9/5/2008 Honeykill @ Mex Civic

Subject	Honeykill @ Mex Civic
PostedDate	5/9/2008
	This is my first visit to Mex Civic - a venue that is little known outside the Yorkshire town of Mexborough, but that has been gaining quite a reputation amongst bands on the club touring circuit. Every band I know who have played here seem to love the place - in fact someone recently called it "The best venue in the UK" so I've been looking forward to checking the place out. The town of Mexborough is near Doncaster and seems quite run down. I get the impression Mex Civic is the only place in town for the local kids to go, so on Friday and Saturday nights that's where they all head. The venue itself looks like it's been in the wars a bit and has taken a bit of a battering from the locals.  However, what makes this place stand out is that it's larger than most club venues - and also that it's really well set up as a live music venue. In this respect alone, Mex Civic puts many of London's well known club venues to shame! There is a large stage well equipped with monitors - and a large dressing room with sofas, microwave, and a big fridge full of beer and bottled water for the bands.  This venue has a great reputation for really looking after the bands who play there - not treating the bands as a mere inconvenience to be tolerated as is often the the case in London.  It's better for the punters than most London clubs too - with a good layout and a much better stocked bar -  London venues take note!  It's easy to see why bands keep wanting to come back here. The crowd is different than you'll find in London too. Most gigs in London have a crowd who are basically similar to the bands who are playing that venue on that particular night - so they will be mainly metal, glam, punk, sleaze, stoner, or whatever. Not so at Mex Civic - you'll get all the above and more, all mixing at the same venue on the same night - even the chavs! This is probably because it's the only place to go in town. Something else I noticed - in London most clubs and pubs have an outside smoking area. You'll always find a few people outside having a fag - here there are loads more people outside having a fag than you'll find in London, and they are also much younger. I think smoking is probably more of a kids thing in the north - down south the older people have mostly packed in smoking. The crowd at this venue are pretty young overall compared to London - maybe in a town like Mexborough people get jobs and move away as soon as they can so only the under 20's remain to patronise the local music scene? Anyway, onto the reason I am in Yorkshire on a Friday night. My good friends Honeykill have been kind enough to bring me up from London in the van with them for this gig. Also along for the trip are the Bunnykill  merch girls Beth and Cianne - who find some novel ways of publicising the band to unsuspecting (and surprised!) travellers on the motorway as we head northwards...  It's Honeykill's second time playing at Mex Civic - this time they are headlining. The first act is an acoustic one - seemingly an odd choice for what is mostly a 'rock' crowd. It's a local lad called Sam Sherdel playing on his own with acoustic guitar and electric piano. He plays mainly well known indie covers with the odd one of his own thrown in - he's not bad at all. The next act is a band called Goodbye Good. They are fairly indie in style with bass, drums, and acoustic guitar/vox. They are also local(ish) and are quite well recieved by the crowd. Good bass player, but they seem young and lacking in experience. Unfortunately, Honeykill didn't arrive in time for a soundcheck - and they pay the price. The band perform well but the sound mix is poor.  Alfie the drummer can't hear anything in his monitors, and out front the bass and guitars are hardly audible. The band soon have a few people dancing though, and there is a new 'Superfan' of the band who is getting well into it! He screams out "I love you!" at Alex - I don't think the girl with him is that impressed, but he's having a great time! It's brilliant when you get people like this at gigs - they can really help make the night, and they certainly inspire the band to greater heights. Honeykill have evolved a great deal since I first saw them, and the most recent couple of changes to the band have made a big difference - firstly the addition of Alfie the 'Italian Keith Moon' on drums, and for the last few gigs the addition of ex-Suffrajets frontgal Alex. The energy level of the band has gone up not one, but two gears recently. Alex has also brought catchy new songs to the band in addition to Jimi's existing reportoire of hook laden alt/pop tunes - it's all good.  Unfortunately, the band are missing usual live keyboard player Paivi tonight as she couldn't make it due to work commitments - so we get more of a guitar led 'in your face' punk attitude - mainly from Alex who totally throws herself into her performance - ending up in the crowd at the front of the stage at one point and leaving her guitar on the front of the stage to vanish off to the side and reappear a minute later onstage with another guitar - since Alex joined the band Honeykill shows have become far more unpredictable! Bassist Tish is also adding more backing vocals to the band to fill things out even more, although they are getting lost in the mix tonight. After about 40 minutes it's all over - too soon as usual! Load out, then a visit to the bar as the previously full fridge in the dressing room has been drunk dry and we pile back into the van and head back to London. There are various games and sing-a-longs in the van on the way back - Alex is a great cheerleader! For once there is no puking on the journey home - Mex Civic local heroes Disarm retain their vomit encrusted crown alongside their puke 'Flame job' streaked van.  Meanwhile, Honeykill arrive back in London having driven to Yorkshire, played a gig, got pissed (apart from Jimi who was driving) and driven back to London all in about nine hours - not bad going! A fun way to spend Friday night.

PS: This venue is now closed.