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Central Hall & North side of the lake

Central Hall to stage first gig in 25 years

Central Hall in snow
Central Hall hasn't staged a gig since 1985
Monday, 22nd February 2010
Central Hall is to play host to three bands for the first time since 1985. The event organised by the Christian Union will see up and coming Christian groups, The Gentlemen, The Steels and GiveWay take to the stage on Saturday week 9.

The ’13:3’ event on the 13th of March will have a maximum capacity of 1000 and is open to all, both Christians and non-Christians alike. With claims that no expense has been spared on lighting and sound, organiser Jason Rose told the Yorker “it should be the best on-campus music event since 1985”.

Hailing from Sheffield, the Gentlemen have played several university gigs in the past year, including summer balls at Durham and Loughborough. Supporting them will be The Steels who are about to release their third album this spring and GiveWay who have in the past supported prominent Christian Rockers YFriday.

Originally Central Hall has hosted some huge names over the years with the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Paul McCartney and Pink Floyd all playing there, but in the wake of a Boomtown Rats gig in which damage was done to the hall, the University banned acts from using it as a venue.

This policy however was reversed recently, a decision which was highlighted by last year's abortive plan to hold the graduate ball on campus and use Central Hall as a venue. Whilst the plan was vetoed by students, some are looking to take full advantage of the possibilities that have opened up again.

On top of as yet unconfirmed rumours that URY are looking into hosting acts there, James College announced at this week’s ents committee that it is planning on staging an event there with a possible big name act in week 2 of the summer term. James is hardly without experience in this, having brought Mr Hudson to the Courtyard in freshers' week.

Not to be out done, YUSU is also factoring in Central Hall for future plans, with ents officer Sam Daniels telling the Yorker that “Central Hhall is a venue with loads more potential, and now it is the time to tap in to that!”

Tickets, priced at £7 are currently on sale on the Christian Union website with the event open to all, not just York students.

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Showing 1 - 20 of 23 comments
#1 Dan Walker
Mon, 22nd Feb 2010 3:01pm

Good news!

#2 Erik OConnor
Mon, 22nd Feb 2010 4:58pm

According to the 'York campus folklore' page which was on the james college website previously (anyone know where it is now?) Jimi Hendrix played Langwith. But did he play Central Hall as well?

#3 Chris Northwood
Mon, 22nd Feb 2010 5:19pm

Erik: http://www-student.cs.york.ac.uk/uni_history/index.html

#4 Anonymous
Tue, 23rd Feb 2010 11:20am

Kudos on getting a 'gig' in central hall. But I've always had an issue with Christian rock. It goes against everything that 'rock' stands for. I'd be much more willing to call it Christian emo music.

#5 Jason Rose
Tue, 23rd Feb 2010 12:08pm

It's not Christian Rock.... If you could change it to "Christian rock groups" then that would be better - find them all on myspace or find the Gentlemen and the Steels on spotify... they're as "Christian Rock" as U2 and the like.

And you'd be wrong to call most British Christian music "emo" - very true with a lot of American Christian Rock but the songs are generally much 'happier' over here. I'm Not Leaving (The Gentlemen) even made it to URY's #1 spot last year. They're great bands and, as said above, the Gentlemen played at a variety of summer balls last year!

And I've been informed by someone who was a student here at the time that Hendrix played Central Hall. They might be remembering incorrectly, of course. Also the University didn't ban Central Hall gigs - they just stopped them from happening

#6 Anonymous
Tue, 23rd Feb 2010 4:45pm

whilst i'm sure everyone is happy that gigs are happening in central hall again, i'm really not sure many people will go because, irrespective of what the music's like, 'gig' and 'christian union', 'christian' and 'rock' are terms that together sound incredibly, monumentally, uncool.

#7 Erik OConnor
Tue, 23rd Feb 2010 5:53pm

@Chris - thanks!

@The Yorker - I think the Jimi Hendrix fact in your article may be wrong. The folklore website (http://www-student.cs.york.ac.uk/uni_history/bands.html) says he played Langwith in 1967. He definitely toured in the UK in 1967 (not sure about 1968) and the folklore site says Central Hall opened in 1968.

#8 Jason Rose
Tue, 23rd Feb 2010 11:24pm

1967 was the year that he made it big in the USA and he also toured Sweden. And in 1968 he also toured the UK so there's no reason to rule it out. And the folklore website is the one you linked to before (i.e. isn't conclusive) - anyone fancy spending 5 hours looking through the microfilm of old uni newspapers?

