Aston Villa Leisure Centre

[Martin Carruthers]

My mom used to take us on the & bus to go to the Panini sticker swap shop there in the early to mid 90's.

I did one of them in 1988 I think and got Nigel Spink, Tony Daley and Alan Evans' autographs.

I worked at one of those in the late 90s, they came round our sixth form asking for people to do it. I seemed like decent money at that age but probably wasn't.

[VillaTim]

I saw the Cranberries here in around 1995.

can't remember what she looked like really , mousy brown hair and a big perm i recall only.

[VillaTim]

I saw the B52's there too. Now i'm trying to remember if Voice of the Beehive was the support act. Jesus my memory is gone

[curiousorange]

I saw the Cranberries here in around 1995.

Surely they would have been too big by then. Was Dolores Villa?

As ubiquitous as their hits were and are, they still weren't reaching stellar chart positions in the UK, so as an indie band they were probably only civic hall/theatre sized at the time.

[eamonn]

I went to a rave there when I was 16.

Seems mad that a council-owned community building would allow an all-night rave and the attendant "social issues" to take place! Or maybe they never knew...seems like they got bang for their buck in terms of frequent multi-usage of the place.

It was re-named "Aston Arena" in later years - was there an attempt to modernise the faciities at that time? And was it affiliated to Aston University too?

[VillaTim]

Was thinking we'd often park here on matchdays too. Get there early we were out the front , get there later was out the back opposite the Asda that was on the serpentine site.

[atomicjam]

I saw the Cranberries here in around 1995.

Surely they would have been too big by then. Was Dolores Villa?

They played the Aston Villa Leisure Centre along with other similar sized venues in the UK the first half of 1995- they went to venues such as the NEC by July in 1995. So I caught them just before they went huge.

http://hopelesslydevoted.free.fr/pages/cranberries/tours/no_need_to_argue.htm

[sid1964]

I took my then girlfriend (now my wife of many years) to see Hooty and the Blowfish at the Leisure centre - 1997 or 1998?

i enjoyed the concert having seen them before at Wolves Civic -1996, she was not that impressed!

[Pete3206]

The place was rough around the around the edges but my word, concert nights were loud and the atmosphere was electric. I used to leave the gigs drenched in sweat.