About
Brief Intro
Moles has everything for the music fan. We have a record shop selling a range of music and merchandise, a music café offering great value comfort food, a live music venue hosting gigs from bands from around the world and a studio where bands record.
ABOUT
New Years Eve might seem like a great night to open a new club. And in fact you might have been right. Unless you’re having to cram in 2 months of refurbishment work to get the place ready. And all in the days before the days of the TV makeover show for handy hints and tips..
And so it was that in 1978, as Moles opened its doors to live music for the first time, the final lick of paint was being slapped on the fire escape doors while the guests were coming in at the front for the opening night New Years party.
The idea for the venue in Bath stemmed from an inspired cycle trip on a summer holiday between a local Bath business man and a Friends of the Earth coordinator. Amazing what a breezy bike ride can do for the mind. And the hair.
Starting out as a whole food/vegetarian cafe during the day (sounds like plenty of lentils and beans to us), at night the venue got off to a slow but steady start playing folk and jazz music. Nice.
Soon enough, the programming grew to include blues and rock, before Moles then ventured into ‘disco’ nights. Groovy. The reputation of the venue grew over the years, helped by the installation of increasingly sophisticated sounds systems. That is, after all, what a decent venue needs.
Then, in the early 80’s, Moles was asked if they would do a warm up show for The Cure. THE CURE! Damn right!!
Unsurprisingly the night was a sell out way ahead of the gig and by the time the band played, their current single, The Walk, was at no.12 in the charts. You can see and hear their set list here http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-cure/1983/the-moles-club-bath-england-3bd7f4a8.html
Another milestone was the gig by SnakeFinger, the guitarist from The Residents; it was one of only three dates he played in the UK and turned out to be a real turning point for the venue.
Since then, Moles has seen hundreds of bands grace the stage, reading like a who’s who of …well really famous bands actually. These include Blur, Beverly Knight, Catatonia, Courtney Pine, The Cure, Damian Rice, The Damned, Editors, Elastica, Eurythmics, Everything But The Girl, Gabrielle, Housemartins, James, Manic Street Preachers, Massive Attack, Moloko, Oasis, Ocean Colour Scene, PJ Harvey, Primal Scream, Pulp, Radiohead, Rob da Bank, Shed 7, Skunk Anansie, The Smiths, Snow Patrol, Spiritualized, Stereolab, Suede, Supergrass, Sway, Terry Hall, The Coral, The Killers, Tori Amos Toyah Wilcox T’Pau and Travis. You can see a full list of bands here.
When the rest of the building became vacant in 1989, it was the perfect opportunity to take the whole thing over and build a full studio over the upper 2 floors. And so Moles Studio was born.
With tie lines of the 56 channel SLL desk, lots of bands chose to record their gigs live from the venue and soon enough the studio became a focus for artists wanting to record proper albums. The full list, which includes artists such as Cocteau Twins, Elbow, James, Julian Cope, Kula Shaker, Manic Street Preachers, Marillion, Midge Ure, can be seen here.
In 2009, we took over and Moles is already getting a new lease of life. As well as bringing more frequent and broader music back to the venue, you’ll also notice the opening of the Music Café on the first floor. But plans don’t stop there.
Watch this space for more developments. To be sure you’re amongst the first to know, you can sign up to the mailing list (hyper link) to get all the latest news and advanced ticket info..
Ric and Sybil