Mc Gonagles

Ruthie-Roux

Hi,

I`ve heard a lot about Mc Gonagles (never got there before it shut) and was wondering can anyone tell me:

WHERE exactly was it? When did it close down and what was it like?


Im just curious.

Ruthie-Roux

damonjewel

It was on Anne strret south, in the middle of the street on your right as you walked out of Grafton Street. Closed around the early-mid Nineties I think. I didn't think much of the place personally, but it did have a lot of good bands and was one of the first places to have acid house music in the late eighties.

BoB the 7th

Roffles wot a dump. I was too young for it initially. As it sold Alcohol. When i became a MAN. I went back and damn wot a **** hole. I think they closed it for health reasons. Do u remember the Top Hat Dun Laoire? That was also a dump. But was grt for all the big bands. Those were grt times. I got to 2nd base @ the Slayer gig...;)

buck65

saw Morbid Angel there in 91, Class gig , caught David Vincents sweaty armband at the end of the gig and had to run for my life as was being chased by a few dublin skanks for it.
Great place for a gig forget who supported them , maybe At the Gates?

peter1892

I always tell this story when McGonangles is mentioned

I saw Saxon there in 1991, there were 52 people at it!

The drummer threw his sticks out at the end...and missed the 'crowd'

Actually I remember goign to a couple of Xentrix gigs there around the same time, great fun! It was a dump, but good fun...

Hellrazer

My memories of Mcgons are the "early thrash bash" and the "late thrash bash"
Up to Merrion square with yer 2 litre and get chased by the parkie.

Saw Ozzy there for 2 nights way back.And DRI.
Was a right dump but the moshs were great.

Jesus Im feeling old now--Was nearly 17 years ago when I started going.

steveone

the heavy metal disco on a friday night..that was class..
mcgons was good enuf...stagediving.. nackerdrinking beforehand..you did what you wanted..
played there on a sunday once.. stood in for a mate in a hardcore band..
what was the name of the Dublin band that played there regularly towards the end.. moral crusade?

Ishindar

i saw ozzy play there & def leopard, one of vivian campbells 1st gigs

they only sold wine there, really nasty vinagery stuff
it was a smelly place

Mental Mickey

buck65 wrote: »

saw Morbid Angel there in 91, Class gig , caught David Vincents sweaty armband at the end of the gig and had to run for my life as was being chased by a few dublin skanks for it.
Great place for a gig forget who supported them , maybe At the Gates?

Unleashed supported Morbid Angel in McGonagles in 91. I was there too!!!! I met David Vincent after the gig too. What a t****r!!!! He just signed an autograph for me and f**ked off!!! I also saw Paradise Lost there in November 91. Met them too!!! A real nice bunch of lads. I still have the original drummer's drumstick from the gig.

:-D

dimma02

mcgons on a friday night was great, you left bruxelles and went over for the music, saw onslought, ozzy, amoung others there: and the girls.......:)
was my youth..

Latchy

McGons was were the northsider met the southsiders and was a popular venue for punks,rockers,new wavers .hippys ,biker heads all to be found there tru the 80s ,the sleezy athmophere added to the place ,like a bad cavern club .It was a venue for up and comimg bands to play at in dublin when venues were hard to find .

Ph3n0m

ah mcgonagles....sniff so many memories, so many head wounds because of that cavern styled wall with the pebble-dashing.

So many quality gigs there - Massacre 91 is still one of my favs - launching people onto the crowd, diving...oh god I think I am going to weep here.

Also remember getting mugged for my tshirt on Dawson street too - bastids!

Nevyn

Any chance of having one big mcgonagle mega merge thread ? and maybe making it a stickie ?
Surely this comes up often enough to merit it ?

Alter-Ego

Just curious, whats there now in its place?

Declan A Walsh

Alter-Ego wrote: »

Just curious, whats there now in its place?

McGonagles was replaced by a dance club called "The System" in the late '90s. I'm not sure if it is still there. I don't know if there was any other place in between those two.

Re McGonagles, I went to a few gigs there in the '80s. I remember seeing Something Happens and The Hellfire Club there. If I'm not mistaken, I saw The Fountainhead there as well. I also remember it as the venue that Capitol/Nitesky Radio used for their Alternative Disco every Thursday night. I only got to one - their final one in December 1988. I also remember going to some event called "Club Sandino" which was sort of Latin Rhythms - kind of World Music.

McGonagles was definitely a very cramped and sweaty venue with serious health and safety issues. In a way, it was all part of the experience.

Latchy

Just remembered before it was Mgonagles it was known as ' the crystal ' and was a disco were ' more conservative dressed people ' went .This would have being before the new wave/punk scene when Disco and Grease were what was happening .

Ph3n0m

The place has been torn down and rebuilt - either shops or apartments

Doctor J

Here's a pic from Xentrix's site. This is McGonagles in 1990. I was at this gig, I think I'm behind Macca's left armpit

Latchy

Would this be the same x-entrix band from the northside of dublin ? do they have a website ?

eric the head

mc gonagles was a great venus but it only sold wine which was a pain.
there was also loads of scraps outside. i remeber one between some punks and some touts. needless to say the touts kicked their ass !

Doctor J

latchyco wrote: »

Would this be the same x-entrix band from the northside of dublin ? do they have a website ?

No, this would be the thrash band Xentrix from England who played from the late 80s until the mid 90s. First result on a google search.

Ph3n0m

Doctor J wrote: »

No, this would be the thrash band Xentrix from England who played from the late 80s until the mid 90s. First result on a google search.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IThFt0J6yGw

Degsy

I fondly remember the punk gigs there in the late 80's.Every sunday you'd have three or four bands playing there for 1.50 admission charge.We used to get locked in Stephen's green then head around.I think they put a stop to the punk gigs theer because of the scraps and vandalism,i once saw a fella getting bottled in the throat during a scrap between SHARP skinheads and nazi skinheads.I used to do a fanzine in those days and we'd nearly allways sell the lot outside mcgonagles at gigs and that would give us our drinking money for the night.
the magazine- "gutteral material" also gets a mention in this interview(to my amazement)
http://www.geocities.com/protestzine/paranoidvisions.html