DIY Alternative music events and planning. Creating the sweatiest, loudest, most inclusive basement gigs in the East ✊ 
10/03/2025
Hey everyone, hope you're all good, sunshine out there in recent days, winter fading, and into another year. So, yeah, here's a story anyway. If you don't want a story, skip to the end and find out about the gig coming up very soon, otherwise, please get comfortable and I'll begin. Not at the beginning as you may expect, but rather the most recent of times, i.e. the last few days. A thing happened, which we sort of knew would one day despite hoping it wouldn't, but so far it hadn't, so it wasn't an issue. Except now it kind of has.
So, skipping back in time briefly, to the beginning, the space was originally opened up to us through East Street Arts/Original Projects (to whom we are most grateful), as a kind of protection by occupation deal, in which we were allowed to use the building for creative/artistic endeavours, and by being there keep the place in a reasonable sort of condition. Seemed fair. Ticked over for a little while, some film screenings, book releases/signings, a small gig on the ground floor, poetry, some graffiti workshops in stencilling for youngsters who didn't quite fit with mainstream schooling and had been excluded, and various things going on from time to time of that ilk. All good. We also had projections from the upstairs across the street onto the buildings opposite, quite often a talking point amongst locals, sometimes just icons of music or film, sometime acerbic social or political commentary depending on the news at the time. Was still a basement downstairs full of all sorts of sh*te, and with a small bit of water leakage, was a bit rank down there. Would be nice to clear it though and have some sort of music going on, bands rehearsing, maybe even a gig yeah?
Up until this point, this was mainly Karl and Lotte (red herring press) doing all this. Then one day Ash (Doghead Promo) and Steve (Urinal Vinyl Records) made contact, initially with the plan of forming a modern beat combo of the hardcore punk variety. Ash mentioned the place and suggested it as a cheap rehearsal space and to come and check it out. That was it. Karl and Steve hit it off, Ash was always motivated, and before too long Steve's Transit had been on multiple trips, the basement was finally cleared and the next phase had arrived. A poorly constructed stage was thrown together with wood and ply that was lying around in various places, Steve donated his drum kit and a few bits and pieces of equipment, then tapped up various sound engineer mates for bits of sound system they had surplus to requirements, likewise with musicians who donated amps, speaker cabs etc., and we were off. Sadly Steve and Ash never got the band going, but Colossal Youth had taken over! Now for a silly idea, let's put a punk gig on in the basement of an old shop in a town with practically no punks or punk scene. What could go wrong? Nothing, really, we had no expectations, just felt like doing it. 3 local acts were signed up, Stankfinger, 5 years together, and had never played in their home town, this was the first time! S.B.T. (now defunct sadly) and All My Yesterdays (Amy French, fantastic acoustic singer/songwriter, great natural performer). Steve got behind the desk and off we went. Free entry, payment by donation, bring your own beers, just come and enjoy it. And people did. We were blown away by the crowd. They arrived, they drank, talked, danced, laughed and made an amazing thing happen. We raised some money for a local charity feeding homeless and vulnerable people, we made an event happen, and we all felt it, something special had been born. No one knew how or why, but we all felt it. This wasn't done as a money making endeavour (our motto has always been that we don't want to lose money doing this, and we don't want to make money either) it wasn't done to polish egos, for social standing or kudos. It was done for whoever needed or wanted it, and it was pretty damn good.
So, scooting on towards the present again, after many events, many bands from all over the UK not to mention as far away as Peru even! Well established headliners, established support acts, local bands, debut gigs, bands formed through meeting here, rehearsing here, gigging here, breaking up here, all of it interspersed with mopping up the basement when it rained a bit too much. Then one day, the news no one wanted, we lost the place, someone was taking it on to turn it into another fu***ng convenience store. We had a gig on that weekend, we were gonna party, and through the shock we carried on. It rained that night, and just as the gig was about finished and most people had left, then the real flooding started. Absolute torrent of water coming through the ceiling into the basement, and before long there was an inch, maybe inch and a half of water down there. Disaster! One that saved us. All of a sudden the place wasn't as desirable. The owners of the building did nothing about it, the problem was also affecting the jeweller next door/directly above the basement; his shop was being flooded and was coming straight through his floor/our ceiling and flooding us. As the owners were being useless, he managed to sort out rerouting the leakage with a bit of handy cementing, and dried his shop out, and we managed to scoop all the water out into buckets and out into the street, and back to business. There was still a bigger problem than before, but we could stay on top of it. We were lucky to have had Tray build us a new stage as the last one hadn't really withstood more than a couple of gigs, but it seemed fine until just recently...
The stage is bad. Holes appearing here and there, almost dangerous really. Had to stop using the place as a rehearsal some time ago as it was impossible to keep the place dry down there all the time. Ok for a gig every few weeks, but to make it always usable was a big ask for a small crew, Ash had had to drop out some time ago as a new and proud father of twins, and Picket Line Promo had stepped in to help out, which started off as a collective but was now really just Alex, an absolute star that we're lucky to have, and Lotte now had her own premises further down the road which was her main priority now. So Colossal Youth was essentially just Karl (Venue Manager and Head Chef of the veggie/vegan chilli) and Steve (Technical director, Sound Engineer and Artist Liaison) most of the time assisted by John (Spud, general dogsbody, bin emptying, basement mopping), and Alex helping out with getting bands and promo for the gigs, as well as doing merch on the nights, running around for band riders, keeping everyone happy, and generally being totally invaluable as well as a jolly good egg. However another band was forming here, and a bunch of practical chaps as well. In return for rehearsing in the space they offered to build a new stage for us before the next gig (see attached poster, 22nd March, not far off!) But, bad things were afoot.
