Access One Step: The Official History of the Joiners Arms

by Oliver Gray, Andy Burrows (Foreword)

Coldplay, Franz Ferdinand, Oasis, The Manic Street Preachers, Radiohead ... Their careers could never have started without the help of small, atmospheric venues like the Joiners, an unassuming but much-loved backstreet pub in downtown Southampton. Richard Ashcroft cites the Joiners as the venue of his greatest ever performance, the Manic Street Preachers signed their record deal there and Oasis played there for £100. And every day of the week, it stays loyal to the grass roots as it plays host to local and up-and-coming bands.

ACCESS ONE STEP tells the story of the Joiners in the words of the people who have lived, worked and played there.

"My whole life has been shaped by the Joiners" - Greg Gilbert, Delays

Stuffed with photos, memorabilia and contributions from all the main players in the venue's history, ACCESS ONE STEP tells the remarkable and sometimes moving story of an area of the music industry which has seldom been explored.

218 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 23, 2017

About the author

Oliver Gray is a language teacher and writer of language teaching resources. His main passion is music. At one time or other, he has written for almost all the UK music magazines, plus various national, international and regional newspapers and magazines. He has written 120-odd live reviews for Record Collector magazine since 2004.
Oliver's day job is writing resources for language teaching for publishers such as Pearson, Oxford University Press and Collins. His educational publishing company REVILO was sold to Linguascope in 2016. Oliver writes music and travel books and has also written one novel, Zander.