Thetownend.com

I suppose most people will be aware of this. The Wilts & Berks Canal Trust are planning to restore the old North Wilts Canal so that it'll join the Thames and the Kennett & Avon Canal.

It's estimated to cost around £50 million to complete the work and would involve digging up roads from the bottom of Kings Hill, down Westcott Place and Faringdon Road and up through Canal Walk in the town centre.

At the moment I'm indifferent about the idea. If it's done it could be a good thing for Swindon and become a real 'feature' of the town but on the other hand it could become dirty, smelly and horrible and be a complete waste of money.

if you could fish it then i'm all for it

I like the idea, let's give Swindon a bit of character, maybe they could route the canal through the old mechanics institute, kill two birds and all that.

Seriously though, although the money could be better spent elsewhere I do kind of hope this idea is seriously looked into.

I think it's a great idea. In a Lord Bath kind of way.

It just doesn't look right to me, its mad:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/content/images/2006/03/10/swindon_canal_b_203_203x152.jpg

Think of the amount of people that will drown coming back from Town. It will cause traffic chaos to an already dire situation. It would cut off several of the main arteries to get into the Town Centre and there is no where to re-route the traffic although an arguement can be made to send it down the back of Faringdon Park instead of the front. If a canncel is done, The canal if done should go where it used to down the back of the Graps hotel / Greyhound  etc....

I dont want to see pizza boxes, kebab packets, burger wrappers, shopping trolleys discarded in there every day. It wont be cleaned if the rubbish collection is anyhting to go by. Money on a monorail (which has been suggested before) or public transport link would be better used IMO.

Stop being a wanker Gazz, I can't wait to moor my canal barge outside Big Fish at 1 o clock on a sunday morning.

I like the idea, but can see it being mistreated and fuck me think of the traffic problems when it's being built.

From what I've seen of the New Swindon company, things are looking up for the town really. Let's just demolish Walcot and the parks to build a huge football stadium with loads of facilities and we'll be sorted.

I wonder how they will fill it up?

Will it fill naturaly through rain water?

The bit up by Rushy Platt has loads of Carp and big old Gold Fish in it but during the Summer it gets covered in Green Algae  which a few volunteers scrape out by hand in a little row boat.The bit further up is a private fishery I think it costs £15 for a day pass up there.It would be cool to sit in the Falcon garden witrh a Fishing rod though 8)

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

On another note, the new swindon company has knocked down quite a few things, when are they actually going to start building?

It's a nice idea in terms of character and making the place more picturesque. However £50m is too much money right now for a town with pretty shit amenities. If those are sorted before a canal then good, if not it's a waste of money.

I'm also a bit meh about it on a personal level though.

The canal is the worst ideal I can imagion, how will rodbourne west swindon and most of that side get to town.  How many people will like a kid to be drown, who will pay teh upkeep

Sort out poverty drugs, policing and our shit hole town centre with 50 million

Bluh has fucked up which is a shame as he is a top guy pre this (imo)

Another thing it does is divide Swindon even more so. There  is a divide from north and south almost due to the railway with limited crossings which need to be address IMO.

is there? news to me

wouldn't suprise me though, those dirty south swindoners

I think it was in about 1913 that SBC had a big plan to buy up the old canal and develop it into a leisure amenity for the town.  Unfortunately the villainous Hun had other ideas, and by the time hostilities had ceased and ecomomic recession ravaged the 20's, the idea was not feasible.

  Shame....but there you are.   As a nipper I was brought up living alongside a wet stretch along Shrivenham Road.....many a happy hour tadpoling,  watching water vole and hunting for bird's nests.

  I can recall the canal before Fleming Way was there....it was dry and a complete mess, but more fun to walk into town, than it is now.   SBC in their notorious stupidity, chopped down the last remaining hawthorn trees that used to line the route, about 2 years ago, to stick up those really needed traffic lights above the road, by the old York Road bridge....cunts.

West side iz de best!

http://movieline.standard8media.com/features/images/ali_g_2.jpg

 Fuck off norvern cunt.....

and schooling.

when i saw it in t'adver my first thought was of a drunken reg stumbling home through town on his well-trodden paths, pure instinct and motor function guiding him home...

...only to end up drowning in the canal which has sprung up out of the middle of nowhere.

for that reason i'm against it

"No to canal - save Reg!"

