Pubs and Bars / Bristol
Bar of the Week: Zed Alley
Fed up of being treated badly in other venues, a Bristol band have decided to open their own.
The four members of party band Hooper have done most of the work themselves (it helps that some of them are plasterers) to transform a vaulted Victorian warehouse complete with original flagstone floor into Zed Alley.
The basement of Bristol County Sports Club on Colston Street has seen a variety of uses over the centuries but will now host free live music several nights a week, as well as open mics and student evenings.
Soon before 8pm on Friday, members of JJ Gatsby were setting up their instruments before soundcheck.
Spread around the room, early arrivals were enjoying a drink. All beer and cider on draught – currently Kronenbourg, Thatcher’s Haze and Hobgoblin – cost £3.50, with cans costing £3.
Hooper drummer Bob Morris used to play in The Brilliant Corners, a Bristol band of the 80s and early 90s who hit it particularly big in Japan.
At the bar of Zed Alley, co-owner Boo, who also played briefly in The Brilliant Corners, explains how he wants to make this new bar an underground, secret student music club, that will be able to host some young touring bands.
“It’s going to be whatever people want it to be,” Boo says. “We want to see it from the other side of the stage, see what other bands are up to.”
Zed Alley, Host Street, Bristol
07923 827352
www.facebook.com/zedalleybristol
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