I first visited Maximes In 1996 when attending the gods. I was told about the monthly rock night and organised a bus trip down. After that various of us from Newcastle started coming down once a month (all staying in teh glorious Mabs). Back then it was a refreshing to hear both old and new AOR only. Place had a great vibe like my old Newcastle haunt the Mayfair in that people came from all over and was a good atmosphere. I continued to make regular pilgrimage wih I moved to Birmingham and indeed back to Newcastle again. Once the 2 Mark's left the Geordie contingent shrank as many came purely as AOR enthusiasts wanting that only. Handful of us continued to support it. Part of my decision to move to the Manchester area was based on the rock scene in Wigan. Seems once I moved there was the beginning of it losing appeal. Music became more predictable no new songs by AOR artists, at one point I was sure it was just prerecorded cd of Forever Young, Don't Stop believing, Naughty Naughty etc. A lot of the folk I knew from all over stopped attending around this time and I dragged myself out of habit. the atmosphere also started to change it became more cliquey and the few new people I got down said they didn't enjoy it because people didn't really mingle and mix but only spoke to people they knew.

In my last couple of years even though I lived 2 miles form Maximes I only went a handful of times as the good vibe of people from all over making a pilgrimage had gone and well it was more like classic rock night. Same old tired Cinderella, Whitesnake etc (sure even Iron Maiden was in there a few times) Yes still bands I liked but not my reasoning for making Maximes special. I found I would go, get in at 11 and want to leave at midnight as I was bored silly.
Another thing I disliked was when they brought in the no drinks on the dancefloor routine. I did complain that it wasn't good for girls to leave drinks unattended and was told it was the police insisting on that and that I would have to rely on friends to mind drinks. I really thought that was a backward step for the safety of women especially, you can't rely on people next to you to mind your drink if you wanted to go dance for several songs/get caught up in the loo chatting etc.

It woudl take a lot for me to want to make a 500 mile trip to there now lol.



Passion is the source of our finest moments,
The joy of love, the clarity of hatred and the ecstasy of grief.