How are they proposing funding it?

  Its kind of you to have such concerns for my welfare SY, but  inanimate objects are not the thing to bother over muchly about, on drunken stumbles.

  Having said that I'm just off out, and will now probably fall down a set of road works.

   I did worry about fB, when Thames Water dug a fucking great hole along Wood Street, right in front of Los Gatos.

  Its kind of you to have such concerns for my welfare SY, but  inanimate objects are not the thing to bother over muchly about, on drunken stumbles.

  Having said that I'm just off out, and will now probably fall down a set of road works.

   I did worry about fB, when Thames Water dug a fucking great hole along Wood Street, right in front of Los Gatos.

How about spending that money on a decent music venue or two. We could do with a carling academy.

let carling build their own academy :x


I want Pub side fishing!!

you've got oxford and bristol within easily reachable distance

Reg only goes out in the south side - like all the cool kids  8)

You do realise you can't just go and build a Carling Academy right?  :)

there is a canal in newbury and i can't say drowning is a major problem....do people in swindon not know how to swim?

Yes i know, but still we need a decent music venue. Would bring alot to the town.

but you've got two decent music venues not very far away :?

Trains from Bristol are shit late at night.

but you've still got two decent music venues nearby.

But trains from Bristol are still shit late at night. Perhaps they could route the canal so we could go by boat

therre you go problem solved.

we should be running this town

Most Cities and Towns have rivers and canals running through them, I don't hear about a lot of people falling in and drowning all the time so I can't see it would be a big issue.

I'd love to have a canal in swindon but it seems like something that should have been there all the time, not the kind of thing you can just re-introduce without completely srewing up loads of other town planning.

I think it's an ace idea. If everybody always found better things to spend money on then we'd have nothing to do but less starving African children. I say put the Canal Back.

wank idea-absolute waste of money

 It is rare to venture north oif the track.   I was talking to a fella in the pub last night, who I haven't seen for a while and he was explaining that in the last year he and a couple of mates had been on a mission to visit every pub in Swindon.    Not clubs but pubs.  He reckoned there were 93, this included a place in Manchester Road....which I hadn't heard of, and frankly disputed its legitamacy, consisting of the front bit of a house occupied by two old crones a nd a bunch of Somalis.

 They give each pub some sort of rating...only visit on a Friday night, for fair comparison.

 They're doing pubs within a 7 mile radius of Swindon foir this year.

Well 12Bar is decent enough. If people want a live music venue then they will have to get off their arse and go to some local gigs otherwise it will never happen. You have to show that you are interested in live music. Sadly not many people in Swindon are.

well said iffy's onion bhaji, an informed view there.

AMG have never, ever, built their own "carling academy" music venue or even started one from scratch. every single one has been as a result of AMG taking over an existing, successful venue, re-furbishing it, and then re-launching.

swindon's music scene is served pefectly by the venues it has already.

I think it's an ace idea, and thats nothing to do with the fact that my house (that i own) would back right on to it!  8)

Money, Money, Money, in a rich man's (me) world!!

First time for everything i guess  :soapy tit wank:  :D

Does that make me a dirty fucking northerner, cos I live in Haydon Wick?!

Yes.

no, it means we live in the best part of swindon  8)

I beg to differ on that part, loads of people go to gigs outside of Swindon to various venues be it in Bristol or London.

If there was a decent venue here then decent bands would turn up and im pretty sure the people of Swindon would aswell.

I went to 12Bar last Sat night, it was alright but I wouldn't really call it a "venue".

There are decent bands in Swindon that's my point. If people in Swindon really want a Carling what do you call it then they need to support the local music scene. Just because people like my band and others never get radio play or a record deal no one is ever interested. It's about time people in Swindon starting appreciating how good the music scene is here and coming to gigs very often. Otherwise everyone's beloved Academy will never happen.

I completely disagree with that. The vast majority of local bands are shite. A decent venue would attract better (more popular anyway) bands to Swindon.

Anyways, if anyone wants to come see some live music my new band are playing at the furnace tonight! ;-)

A fair point John. I'm not denying that a good venue would be great for Swindon. Anyway isn't this thread about a canal or something?  :mrgreen:

which is ace, like i said! Add about 50k to the value of my house. Maybe i'll invest it in a venue  :D

Ooh i didnt know you would be playing!? Any idea what time your set is? I'll try to get there earlier!

