When you’ve finished shopping, dining, bowling and watching the sun set by the river it’s time to rock out to the most hardcore bands in Kingston. The Fighting Cocks is the place for that, and will be your last stop for the evening.

The Venue
The Fighting Cocks is located opposite the Kingston Fairfield bus station, a five minute stroll from Kingston station. Upon entering, you get the impression that it’s more of a cosy little pub - albeit a pub punked out in red, black and silver with red leather sofas and ‘50s-style diner stools, a well-stocked metal-panelled bar, a killer jukebox that gets a lot of use, and skulls and guitars adorning the walls. To your right is a small alcove with black walls called the RIP Lounge, where you can play Guitar Hero for free on a large screen. More comfy red sofas line the walls in there, and there’s quite a cool Adams Family themed pinball machine in the corner.

As this is primarily a rock music venue (and a comedy club that boasts past performers such as Bill Bailey and Alan Carr), you’re sure to be thinking two things as you walk in: ‘It’s dead as hell. Where is everybody?’ and ‘Where the hell is the band gonna fit in?’ However, the fittingly employed long-haired blonde dude with a bandanna wearing their signature black T-shirt with a winged skull (sold at the bar for £12), helpfully points you in the right direction. If you walk along the bar and turn right past the animal-print pool table, you’ll come across a door that leads you to, well, the toilets but more importantly a large darkened space with zebra print walls, trippy UV lighting, a second bar and the much anticipated stage. And, thank heavens, there are the people. You’ll breathe a sigh of relief, ‘This place is serious, then.’ It most certainly is.

The Atmosphere
Girls sport darker variations of the Rockabilly look and surprisingly aren’t in groupie style abundance. The guys are indifferent in distressed denim and witty or edgy T-shirts under hoodies. Piercings other than the lobe variety are in abundance, as are Vans and Converse (or some other imitation). Due to space impracticalities in the moshing room where the stage is, earplugs sprout from most people’s ears. It’s loud and it’s rowdy with local and international acts doing just about anything to get you bopping and it’s commonplace for the crowd to take part in the act, whether screaming one angry word into the mic or playing back-up bass after a quick string tutorial.

There’s always the safer, quieter option of the front bar and the RIP Lounge, just in case your eardrums do burst. Angry signs around the venue yell things like ‘No Pissy Attitudes!’ and ‘Hippies Use Side Entrance’. There are a few novel guys who look like they can put ex-musician for Rancid on their CV, intact with green and blue porcupine hair adorned in spikes, denim jackets and combat boots. What’s really great about the Fighting Cocks is it’s not at all pretentious; the crowd isn’t the show here, the music is.

The Music
Think wrong and strong, rough and tough, smash and grab. There’s an incredible list of near 200 rock genres in existence and here you can pick and choose. You’re sure to get a little taste of most of these on any given night at the Fighting Cocks, whether played on the jukebox, the game console or the stage. They’re all about building up a strong local rock scene and supporting new bands, there’s a gig held here almost every day of the week.

The Drink
Surprisingly, there’s more than just a wide selection of beers to down and throw to a corner before diving into the crowd again. They offer a myriad of attractive (and quite pleasing) cocktails and shooters with anything but attractive titles. A peppermint liqueur and vodka shooter is called the Russian Toothbrush and a Gangrene is a shot of Archers, Agwa and lime. Other names worth noting are the Shitty Sunset and the Zombie Stripper. Cocktails sell at £5.55 and shooters at £2.65. On Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays, Carlsberg by the bottle goes for just £1.65, which explains the old man merrily sloshing his away whilst rocking side to side with a friend to a Motorhead song.

The Last Word
Even though it all looks very angry to an outsider, you get a great sense of community and interaction at the Fighting Cocks among fans, employees and performers alike. Everyone knows all the words to the songs, either through devoted fandom or from memorising them in a rush on their MySpace page beforehand - either way it’s all about supporting the bands and supporting the scene, as well as having a killer time. And if you somehow ever did forget how much fun you had here, the T-shirt in your closet should remind you.

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