In the preceding months, not sure when off the top of my head, summer 2024 some time, the always absent owners of the building around us, and ours of course, had given up playing with Yarmouth, and sold them all off. They had little interest in what was happening here, just numbers on a spread sheet, no repairs, but more importantly, no hassle. The odd person had come to look at the place with a view to renting it, but nothing happened, and we carried on as before, although with the regular flooding we'd lost the ability to have regular bands rehearsing, also the stencil workshops had stopped for the same reason, but there was now an air of uncertainty with the new owners. Would they be sympathetic to what we were doing here? Would they see the value of it all? Venture capitalists aren't known for their empathy/sympathy or altruism... Well, we met with them (more than we'd ever done with the old owners) and several times after as well. A lot more involved. We spoke, we told them what they did, they were friendly, pleasant, nodded and smiled, they may have even listened to some of the things we said from time to time. Ultimately though, they wanted money back on their investment. We tried to negotiate something. We never wanted to monetise the place, we wanted to share it. We wanted to create something where people could also create something. But we had to think. We said we'd love to rent it and would like first refusal, but with a flooding basement, we had no real chance of income, no bands rehearsing, no workshops, get the leaks fixed and we'd talk again. Attempts were made to stop the leaking, unsuccessful (as we thought they might be!)and a couple of more months went by. Again we saw and spoke to the owners, handshakes, smiles and so on, then a few days ago we were informed that some people were coming to look at the place. And they did, and then came the news we didn't want to hear, one of them had said yes, perfect, love it, I'll have it. S**t. So time to look at that first refusal, we need to work out a way of sorting this. Plans were drawn up, numbers added, subtracted, multiplied and divided, ideas were shared, modified, accepted and rejected, and we worked out a plan of action. We knew we had 3 months notice to work with, and now we had a plan, so we rang the owner the following day for a conversation, Started pleasantly enough, and then onto the nitty gritty. Gone was the smiling, hand shaking, "just one of the lads" persona, and out came the ruthlessness. No, we can't have it, we had our chance before and didn't take it, yes, someone is coming in, the deal has been done, moaning about the mortgage he had on the place (I would have thought he took it on voluntarily?) and to add insult to injury, 30 days to pack up and go. Surely you mean 3 months as we had always been told? No, 30 days, f**k off! East Street Arts have also been in touch. Noticed was served to them, they have an actual date for us to be out, 27th March. This was 6th March we were having this conversation. Not even 30 days, a mere 21! Taking the p**s or what?
So there we have it ladies and gentlemen and those happily in between or on their way from one to the other. They want us to f**k off. 5 days after the next gig. Well, that is a damned shame is it not? As I said earlier, the first gig, we felt something special had been born. That feeling was only compounded over time, this place has been amazing, and it's not down to any of us here, we've played our part, sure, as has the building. But Colossal Youth is not this building, it's not Karl, Alex, Ash, Lotte or me, it's not the bands, it's not the audience. It is all of us, together. This is often referred to (quite rightfully I suppose) as a DIY space. We've often had favourable comparisons to a couple of venues I've been lucky enough to play in and visit, The 1 in 12 Club in Bradford, and Brighton's Cowley Club. High praise indeed. But in that very Bradford venue, whilst in my old band Contempt, we played with an Indonesian band, Rebel Riot, who espoused that it's not DIY, it's DIT, Do It Together. They were inspirational for me, they walked the walk, not just talked the talk. They raised money for all the homeless children on their streets, fed them, taught them skills, taught them to play instruments so they could busk for money rather than begging, just making things happen. That's what we want to do. Action for a positive future. Even here in scummy old Anarcho Yarco. We deserve it. Nothing's too good for the working classes, we deserve everything anyone else does. And we're doing it together, for each other and ourselves. Mutual aid. Anarchism in action for the benefit of all. Do It Together.
So, to conclude my mini novel, fear not, worry not, Colossal Youth is not dead. Like so many things in life, what seems like a disaster is merely a clear out, as we emerge like a butterfly from the cocoon, a phoenix from the ashes. We need each other now, we need your assistance as well. Plans are in action and when we have something to share and the time is right, we will share it with you. In the meantime, we need you to come along to the gig on the 22nd and have a marvellous time. We need your donations for sure, yeah, but we also need your moral support, we need your positivity and we will continue to facilitate these marvellous events and even take it up a level. We already had some plans in the pipeline before all this happened, fledgling plans at the moment, but time will tell. We're not going to let someone who doesn't even live in Norfolk come here, turn CYGY into another convenience store or mobile phone shop or whatever it is, and destroy something that breathes life into this town. Too many people see cheap properties here, buy up, then charge maximum rent, just sucking more money out of an already deprived and poverty stricken town. We will survive and we will thrive. See you in the moshpit, 3 class acts for you Saturday 22nd March, pay what you can afford for entry, BYOB, vegan/veggie chilli for a donation and in solidarity we will continue. Post public, please share with your friends, let's make this one hell of a party. Colossal Youth Forever!
Anarchy Peace and Chips, Steve x
