour before the end because it seems Bowie was getting all the attention.

"I was also too young to catch Depeche Mode in '88, REM in '89, and I even missed Jethro Tull in 1990.

"But I did go there for my second ever gig, when I was 12 and my dad took me to see Huey Lewis and the News. What 12-year-old doesn't want to see the soundtrack to Back to the Future played out live?"

In the 1990s Britpop arrived.

"Everyone played there," Mr Raymond said. "Black Grape, Blur, Suede, Echo and the Bunnymen.

"I'm no doubt forgetting a load. But there were so many great venues back then, and you could see a great gig any night of the week somewhere in south Wales, from Blackwood to Newport to Cardiff.

"But the centre was a gateway for many of us."

Newport council said: "The new centre will not include a dedicated concert space as there are a number of venues in Newport where live events can take place."

It cited former public toilet The Phyllis Maude Performance Space; the city centre's Le Pub; the Riverfront Theatre; rugby ground Rodney Parade and the 1,500-seat International Convention Centre Wales.

"We would encourage all partners with event space to work with us and we will support any future provision," the spokesman added.

The council said a consultation on the proposed new centre was "overwhelmingly positive" and that there would be another consultation before a planning application went to committee.