Oxford Goes Punk Rock!

A local post as I loiter around the bottom of Cowley Road in East Oxford for a couple of noisy gigs book-ending the first weekend of June.
Don't worry - the usual exotic locations will resume shortly.  Well...Bicester and Staines, anyway.

First up, a pre-gig pint of Young's 'Special' in the Angel & Greyhound on St Clement's.

Angel and Greyhound (30 St Clement's Street, Oxford, OX4 1AB)
This may not be the most obvious place to start the evening before a bill of frantically noisy guitar rock.  But, it was actually a punk hangout at the end of the 70's, as evidenced by a handful of pictures of folk out front under the sign with its original name...

Things are a bit different now.  The Angel and Greyhound is decked out in trad style with lots of hues of brown, a couple of armchairs by the fireplace, seating stretching round the corner beyond the bar to a secluded back garden.  Or you can sit out front and watch a traffic jam, if preferred.
It was a little bit too quiet for a Friday evening - a handful of gentlefolk within, not a punk in sight.

Cask ale offerings were the expected 'Original' and 'Special' from Young's, plus two local options: Shotover 'Prospect' and Loose Cannon 'Abingdon Bridge'.
I tend to find the 'Special' doesn't really live up to its name, but it was in good condition, a decent malty bitter to start the evening.

Just a couple of minutes down the road brings me to the Plain.  Strikingly located on the peninsula between Cowley Road and Iffley Road is the Cape of Good Hope.  I was about to say this one is easier to navigate around than its namesake on the tip of Africa, but have you tried tackling this roundabout in rush hour?

Cape of Good Hope (Ifley Road, The Plain, Oxford, OX4 1EA)
This is a pub I don't get to very often, although it usually appears to be busy.  On this occasion there was a wide mix of clientele: sports fans watching some sort of rugby fixture on the big screens, a birthday party, youngsters crawling the bars of Cowley Road, and students in black tie and dinner jackets.
Plus some real scruffy waifs and strays attracted by the punk night on the first floor - that'd be us!!!
Several 'craft' options on offer from Camden and Deya - a real cider option - and Purity 'Ubu' or 'Mad Goose'.  Not cheap, although nowhere in central Oxford is, and I reckon I lost a few penneth worth of beer with that hefty head...

There's been a bit of a lack of loud bands playing the city recently.  Oxford really doesn't have a great live music scene, not helped when the music venues (the Wheatsheaf and Cellar Bar most recently) keep getting closed down.
So it's great to see someone spot an opportunity and put on a Punk Night at the Cape.  And great to see a reasonable crowd of punters gathered on the first floor.

 

The first floor of this pub used to be a popular club and live music venue called The Point some twenty-and-a-bit years ago.  As well as lots of local bands, Catatonia, Coldplay, and The Strokes all graced the stage here.
Okay, so I don't expect any of this evenings four acts will be added to that list, but a tenner for 4 loud bands is good value for money in my book.  And I do declare that Newport (the Wales one) band Pizzatramp were fantastically good fun and really nice chaps to chat to afterward.

Fast forward to Monday 4th.
At teatime, you'd have found me in The Star on Rectory Road, probably my favourite East Oxford pub at the moment.

The Star (21 Rectory Road, Oxford, OX4 1BU)
It's always been a bit of a cracking pub - a traditional boozer attracting students and locals; a decent playlist on the stereo; lovely garden out back; decent beers on offer.
And on this visit, they had this stuff...

 

Crikey, Bass is getting everywhere now.  Finding it in Oxfordshire was unthinkable a couple of years back, but this year it's cropped up in several places.
On good enough form for me to return and get a second pint - priced under a fiver, and a most enjoyable start to proceedings.
The cask range varies, as does the keg which is decent too - Delirium Tremens on tap, Deya 'Steady Rolling Man', and a 6% IPA by local brewer BMan...

I popped from the Star into the city centre to grab a pizza in the White Rabbit and a pint in the Grapes, before heading back to Cowley Road for the Monday evening music.

The Bullingdon (162 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1UE)

Not to be confused with the Oxford Uni private all-male dining club where some esteemed leaders of the country have disgraced themselves, this is the city's smaller gig venue to big brother the O2 up the road.
There's a smart bar to the front which specialises in cocktails and (not so crafty) craft beers.  Head down the corridor to the side and you're in the scuzzy venue, black paint, dodgy beer in plastic cups, and some truly horrendous toilets.

On this occasion I was there for New Jersey hardcore band, Gel. 

Singer Sami Kaiser is described by local music rag Nightshift as sounding like 'hell vomiting up its dinner, when dinner was a cauldron of lava".  Add that to the Kerrang! review of 2023 debut full-length LP 'Only Constant' as a "masterclass in chucking sonic Molotov cocktails, then basking in their searing heat", and this sounds like my cup of tea. 
When they say 'full-length LP', we're talking 10-songs in 16 minutes.  Which meant the show was over predictably quickly.  A furious burst of energy and noise.  Home in time for the 10pm news.

That barely gave me time to finish my rather odd, and fairly expensive, pint of Hydes 'Grand Central IPA'.  I'd actually tried to order the Camden stout, but the bar staff couldn't hear me and my pointing skills must need working on.

All-in-all, a good weekend of raucous music in Oxford.  More of this sort of thing, please!