This Must Be The Place: Buckley Tivoli

                                Buckley Tivoli 1995

The popular psychological convention is that the first 8 are the formative years of a child's life. It's in these years that a child experiences rapid levels of learning; their cognitive, social and emotional landscape shifts dramatically. Often in this period our preferences and fears can crystalise and shape our character and personality - it's often where we develop a sense of belonging. 

For me personally, it was only when I moved to Buckley in North Wales in the late 1980s (I'm not certain exactly when, but I was small, probably 6-7 years old) that belonging became a reality. I was a British Army brat, I'd travelled with my family to various different bases following my Dad's job; from Belgium to Germany (pre Berlin Wall coming down) to Surrey, before the eventual relocation to Buckley - My Mother's hometown.

It was here where my life became more normalised and consistent, where I went to school, made friends and grew up - just like all the other kids who'd been there all their lives. Fast forward to the end of my school days and things changed again. I'd gone from being a shy, but happy kid whose only ambition was to play Centre Forward for Everton Football Club, to being an angry, awkward, music-obsessed teenager, who wanted to meet girls and watch bands.

The first of those teenage ambitions was always a bit tricky; looking young for my age didn't really help in my forays into the world of the opposite sex, but thankfully Buckley had a live music venue and it had bands on! The 90s had been the glory years for the venue, some massive names had played early gigs there - Green Day, PJ Harvey, Radiohead, The Manic Street Preachers and famously, just as they were blowing up around the release of 'Definitely Maybe', Oasis played in 1994. See the version of 'Digsy's Diner' that made it to their early live DVD below.
   

Being too young to see those great bands, it was 1996 until I managed to get in the building. My first gig at The Tiv (as it is affectionately known) was late Britpop crashers Mansun. It was in between their debut album and their opus 'Six' and the band previewed plenty of tracks from that album at the gig. I drank far too many bottles of Budweiser that night, but the excitement of the gig definitely changed my life.

For the next two years as I was doing my A-Levels at school, Wednesday night was Tiv night for my friends and I. It was the indie night with a band or two playing with a disco to finish the night. Some bands that played went on to total obscurity - anyone remember Scarfo or Carrie? Thought not. Some however, went on to much bigger things - the likes of The Stereophonics and Travis played intimate shows at The Tiv before blowing up.
 

Towards the turn of the Millennium, I found myself back in Buckley after an unsuccessful stint at University,  depression and anxiety had made it too much for me at that time - I needed a job. Yes, you've guessed it, I got a job at The Tiv. I worked behind the bar for a couple of years, but perhaps the timing was a bit floored. At this time, the owner had just decided to sell to a leisure company - who very quickly decided live music was a thing of the past and to turn it into a Nightclub with Happy Hardcore DJs. I felt betrayed by the club I loved.

Thankfully, that ownership didn't last for too long and the venue is now back in independent hands. The ethos of the current owners was to go back to the basics that made The Tiv so special. Gigs are back, mostly from the club's bread and butter - classic Heavy Rock and Punk. 

The Tiv however, has a dark secret, that again adds to it's enviable myths. It started as an Art Deco cinema in the 1920s after being built on the site of the old Central Hall. A fire rocked the building in 1945, with a projectionist dying in the flames - rumour has it he was locked in the room and unable to escape.


Footsteps have been heard in the building when empty and the taps in the toilets are often found turned on with no obvious culprits to be seen. The building has had so much ghostly activity over the years, that eventually The Tivoli appeared on the legendary ghost-hunting TV show 'Most Haunted' in 2015 (See Above). Perhaps the ghost didn't like Happy Hardcore either..

I no longer live in Buckley, although my Dad still does, so I venture there from time to time. I often go past the venue on the way and I get a small taste of the feelings of excitement I used to get before a night out on it's sticky dance floor. That late teen to early twenties period of your life is very much your formative years for socialising and it helps to crystalise your musical preferences too. I owe a lot  to The Good Ship Tivoli and all who sailed in her back then.

















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