This venue was one of the most influential music halls in the south west and some of the bands that cut their teeth here went on to nationwide (and in 1 or 2 cases global ) fame .
My memories as a punk and later a skinhead centred around the early gigs ,I was a fairly crap bass player in a fairly average band .This ability to knock out a couple of rough tunes led to local infamy and a lot more girls .
The band I played in was Black Flag ,we were the original Black Flag , long before the Yankee outfit of the late 1980,s, our gig list had included playing at pubs in Stroud , stonehouse , a notable "tough one" in blackbird lees Oxford.
The best gigs however were witcombe lodge gigs , and owing to Chris "smudge" Smith , our drummer being on first name terms with the main promoter (Malcolm Troy I think) we got linked up with some bigger bands including the infamous last night with the UK Subs !!
The last night poster
Me and Liam O,Connell , with Gloucestershire finest Chimp , note my home printed Black Flag T Shirt
LAST NIGHT AT WITCOMBE LODGE.Black Flag Joe 90 (Chris Barber) and myself lovin it :).
One of the most classic nights for me was the night the Damned played Saturday 21st April 1979.
DAVE VANIAN AND CAPTAIN SENSIBLE
me ,my brother Al and Bob Heywood (local copper now :)) had managed to get backstage and were bothering Dave Vanian , Rat Scabies ,Captain Sensible and Brain James guitar player none of us can remember :) for autographs , Rat Scabies 
RAT SCABIES
(This is the actual moment Rat tore the Sex Pistols T shirt off Bob Heywood)
spotted Bobs "Pistols T shirt and literally tore it off his back ...we pissed ourselves laughing.
BRAIN JAMES
Support act for the Damned was Cheltenhams Dead Airmen ,consisting of our own Chris "smudge"Smith on drums , Paul Holland on Bass , Jonathon "Joss "Miller, guitar and vocals and Jock Watkins on Guitar
Another major gig at the lodge was the notorious Ska night with the Specials , Selector and others .This gig ended early with a mass brawl between visiting Coventry skins and local lads , mainly Brockworth boys and Churchdown skins who formed an unlikely alliance for the night , all I remember from the end of this night was blue lights and Plod everywhere , we evaded capture by fleeing over fields towards what is now the Bentham Domes ...hilarious .
Another good night was Saturday 2nd June 1979 , when an upcoming new band called THE CURE came to town 
The Cure arrived 6 months after their now famous "killing an Arab " single was released on Small Wonder records , and days after the album "Three Imaginary Boys ", the band consisted of Robert Smith , Mick Dempsey , and Simon Gallup (I think)
THE CURE AT WITCOMBE LODGE .
Other bands I recall at the lodge were
The Adverts
The Pop Group
A.T.V.
Linton Kwesi Johnson
Chelsea
Whitcombe Lodge was superceded by gigs being taken to the old Jamaican Club in Gloucester
Other local venues such as Cheltenham Town Hall , Shaftesbury Hall , and the Plough inn (this was on the site of the Regents Arcade)saw bands such as Stiff Little Fingers Buzzcocks ,Generation X,Siouxsie and the banshees, 999 (Tracey's Gloucester) ,The Vibrators , The Modettes ,the Pretenders (Cheltenham tech), The Vapors (Eves nightclub)
X-Ray Spex , XTC , Sham 69 ,Crass , and of course Gloucestershire own Demob . Gloucestershire was a fantastic place to live during the punk years .
Here are a few original posters from the days
Death Beat was the love child of Joel Peacey ,I played Bass with them and we wangled a gig with Theatre Of Hate in Stroud .