:goodpost: It's alright people saying that there are venues in bristol, london, reading etc but we need one decent one here that'll attract some big bands/singers. I went to see The Hoosiers at 12bar couple of months ago and although i do like 12bar it's not big enough.

You have to remember that both London and Bristol are bigger than Swindon. Even with a half decent sized venue I still think we'd struggle to attract a lot of bands without a university.

I think what Iffy was saying is that there isn't a market for a decent music venue. I suppose more people do go when some bigger artists play at the Oasis, but these are not usually the sort of bands I would go and see.

Miss Angry, doors are at 20:00hrs, i think we're on first or second so either 20:30 or 21:00ish?

be good to see you there! x

until it floods

I'm not local and I only ever go to Swindon for footy and occassionally golf, or a night out so I dont really have an opinion per se, but it sounds like a bit of pie in the sky idea to me.

i'll be selling and moving to old town as soon as it is completed  8)

i don't want to live next to a fucking canal.

No it's not. Swindon has barely any venues, most places of a similar size have about 10. Cardiff had the CIA, Barfly, Clwb Ifor Bach, Toucan, Moloko, Uwic SU, Solus, Cardiff Great Hall, the Millennium Stadium, The Point, Metros and the Coal Exchange which were all better than anything in Swindon.

Cardiff is about 60% bigger and has a university, which boosts the population of the age groups such things are aimed for.

Swindon could probably do with a couple more but it couldn't sustain 10.

That is true but it is still ridiculous how big a difference there is, Swindon definitely needs one major venue and then a couple of smaller decent ones in addition to what there is now.

doesn't the oasis count as a major venue?

Character and picturesque are something that will never be associated with Swindon.

The oasis has done quite well recentley, pulling in some relatively big names. If we had one big central music venue theirs really no reason why it wouldn't work

mmmmmmmmmmmm double posts  8)

swindon is crying out for a decent concert venue-theatre.something like what bournemouth have i reckon.the oasis is shit and so is the wyvern.

 the canal idea is nice but would cost to much,take ages to create,cause traffic chaos, would have piss heads drowning in it,rubbish lobbed in it etc.
that said, maybe it could work?other towns with canals are quite nice

a town needs to grow around a canal though, not just have a canal plonked slap bang in the middle of it.

no, think of the accoustics in a gym hall.

But there was a canal there. It just got taken away.

but now theres roads and stuff where the canal used to be. it would just ruin the infrastructure of the town, unless everyone went everywhere by boat

I can't really say on the canal as lived away for so long i don't know what impact it would have on traffic etc.

It sounds a nice idea if it could bring some revenue to the town; and if looked after properly then i can't see it being a problem; it's just the effect building it would have on traffic etc.

In Bedford we have the river Ouse going through; and also an Embankment.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b323/swindon12345/bedouse1.jpg

It definately adds to the town; we have a river festival every 2 years which attracts about 250,000 people.

There is a definately a divide on house prices depending which side of the river you live on though. I live on the pricier side; i could get a house the other side for about £20/£30k cheaper.

they are starting one from scratch in brighton later this year.

i thought the hippodrome was previously a music venue?

years ago ( and i mean 1989) i put on some gigs in swindon.

firstly put on a band at link centre, called the chesterfields and sold that out, secondly put on a band called House of love at regents college and that sold out.
finally put on a band called Ocean Colour Scene and brunel at there was 50 people there.

The reason there are no major live venues is because swindon could not support it. simple as that. Swindon doesnt have an indie scene, which is what the majority of bands would be. there are no established indie clubs in swindon and there wont be because the town hasnt got enough indie kids to support a regular club night which would make a scene thrive.
Swindon needs a university before any major live music venue would be taken on. it needs a indie club where people can go and become part of a scene and meet like minded people. The indie scene in brighton has produced loads of bands who met at my clubs through socialising, eighties matchbox, brakes, pippettes, kooks,bats for lashes, british sea power, foals have all been regulars of my clubs for years.

In regards to there being loads of goodbands in swindon, well i beg to differ, i have seen/recieved demos of numerous bands from swindon and they were all shit with the exception of one (and they have just signed to sony). these bands were little more than covers bands and were unoriginal and almost school like. if there was a regular place for people to go im sure these bands would get better.



get a uni, get some decent restaurants, build a canal, build some cafes and bars along it, make swindon attractive and venues will come.

