Farewell bonnie lass

[wafflycat]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/7525414.stm

'The Boat' is to be no more.

I can remember when The Boat first opened - it was my regular weekend haunt back in my young, free & single days on Tyneside. The three nightclubs to be seen at were Madison's, Tuxedo Junction and Tuxedo Princess (The Boat).

I see that in 2005 The Boat almost lost its licence due to violence. Must have gone downhill a lot. In my day *insert ancient fogie voice* I can't ever remember trouble at The Boat. There was a strict entry code: smart dress, no denim, if a bloke had tattoos they had to be kept covered up.. security everywhere. It was a safe venue. It was great too as you got all sorts of ages going there for a night out, from 20s to 60+ and everyone mixed in. It had a great atmosphere, great dance floors, lovely little cocktail bar complete with guy in corner playing jazz on a grand piano, acoustic guitarist in the restaurant... glass house disco on the top deck...

ah... those were the days..

 

[Fnaar]

I was impressed by "The Boat" when i first came up here to live... till I realised it was a nightclub... thought it was a proper boat for ferrying and stuff... never been on it I'm afraid, but it has to be more interesting than an office complex... booo! Keep the boat!

 

[wafflycat]

I was impressed by "The Boat" when i first came up here to live... till I realised it was a nightclub... thought it was a proper boat for ferrying and stuff... never been on it I'm afraid, but it has to be more interesting than an office complex... booo! Keep the boat!

It was a proper boat! It was formerly The Caledonian Princess and was a real ferry

 

[Fnaar]

It was a proper boat! It was formerly The Caledonian Princess and was a real ferry

Yebbut, it was a nightclub by the time I got here....

 

[wafflycat]

I was there when it first opened as a nightclub

 

[4F]

http://www.sealink-holyhead.com/ships/Caledonian_Princess/caledonian_exile.htm

 

[Flying_Monkey]

It's not the same boat anyway... it's certainly a slice of Tyneside history, but it's always been a horrible place, unless you were either a 50-something woman looking to take the cherry off a desperate drunk 17 year old boy or vice-versa...

 

[wafflycat]

Au contraire, FM, when the place first opened it was great fun.

 

[fossyant]

Went there on a stag weekend - pretty 'orrible - the revolving dance floor is in the 'harder core dance area'.. blooming hot inside - the walls sweat with condensation..... we spent a fair amount of time outside it was that hot...

Good weekend though - found some other club somewhere - all I remember it was a long way from the main bars - the groom was rather plastered. One of the group did end up in hospital after - you should have seen the booze he put away - we did tell him...... big fella, but the amount he consumed hit him bad on the sunday - there was me having a glass of wine in the hotel on sunday afternoon, and he was half dead...... anyway - the guy was seriously warned at hospital that doing this again would kill him - pancreatitus was what got him nasty !

 

[gavintc]

My son is at uni in Newcastle. He tells me that the boat is a real dive and in his opinion - good riddance.

 

[wafflycat]

certainly things seem to have changed from its heyday when it first opened

 

[asterix]

Thought you meant this bonny lass..

Those were the days..

 

[PatrickPending]

I got dragged along on a few student nights, The riverside was more my haunt though I do remember the slight tilt to the dancefloor. Quite disconcerting.

 

[Keith Oates]

I've been on a few ships that have been 'retired' and used for various other things. The last one was the Oriana, which was moored up in Shanghai and used as bars and restaurants etc. and it was looking terrible. Beautiful ships should be scrapped and not have to endure such indignities!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!