Bradford!

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so, last night we went to the embassy bar. there was k-reg/nick k, who is also from bradford, and one of the Warp toms, another bradfordian. and then there was ben, another, and his friend as well, also. so there were 5 Bradford people in one place, this felt very unusual.

and i thought, lets start a Bradford thread. tell me about your Bradford experiences. do they involve Tumblers, the dodgy indie club (since closed down), because wherever i go, as soon as i mention Bradford people say "tumblers, right?". how can so many people know of that shithole?

so, bradford?

― gareth, Monday, 18 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think I went through Bradford on a coach once.

― jel --, Monday, 18 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Bradford = ice-skating and curries as a kid; photographic museum and northern soul nites late teens; nuthin' since. Bradford station used to be one of the most depressing places in the world, really dank and pokey. Is it still?

― Ellie, Monday, 18 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Is this about the MuchMusic vj? He's scary, and even has his own segment now.

― Evangeline, Monday, 18 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Five years in an office overlooking Forster Square. Lovely German sausages from the Munchen House. The unrealised potential of Little Germany. The non-Bradfordness of The Pictureville. Watching 'Curry and Chips' in TV Heaven at the Museum. The corrugated roof stand at Valley Parade. Balmy Speedway/Bradford Bulls nights at Odsal - they say it's a natural bowl. Up to 50% off all windows, doors and conservatories at Diamond Seal. The Sabraaj, the Bombay Brasserie, Guiseppe's Back Yard. The only chinese in the town centre, upstairs opposite the T&A office, that served earth's finest Chicken Satay and was temporarily shut down by Health and Safety. Mature Cheddar and Mango chutney sandwiches and Belle Helenes from Kroustie in the Kirkgate Centre. The sickly, unearthly stench of the fat refinery. Happy Vaisakhi, Birth of Khalsa. Fantastic and almost certainly unironic display of 70's poster art in a hotel bar on the other side of Forster Square. Going to see The Fall at St. George's Hall while still a student in Leeds and walking into their dressing room by mistake. Going to see the Futurama at the Queen's Hall even earlier and being sat next to by Dave Gedge. Pound shops.

― dan, Monday, 18 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Cor, I'd forgotten about Tumblers. It was shit.

― RickyT, Monday, 18 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

No thread about Bradford would be complete without mentioning the supremely dodgy Rio's heavy metal club. I was convinced to go there by some people who seems alright, but turned out to be absolute pricks when we got to the place. And I couldn't escape until the 2.00 am (or was it 3.00am) Niterider bus to Keighley. Absolute nightmare.

― Daniel, Monday, 18 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

That arthouse cinema in Little Germany was cool, though. Can't remember the name of it now. Ooh, and the IMAX! It's all coming back to me now.

― Dan, Monday, 18 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yes, I was trying to remember the name of that cinema too. IIRC it was damaged by fire, like most things in Bradford.

― dan, Tuesday, 19 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

yes yes, of course tumblers was shit, but notorious. only competition being champagnes, which no one ever went to. most people tried to put a night on there at some point. they all failed. we used to play mercury rev, underground resistance, adorable, medicine and hardfloor to a smattering of disinterested goths before realising what a monumental waste of time that was.

bradford is of course a town stretched to the size of a city. this is its problem. there isn't enough to sustain it. the library was pretty good though, they'd order anything you wanted, so when we were, like, 13 or whatever, we'd just order everything and they'd get it in. so, if you ever got albums out by the likes of When People Were Shorter And Lived Near The Water, or Cows or whatever, that was probably us...

― gareth, Tuesday, 19 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

http://www.norfolkwindmills.com/images/bradford2.jpg

― gareth, Tuesday, 19 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

My old geography teacher was from Bradford insisting that it was the highest city in the UK. He once produced a map proving that should the polar ice-caps melt Bradford would be the only UK city not underwater and therefore capital. Perhaps it explains that permament rain cloud above Odsall stadium.

Having been kicked out by his wife by brother is about to move into a dodgy bedsit in Manningham. This is close to a definition of hell.

Oh, and what of Idle, and the Idle Workingmen's Club (or was that an urban myth?)

― stevo, Tuesday, 19 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

yes i think there is an idle workingmans club

rickyt, when/why were you at tumblers?

― gareth, Wednesday, 20 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Turns out that I might be going up there (or its environs) next week, WHOT A TIMELY THREAD eh?

― Sarah, Wednesday, 20 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

How many Tom were there though?

― Ed, Wednesday, 20 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

one month passes...

the thing that amuses me is how it manages to combine its dullness with a really worthy pretensiousness. it hasn't realised that its just a town like huddersfield, it actually thinks it is something special, heritage experiences everywhere. this, and the cheap housing, has meant a really odd mixture of people.

thats it! i've just realised what Bradford is. the stoke newington of the north!

― gareth, Monday, 29 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

that is, the stoke newington of 5 or 10 years ago. people think bradford is full of flat capped whippet racers, but, you know the hippy teacher in beavis and butthead? bradford has got loads and loads of those...('savour the authentic multicultural experience!" "riots - ah, the exuberance of youth reacting against the hidden oppressor!") - these people want the grime, because it means they are in the midst of REAL LIFE!

but they will always show you frizinghall and manningham and never holme wood (too white trash you see, no cultural currency!)