#9 Anonymous
Wed, 24th Feb 2010 12:04am

Much as I would rather there were no gigs in central hall than a Christian Rock gig, I guess it's fairly inevitable: being 42 years old, Central Hall is now having a mid-life crisis.

#10 Jason Rose
Wed, 24th Feb 2010 9:58am

I think that's a ridiculous thing to say. The Gentlemen were at Durham and Loughborough Summer Balls - how are they not an appropriate headline act?! And again, it's similar to U2 - I would hardly call it Christian Rock.

#11 Daniel Hales
Wed, 24th Feb 2010 3:54pm

stories and rumours about why york uni has such a bad music scene have been around for years so it's great to see this after the dissapointing defeat of the grad ball vote. my only worey would be will the event sell out. many campus events have struggled recently and #6 anonymous is right to many people the christian assosiations may be a dissadvantage. i don't know how big york's CU is but is it enough. it would be dissapointing if the if the first event in central hall in so long was a flop.

#12 Chris Venables
Thu, 25th Feb 2010 10:12am

@Daniel Hales - The CU has one of the larger followings on campus. If any society was going to pull it off, the CU would definitely be one to consider!

#13 Anonymous
Thu, 25th Feb 2010 1:31pm

THE MYSTERONS ARE COMING...

#14 Erik OConnor
Thu, 25th Feb 2010 4:11pm

@Jason Rose - no I don't fancy going through the archives, which is why I've looked online for facts. In addition to to the folklore site (which confirms the date with two sources), there's this list of Hendrix's gigs (http://www.richdickinsonsdf.co.uk/hendrix_gig_list.htm) which also lists 18 February 1967.

I may seem like a petty point, but what I'm really trying to ask is why does The Yorker publish a date and venue which by all of the admittedly few accounts out there just can't be true?

I used to think The Yorker was a credible alternative to the Nouse, but it now lacks any journalistic rigour and ambition (is there even an editor anymore?) and such comparison seems ludicrous now.

#15 Anonymous
Thu, 25th Feb 2010 8:09pm

Rumour is that Vanbrugh and another college are looking at a joint event/gig there middle of next term..looks like central hall is getting the uplift it needs.. not to mention York's dwindling music scene

#16 Tom Fitz-Hugh
Fri, 26th Feb 2010 2:02am

Rather a massive overstatement there Erik, especially in the context of one wrong fact. And just because The Yorker doesn't plaster pictures of its writers all over the site and have editors' names as article titles doesn't mean these people don't exist!

#17 Erik OConnor
Fri, 26th Feb 2010 8:40am

@Tom - I don't think it's an overreaction. Any other paper that just made up facts (I suspect the Pink Floyd fact is wrong too) would be heavily criticised, and any blogger trolled, yet there seems to be a culture among The Yorker's staff (and among other student journalists too) that it's OK to speculate as to the truth of facts if it makes a good story.

I hope they can prove me wrong.

#18 Chris Northwood
Fri, 26th Feb 2010 12:13pm

>> And just because The Yorker doesn't plaster pictures of its writers all over the site

I see this as a jab aimed towards me and the changes I introduced on Nouse.co.uk last year - writers for Nouse don't get much in the way of compensation for their work, and if getting recognition on campus for what they write, putting a face to a comment piece (which is supposed to be a personal thing after all) as well as recognition on the wider Internet for their work is seen as a bad thing at The Yorker, I'm absolutely amazed you have any writers.

#19 Peter Searle
Fri, 26th Feb 2010 12:17pm

>>as well as recognition on the wider Internet for their work is seen as a bad thing at The Yorker, I'm absolutely amazed you have any writers.

Maybe some of us actually just want to write and express opinion and do not openly need/seek the recognition? I'm one of the bigger contributers to the Arts section here and I am actually quite happy with the way things are executed.

#20 Chris Northwood
Fri, 26th Feb 2010 12:46pm

Peter: That's one thing, but actively attacking competition because of the amount of recognition they do offer their contributors is another imo.

I should point out that I'm no longer anything to do with Nouse, but author photos were something I pushed forward for, and I feel a great amount of attachment to the parts of the Nouse site I created so will defend from what I see as completely unnecessary and irrelevant criticism.

Showing 1 - 20 of 23 comments

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