I agree about the demand side of things Mex. Seen some good bands in Swindon, although not all from Swindon. That said I wouldn't go and buy their records if they did release any.

Swindon is a boring shithole.

One of the reasons a lot of people are so disparaging about Swindon is it has so little in the way of features to distinguish it...at first sight, at any rate.  The town centre is a complete shit hole, and hasn't moved on since the early 1980s when I first knew the place.  I think the canal idea recognises this and is seeking to put something tangible in the centre that tourism and business chiefs will be able to point to and use as a catalyst for further change.

Will it work?  No idea.  I don't know enough about Swindon these days, but if it is going to work it will need to be accompanied by some serious infrastructure development - and I'm not sure the local council has the appetite for that.

The canal passing through the new(ish) Oracle development in Reading works well and certainly adds something, but you can only go ahead with a scheme like that if other infrastructure is in place.  In Reading's case, the Oracle, the Madejski and the new dual carriageway linking J11 to the town centre all went in at around the same time.  And there are no such schemes that I'm aware of in Swindon that would make this possible.

if swindon had a large venue attracting top acts, it wouldn't matter what the local music scene is like.
people would travel here to see big acts.the fact that the oasis sells out nearly every gig is enough proof imo.
a bigger venue would get even bigger acts i reckon.

From where?
Bristol? No, they will see people there
London? No, they will see people there
Reading? No, they will go to London
Oxford?  :|

Good post Mex. There is no market for live music here which is kind of the point i was getting at.

What band was the Sony one by the way?

how do you know people wont travel from those places?people travel to go to the oasis gigs from different places.people travel to gigs all over the place, from all over the place.
 there are more towns and villages then those you've mentioned.
cirencester,bath,chippenham,didcot,sailsbury etc etc etc.
if the venue is good enough, it would almost guarantee bigger acts than we currently get here.the town is growing all the time but have shit faciltys.

Think it was Maths Class Rich. Had a no.1 in the indie charts recently.

They're from Brighton though  :wink:

mex said what I said and I said it first but mex is ace.

One of the reasons In left the area was to try and re-start up aband of mine there is little chance of a band in Swindonof doing anything or getting any recognition outside of the town itself unless you gig away from home, well in my opinion anyway.

I agree that you'd struggle to get a band out of swindon, but that's for the same reason there isn't need for big venues and shit.

You get bands where there are universities and they have venues to support them.

Well since moving we already have 3 potential gigs lined up just acoustic sets but better than nothing, in a local called the Halfmoon just a normal pub but they have a great little venue within it and attract some half decent bands there. Isn't anywhere really like that in Swindon people will say the Vic or 12Bar, but it's just not the same i've heard bands who have played there and have been told not to play their own material jsut about somes the situation up in my opinion.

the 12bar and the vic are the best swindon have as far as live music, be it local or not. They do there best and the owners are pretty sound when I've chatted to them.

Swindon needs a bigger 12bar.

You're probobly right I went to see Frank Tuner at 12bar and it was a decent enough show. The thing is as a town the nmusical history isn't actaully all that bad I mean although a different era we once upon a time had acts like the Betales and The Stones playing here. If other towns like Reading and MK can do it I don't see why not I eman I've seeing Oasis in K and Ian Brown in Reading one being a huge act the otehr bveing a fairly well reconised artist. So we ahould eb able to do it. Myself I have always though Lydiard park to be a massively under used area for gigs, I remember party in the parks that we used to have years ago and have always thought it could be a great place for gigs. A smaller scale knebworth if you like.

Swindon might have been a good venue once. Now it's a town of subburbs. Who the fuck would want to play here, especially when you've got Oxford close, Brizzle to the west and Reading to the East?

All I'm saying is that places liek Milton Keynes are pretty much the stature as here and it's a shame we don't do more. oh well

yeah top bands and artists are really bothered where they play. :-))(
as long as the money rolls in they dont give a fuck.

The Kings of Leon used to love playing here just a shame that they have never had a bigger venue than the Oasis to play at.

As for people saying there is no such venue due to lack of demand and band culture in Swindon isn't it up to the Town to try and create one, By putting on more bands and building bigger and better venues. In my opinion the very reason why the town seems to be full of wrist slashing emo's and hip hop loving morons is for that very reason lack of venues lack of ambition form the Swindon authorities etc.

