ROCK / The mourning after: RIP the T&C? North London's best-loved concert venue is set to close in March. We list the 10 nights you really should have been there
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Your support makes all the difference.The Town & Country Club in Kentish Town, north London, was known as the Forum Dancehall before it began booking bands in late 1985. The club holds 1,800 people and is one of London's most prized mid-size venues. On 24 March next year its lease runs out. The T&C 2, a smaller venue in Islington which the T&C organisation opened in February 1989, loses its lease simultaneously. Both clubs claim to operate profitably. The T&C building is Listed, so cannot be demolished. Folgate Estates, the landlords, have not announced their plans for the site. John Wallace, from the management, said this week that he was deeply saddened that the landlords will not renew the lease and, in a burst of nostalgia, agreed to nominate the 10 best nights the club has seen. They are, in no particular order:
Tom Jones, 1992
Resurgent following his television series: much parodic throwing of knickers.
The Pixies / Throwing Muses, 1988
Indie rock double-bill with both bands at the height of their popularity.
Was (Not Was), 1988
On peak form, with Are You OK?.
Eurythmics, 1989
Unusually low-key and intimate for a band of their stature.
Sly & Robbie, 1987
Sly & Robbie spent two nights working their way through a seemingly endless roster of guest vocalists.
Lenny Kravitz, 1990
Guitar hero, briefly touted as the future of rock. Possibly one of the loudest concerts the structure has sustained.
Wendy & Lisa, 1990
Wendy & Lisa were formerly part of Prince's backing band. Their diminutive former employer was in the audience on this occasion, barely visible in a throng of minders.
Hothouse Flowers, 1988
About to break and as good as they got.
The Neville Brothers, supported by Del Amitri, 1989
Few had heard of Del Amitri at this point: shortly afterwards, many would. The Neville Brothers brought along a surprise guest: the actor John Goodman, who played cowbell during the band's encores.
Hall & Oates, 1990
Perennial white soul favourites who moved in for a string of six dates.
Also rans: The Pogues, six nights including St Patrick's night; Simply Red; Bjorn Again's seven shows this year; Happy Mondays' sell-out gig; several shows by The Kinks; David Bowie pitching up to rough it with Tin Machine; INXS; Lionel Richie's 'secret' gig this year; Midnight Oil, who turned the stage into the Australian Outback, complete with fake dingoes; two nights with Robert Palmer; and this year's Nina Simone show, for which a downstairs office had to be converted into a dressing-room to accord with a clause in the singer's contract dictating that she should not be called upon to climb stairs.
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