fri 06/12/2024

So farewell to the Foundry | reviews, news & interviews

So farewell to the Foundry

So farewell to the Foundry

Notorious bar founded by music industry mavericks loses fight against gentrification

Raging, but not always pretty, creativity is everywhere in The FoundryEconomy Custard
My abiding memory of The Foundry is being held aloft by my throat by the landlord, Falklands veteran and notorious band manager Alan "Gimpo" Goodrick, as he accused me of stealing a Shirley Bassey album. I had been DJing for a book reading by Mark "Zodiac Mindwarp" Manning, and there was a lot of absinthe being drunk thanks to some fellow from The Idler. I knew at that point I shouldn't have begun the evening by playing the line "there may be trouble ahead" from Bassey's version of "Let's Face the Music and Dance" over and over on a loop. It's a dreadful cliché to say knowingly of a bar "it was that kind of place", but really, it was that kind of place.
My abiding memory of The Foundry is being held aloft by my throat by the landlord, Falklands veteran and notorious band manager Alan "Gimpo" Goodrick, as he accused me of stealing a Shirley Bassey album. I had been DJing for a book reading by Mark "Zodiac Mindwarp" Manning, and there was a lot of absinthe being drunk thanks to some fellow from The Idler. I knew at that point I shouldn't have begun the evening by playing the line "there may be trouble ahead" from Bassey's version of "Let's Face the Music and Dance" over and over on a loop. It's a dreadful cliché to say knowingly of a bar "it was that kind of place", but really, it was that kind of place.

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I remember going there when it opened. We had to sit on black boxes, the ceiling dripped and it smelt damp. We said: "This place will never catch on!"

I wuz there that night, joe. Don't remember much, though. Absinthe.

God, poor Shoreditch... Sad times.

'Appalling YBA chancer Gavin Turk' - that is beautiful, man! I mean you, not the appalling Turk.

Found this rather moving Joe. Can't believe it is going to be replaced by yet another soulless corporate building. My top 3 Foundry moments 1-Hearing Rothko perform for the first time in 2006 downstairs in the vaults. 2-Gagarin Ard Nev set (can't remember what year this was) upstairs to a noisey crowd-lots of whom stopped talking to listen/ nod to great live version of 'Merkage'. 3-NOW's wonderful extended version of Twinkle, Twinkle Killer Kane at October 09 Flying Cabaret, with audience participation. I have also had the great pleasure of performing there!

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