Huge event celebrating the 1990s coming to Chesterfield

However, next month, there will be a nostalgic reminder of one of Chesterfield's most buoyant periods: the 1990s.

During that decade, Chesterfield enjoyed national attention as its football team experienced one of the most remarkable cup runs in recent history. The nightlife was also thriving, and this will be celebrated with a big '90s Reunion event at the town's Real Time Live venue on Friday, June 2nd.

One of the venues to be honored during the reunion is the Queens Park Hotel. It was a celebrated epi-centre of live music, karaoke, and all-around after-dark mayhem. Throughout the decade, this age-old hostelry held a late-night stranglehold over much of the alternative scene. Every Friday and Saturday night, hundreds of people would converge on the sprawling, two-story venue. Upstairs, live bands performed, while downstairs, people enjoyed drinks and karaoke. The venue seemed to have rooms everywhere, with dark corridors, slippery stairs, and a food hatch that became increasingly tempting as the night wore on.

Bands lined up to play at the Queens Park Hotel, and unlike many venues, they were almost guaranteed a full house for their performances. The Queen's Park Hotel was managed by no-nonsense landlord Derek Boyd and his wife. Sometimes, smoke and mirrors were required to secure a spot on the pub's roster. Johnny Loco of Etiquette recalls, "I rang up and pretended to be from the NME. I asked if our band was due to play as the NME wanted to review them. The next minute, I had Derek on the other line begging us to perform. It was strange – he had turned us down two days earlier!"

The Queen's Park Hotel was the first venue in Chesterfield to be granted a late license for live music, but it was also the first to forfeit it due to the unstoppable march of progress. In this case, it was bulldozed and turned into a retail space.However, Derek Boyd was determined to go out with a bang. He said at the time, "If they are going to bulldoze it, we might as well blow the roof off it first. It'll be the last party, the last gig, and we want musicians to be here for it." Derek's favorite bands included local stars like Smoke, Lord Skamen, Please Y'Self, and Idle Hands Blues Band. "You could always tell when there was a good band playing upstairs because the chandeliers and lights started bouncing in the bar below," added Derek.

Don't miss out on Chesterfield's '90s Reunion, which will take place at Real Time Live on Marsden Street on Friday, June 2nd.

The event kicks off at 8 pm, and tickets are available for just £10 (excluding booking fees) through the website: https://www.gigantic.com/the-90-s-reunion-tickets/chesterfield-real-time-live/2023-06-02-20-00.

*Content supplied by Neil Anderson.