Memento Mori

a live video and a studio recording

I walked past Moles yesterday.

If you’re not from round these parts, Moles is/WAS a club venue in Bath, England - not far from where I grew up. It’s been there for as long as I can remember and long before that too, but no more.

A week or so ago, they released a statement to say that they’d be closing their doors for the final time :

“Today, we are heartbroken to announce that Moles, in its current form, is closing, effective immediately. It’s an incredibly difficult decision for our team, the staff, the local community, and the artists who, over the years, have created such an incredible history of music…

…venues like Moles are also more than just talent incubators; they are also so important to communities. People meet their future partners in them, they make friends for life, they discover their new favourite band and sing their hearts out while forgetting their troubles for a few hours. And sometimes they can just be somewhere they feel safe and not alone. The importance of these venues can never be overstated. We hope that whoever takes the building over will keep it as a live music venue as without it, Bath will have lost so much.” (full statement here)

Growing up in a small town in Wiltshire, Bath was a 30 minute bus ride away and the closest place to go and watch live music. Well, there were places in town where local bands and covers bands would play - but to see touring bands, you’d have to go to Bath or more often, Bristol. Bath used to have other venues, too - The Porter Cellar Bar (now a fancy restaurant), The Porter Butt (now a hi-fi shop), The Green Park Tavern (just… gone). Moles was, as far as I know, the last venue of its kind still standing in Bath and definitely the best known of the lot.

Stooping down to walk through the basement door into Moles without whacking your head on the ceiling, you were greeted by a huge plaque emblazoned with the names of all of the amazing, genuinely legendary bands who’d graced that stage over the years.

The last time I went to Moles was to watch Get The Blessing play a gig for Independent Venue Week that got filmed for some BBC programme about UK jazz. (I still haven’t seen it because Jim wasn’t that pleased with how it came out, I think it’s up on BBC iPlayer…)

But the first time I went to Moles, was to play the first ever Thought Forms gig outside of our hometown of Melksham.

I hadn’t been there before because I was underage and that night, I was worried that I might not be allowed in because I was just two weeks shy of my 18th birthday.

Actually, our O.G drummer Emily (before Guy, there was Emily - but that’s a story for another day) was in the same boat. We were playing at the annual “Student Battle Of The Bands” and I remember the whole way there, we were freaking out that they’d find out we were 17 and tell us to go home. We were so excited to play, our first gig in a real music venue, not just setting up on the sticky swirled red?/brown? carpet of a pub with the chairs and tables pushed out of the way.

Deej had arranged for us to be on the bill, even though he’d already graduated from a university miles away. I’m not really sure how he wangled us into the competition, but I suppose Emily and myself were technically students - just at secondary school and not Bath Spa University where all the other bands were from.

Thought Forms playing Moles Student Battle Of The Bands in 2005...

We were fully instrumental at the time and obviously not very experienced, two gigs in. And I’ve just remembered! This gig was also our first gig as a three-piece. Our first two gigs, we were three guitars and drums and then Anthony who named the band, for better or worse - his legacy to us this name that needs repeating three times especially to Americans (“no, THAAT FORRRMS”) went off to uni and we didn’t ever see him again.

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Before Thought Forms, I’d played live a handful of times -