Ironworks director Caroline Campbell plans to preserve 'signature wall'
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Musicians’ signatures on a section of wall behind the scenes in the Ironworks music venue will be preserved when the building is demolished.
Director CarolineCampbell said: “This will be the part we document for the future. We want to put on record everybody that is here.”
The first autographs started to be added some time between the opening of the building in 2006 and the arrival of the new lease-holders who took over in 2008 – Robert Hicks, Joe Gibbs and Caroline Campbell.
Ms Campbell has been the sole lease-holder for a number of years and she said: “I inherited the wall because, bear in mind, the Ironworks was open for a period before we took it on, so the wall had already started.
“It has just evolved over the years and I think it has just become a particular, special part of the building.
“It is a feature the audience maybe hasn’t known existed. It’s only through certain projects or tours we do that the public have come across it and go ‘Oh it’s so cool!’ – and it is.”
Ms Campbell said: “There is something special about it when you look at all the names.
“I’ve said before that every day when you walk through that bit of the building, you will see a different name, without fail.”
As yet, the exact method of preserving the artwork has not been finalised.
The director said: “What that will look like, we’re not entirely sure yet. It will all be decided in the next few weeks.
“We’re archiving certain parts of the business – and memories – at the moment, so they are not forgotten.”
It is fascinating to spend some time looking in detail at the names, added at all angles and in many different colours, some with small illustrations and cartoon figures.
And a huge variety of people have signed on the white wall over the venue’s history.
You will spot the name of rock ‘bad boy’ Pete Doherty, who has appeared at the venue with both The Libertines and his solo project Babyshambles, rubbing shoulders with North East folk legends Wishbone Ash.
And tucked away discreetly among the bigger, shoutier signatures is the name of Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who had been in Inverness for a Scottish Government meeting, and came in early in the morning to take her place.
Different people notice different names, Ms Campbell notes.
“The younger ones come through and see Calvin Harris, he played the venue twice,” she said referring to the Scottish dance producer, behind first hit Acceptable In The 80s – now a global superstar who earned $48 million in 2018. His first time at the Ironworks before any releases, he played his bound-to-be-hit songs to a handful of people.
Ms Campbell points out that there was another effect of walking past the names every day.
“You would suddenly spot a name and it makes you remember a particular day on the Ironworks' journey or a story about the band.
Local band Scooty And The Skyhooks have their names in a prominent corner.
“I remember the time they got back together after a long break and they came in here to play again for the first time. And when they came onstage, there was such a feeling – I’ve never felt anything like it in a crowd before or since,” the director said.
“Here’s Bring Me The Horizon, they were playing football in the car park with the band Cross Faith till half-four in the morning!”
And Ms Campbell points out that those signing often delighted in finding unusual corners for their names – The View on a light fitting, Bring Me The Horizon manoeuvring themselves to get their name on the side of the stairs.
And for the Ironworks director with her local knowledge of local bands, the history of their evolution is also locked onto this space.
So you can find Inverness band The Oxides who evolved into Chancers a few years ago – the new name is inked in a different colour above it on the wall.
Then there is just the pleasure of idling slowly past the walls taking in so many names from the Ironworks years of bands and musicians who have stopped by, whether local like The Jyrojets, 28 Jacks, Forgetting The Future, Pure Grief, Neon Waltz, The Whiskys, The Roov and, Woodentooth – Scottish like Fatherson, hip hop outfit Stanley Odd, to trad band Tide Lines or Michael Cassidy.
And there are DJs too, from international star Deadmau5 (with his own mouse drawing) to local names such as Alan Grant or Filth DJs – one half of that duo, Ross Lyall, a much-missed face in the Ironworks world.
But one of the most interesting signatures to grace the Ironworks building comes from John Lydon of Public Image Limited, best-known still to some as The Sex Pistols’ charismatic king of the punks, Johnny Rotten.
He left a note written on the mirror of one of the dressing-rooms after his first – mutually loved – gig at the venue in 2016, calling Ironworks' gig-goers "proper people".
Beside it, late last year The Snuts added their own little robot and a quote.
There is one thing that unites all those whose names appear – the director's one rule about the wall!
"You only get to sign it after you've played!"
Ms Campbell said: "There is Callum Beattie's name! He's heading back to Inverness soon – he has such a good relationship with Highland audiences."
A date was announced last week for the artist. But this time the singer won't be appearing at the Ironworks.
