The Dial was a venue which, in the late 80s and the early 90s, hosted gigs by many top bands, including My Bloody Valentine, Primal Scream, The Field Mice, The Sea Urchins, The Orchids and loads of others. Artel, the owner, always took chances. He made The Dial the coolest place in Derby and managed to draw people in from much bigger neighbours like Nottingham, Leicester, Birmingham etc. I worked
at The Dial and remember having many great nights there, usually before going on to the Blue Note. I saw types of music and new bands I just wouldn’t have got to hear otherwise, even if I’d travelled 50 miles. This isn’t a falsely nostalgic rant: there were other good venues in Derby at the same time (like the Wherehouse, 20th Century) and I see that The Blue Note is still going strong. But The Dial was a special place, at a special time. When it was taken over by Derby Uni SU, it lurched from one failure to the next, never excelling, exciting or innovating as it had done under Artel’s stewardship. Finally they gave up, sold up and now it's been demolished.