― gareth, Monday, 29 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

dan you are a knob how dare you make a joke about the bradford fire You dick

you were probably one of the lads who got battered senseless and rightly so dick vanessa

― vanessa tumblers, Saturday, 11 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two weeks pass...

Vanessa-

I'm sorry if my comment caused you any offence, but it wasn't intended to be a 'joke'. In fact it wasn't even a reference to Valley Parade, although reading it back it obviously comes across that way.

What I actually had in mind was a chinese restaurant near John St Market which mysteriously caught fire one night, the countless torched cars/houses I used to see on my way in to work, and, as I mentioned, the cinema in Little Germany.

I wouldn't make jokes about VP.

― dan, Monday, 27 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

In that case i will retract my fishwife words, but you can see where i am coming from

Vanessa x

― Vanessa Tumblers, Monday, 27 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I have been to Bradford but only in the day. All I remember is the Wool Exchange building.

― felicity, Monday, 27 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

three months pass...

I was at Uni in Bradford from 92-95 - did you go to a different Tumblers?? It was by far the best place to get away from charty rubbish. Heavens!

― vodkabird, Saturday, 7 September 2002 19:13 (twenty-three years ago)

two months pass...

The little arthouse cinema in Little germanu used to be called the Civic Theatre, then was renamed the Bradford Playhouse, then was renamed the Priestly Centre for the Arts. It's a dump and shows crap movies.

I disagree with what's been said about Bradford being a town stretched to the size of a city. More likely its a city squashed to the size of a town. It used to be incredibly important, more so than Leeds or Manchester or Birmingham because of the woollen and worsted industries. It Contained until recently the British Wool Marketing Board (it was demolished a couple of years ago so they could build cheap, nasty houses). However, Bradford Council has a history of doing stupid things such as destroying beaitful, valuable buildings (they did it as early as the 1870s, not just in the 1960s and 1970s. Through incredibly bad long-run planning Bradford has become the giant fast asleep in quickssand, sinking lower and lower.

I was born and raised in Bradford and I love it but I couldn't hate it more.

― Jay Ell, Tuesday, 19 November 2002 01:37 (twenty-three years ago)

b-but what is stoke newington?? feel free to message me personally gareth if i am i am clogging up the anglo-knowingness with my clueless questions!

― Mary (Mary), Tuesday, 19 November 2002 03:52 (twenty-three years ago)

My best mate lives in the centre of Manningham. I think its one of the top places in England (I know, I know, the slums got so much soul). The combination of cracking mosques and cracking mills and a police station copied from Albi cathedral (defeat the cathars!) with cracking curry and a real dose of the good old umma islam with crumbling moorland and drained out post-indrev whiteness gets me everry time. the future is here, insh'alla.

Memories.
Yes, shouting on stage at the Tumblers as backing singer to some two-bit punk throwback band.
Yes, dancing round the Wool Hall dressed as a 10 foot marlin with the Buttermountain Boys doing their qawwalli deepsouth cajun Keighley THANG for all their hearts.

I'm off down t'masjid.

― jon (jon), Tuesday, 19 November 2002 09:23 (twenty-three years ago)

stoke newington is an area of london that has a 'tree-hugging' stereotype, perhaps not far off the liberal teacher in beavis & butthead (more in email, later!)

― gareth (gareth), Tuesday, 19 November 2002 10:01 (twenty-three years ago)

nine months pass...

I didn't see any hippies in Bradford. Bradford was brown.

― Mary (Mary), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 10:59 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

did anyone see bradford grime artist, e dot(?), on tv today?

― the great doxology of heckmondwike town (gareth), Sunday, 3 October 2004 22:18 (twenty-one years ago)

'fraid not. I went to Bradford once though, it was quite fun.

― Matt (Matt), Sunday, 3 October 2004 22:23 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm from bradford, and so are my family. I've lived all around the world but leeds and bradford are my home, i know every street and alley of the city. there's not a day I don't think about Bradford and what it's given me : music, films, culture, art, and most importantly what it taught me. The people I knew around there gave me such a rich education: living in these cultured-anarcho-communities, no locks on the doors, pooling all our money, property is theft, shelves and shelves of books and videos, group outings to the cinema to see classic films, galleries, plays, gigs, always making the best of what you had, such a creative community. I owe it so much, and now it's in sharp decline.. the communities are dead and those people I knew are falling through the cracks.

― nick.K (nick.K), Sunday, 3 October 2004 22:44 (twenty-one years ago)

This is a strange revive. I have been talking about Bradford, all night.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Sunday, 3 October 2004 23:29 (twenty-one years ago)

It has made me sad and tired.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Sunday, 3 October 2004 23:31 (twenty-one years ago)

That's maybe not its fault.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Sunday, 3 October 2004 23:31 (twenty-one years ago)

The photo upthread, of Gareth's, is really good, I like it a lot.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Sunday, 3 October 2004 23:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Gareth, do you mean "K Dot"? I know K Dot!

God, I WISH I was in Bardford right now. That would be cool.

― Tous Les Garcons S'Appellent Little Lord Travolta (nordicskilla), Sunday, 3 October 2004 23:58 (twenty-one years ago)

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