It was a small club nestled on the banks of the Trent at Trent Bridge, right next to Forest ground. The ground floor was a storage space for the boats and upstairs were a couple of rooms, a bar and a balcony. At one point I spent every Saturday night there, listening to the music if it was a band I liked; sitting on the balcony taking in the view with a bottle of Newcastle Brown if the band were below average. I developed a healthy taste for live music of any sort from those nights...I'd still rather see a band in a small club than any other venue.

The stage was tiny and when the lead singer raised his arm or microphone stand in the air he could quite easily punch a hole through the polystyrene tiles above the stage.....and a lot of them did! And the disco after the band always included Faith Healer by Alex Harvey and always finished with Genesis - Watcher of the Skies....try dancing to that!

There was a healthy rivalry between the Boat, The Union and the Brit clubs as all three were practically next to each other but specialised in different music. The Boat was strictly long hair and denim while the Union was "smart"! In fact you could throw a glass (plastic and empty of course) from the balcony and shout abuse at those listening to that crap disco music in the Union next door! I don't think it hit you though did it Gabbie??!

 I think the first time I went there was 13th July 1974 and it was a band called Gypsy, although I know the others had been going there for a while to see Sassafras. The night Gypsy were on we took all the French exchange students from Toulouse who were staying with us. This was the week before the first Knebworth Festival ever, so we went from Gypsy to Tim Buckley, Alex Harvey, Mahavishnu Orchestra, The Doobie Brothers and the Allman Brothers!

 John Mylett, the drummer is displaying his prowess with some of the rowers exercise equipment in the dressing room on the right. 

They've now got anew website and they are playing live in Merthyr Tydfil on 21st October 2005.

Wheelin and Dealin and Riding High have just been released on CD as a double. Check www.gottdiscs.com for details.

....and pictures of their gig at the Boat April 12th 2003

And on 28th December 1974 it was UFO who were very good - Doctor Doctor etc!

January 11th 1975 - String Driven Thing who I remember were excellent and we saw them a few times. Were they the ones who sang "take me to the circus...I want to see the lion...I want to see the tiger.....I want to see the chimpanzee!!"....or am I just making that up! Then February 15th was the Steve Gibbons Band...maybe it was him who sang about the chimpanzee?

March 29th 1975 - Jack the Lad whose gigs used to culminate in the entire audience doing a jig in a conga line around the club....out on the balcony and back, up on the stage! April 19th - Hustler with that great song "out out get outa my house, you'd better take your trenchcoat too...no daughter of mine's going out with an hippy or a scruffy little bleeder like you!" We were those scruffy little bleeders with trenchcoats!

And when the small mod revival came in the late seventies the Britt became a mod club. We were attacked coming out of the Boat for being long haired rockers by a group of mods from Leicester who hit us once and then went off singing "we are the mods, we are the mods" . It's a good job we didn't run as the only place to run to was the River Trent! And spookily I was chased in a park in Tamworth exactly a week later, while on the way to a David Bowie concert,  for being a punk! I wish these people would make up their minds what I am!