I'm saying that the up and coming indie bands; and the classic touring ones; would be more likely to play in Swindon if there was a uni.

When I was at Exeter there was only the uni hall, but we still got the likes of Mr Scruff, Ocean Colour Scene, Athlete, The Doves, etc.

Infact they had an ace little underground cavern rip off, which radiohead and snow patrol had played before they'd got famous.


Swindon needs a University before it can attract bands.

maybe up and coming bands ben.but established top acts it doesn't.

If Oasis can play Milton Keynes which in all honesty is a shithole given the right money I'm sure they'd play here, but the problem is we have knowere fucking big enough to hold a band of that stature thats whats holding us back in my opinion. After all they owe us a dect for the name n' all

thats why we need a bigger and better venue here noel

Maybe, but Swindon is going to struggle to get established acts with Bristol, Oxford and Reading so close.

We could build a venue with the hope that they'll turn up.  (Build it and they will come)

But I doubt it. You have to build up a venue. and the best way of doing that is having decent local bands. and no offense to rich and thorne. but a university is the best way of doing it.

Yep and I agree.

Now I don't know if this is true but I have a freind who works for the Oasis leisure centre and he reckons that because of it's history with him Noel Gallagher was thinking of taking his acoustic set here last year. He apparantly had the managemetn at Oasis come and have a look around and it was decided it was not large enough. I'm sure his would have happend before but with me taking an interest in Oasis this is the one I know of.

I spent my student days in Exeter, they had a half decent student hall. But a lot of the bands went  Bristol -> Plymouth.

I might be judging Swindon on saying the same thing would happen, but I don't think we've got anything to offer for the bigger bands than we have already. Past Razor Light and Kings of Leon playing the Oasis what do you really expect?

We could do with more up and coming bands, and that's why we need more places like the 12bar and the vic. They do pretty well at getting some decent bands in.

I'm not really sure where I'm going with this, apart from maybe the Furnace sorting itself out as a venue, and people supporting other smaller venues. How many of you chill out to some live music at the Beehive every Sunday? Or when the Summer hits and they do live music at the bowl?

The town garden's Bowl is a fucking venue and a half. It's stupidly good.

ben, in newspapers all the time there are concert tours,comedians,other acts listed.these are in towns smaller or on a par with us.
i'm sure with the right venue created we'd be on that list too.
people need to forget the uni scene,up and coming bands etc as its a different issue imo.
but take the oasis as a marker.it sells out with fairly decent acts regularly.with a better venue maybe swindon could step up with the acts on show?

My basic point is that Swindon could sustain a few average sized venues if it had a University. Without it I don't think it can.

I lived in Putney until 18 months ago - but never lived out my fantasy of bumping in to Sam Parkin on a night out.  (I think he still lives in the area.  Barnes?)

The Half Moon is a fantastic venue.  Happy days.

No, it's a leisure centre and they seem to have about one gig a year. The only one I can find coming up is the Sugababes. Most big venues have stuff on most days and a big gig most weeks. Oxford's carling academy has British Sea Power, Simian Mobile Disco, Nine Black Alps, I was a Cub Scout, NME Awards Tour, Dropkick Murphy, MxPx, Justice, Hot Chip, Task Force, DJ Hype, the Audio Bullys, the Kooks, Reel Big Fish and The Go Team as well as several others just up to the start of March and although there are more students the city is a lot smaller than Swindon.

Oi im from those areas , if your going to stereotype me then i might aswell stab yopu when i see you

Hey dude i'll have to check your stuff out. What is your band called? Good to see you got it going mate  8)

Well I've reformed with my ex guitarist Jay as he's living in Laandon now as well, just writing material and doing acoustic stuff at the moment untill we persuade the other lads to come back or get some other lads in, then hopefully get a myspace profile up. we used to be called Polaris probobly stick to that name I expect.

The Council are currently taking responses about the Transport policy, canal, etc., so if you think it's a crap idea, you can have a say.

Deadline, next Monday, 25th.

www.swindon.gov.uk/transportvision

I don't get to say if I think it's a good idea?

Yesterday was a classic example of a water feature running through the middle of a big town/city being a right pain the arse.