By Paul Towler

In the days before Bristol was known in the international music arena as the home of 'trip hop' and 'drum and bass', the city boasted another, lesser documented status as the UK's spiritual home for 80's indie music. 

The focus of Bristol's vibrant indie scene during the late 80's and early 90's was the 'Tropic Club'. Situated on Hepburn Road, a small alley tucked away in Stokes Croft BS2, the venue was soon to become the cultural hub of an indie scene that not only sent reverberations around the city, but became the envy of every city in the country! 

Back in it's day, the Tropic Club would witness two distinct types of people queuing at it's discreet entrance just off Cheltenham Road. The club had two floors. Upstairs was a nightclub playing hip-hop and disco, frequented by the city's clubbers. Downstairs, by contrast, held the indie gigs, attended by a growing army of fanatical ‘pop kids' eagerly waiting to see whatever indie guitar bands were on offer over several nights of the week - usually two or three bands a night, all for a paltry £3 on the door!

Tropic Club Poster

Hepburn Road Today

The late 80's saw a fresh generation of guitar bands emerging around the UK, unwittingly christened by the NME as 'C86'. The newly emerging scene rekindled the raw energy and rebellious nature of punk whilst also recapturing the chic style of '60's pop music. Bristol based record labels such as The Subway Organisation and Sarah Records spearheaded the scene, whilst a glut of young local bands such as The Brilliant Corners, The Groove Farm and The Chesterfields were all playing regularly at the Tropic. It was a time of change when girls were no longer just seen as 'eye candy' in bands - many local indie-pop bands such as The Flatmates and The Haywains were actively challenging the outdated macho-minded rulebook with their joint boy-girl fronted line-ups. Aswell as local bands, the Tropic Club was also attracting many breaking national acts to it's booking roster. Names such as Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine, The Wedding Present and The Soup Dragons all played intimate sets at the venue early into their careers. The Tropic Club had suddenly become a live venue of national importance and Bristol was being considered 'pop city'!

By the early 90's, the once self-sufficient 'indie' scene had been bought into by the record industry. The best of the UK's indie bands were promptly being repackaged and sold to the masses as 'Britpop'. Manchester's newly emerging 'indie-dance' scene was stealing the media spotlight and Bristol's once vibrant indie scene was suddenly dead. The Tropic Club died with it. 

Although the building remains pretty much the same to how the venue looked in the 1980's, the premises has operated solely as a nightclub since the mid 90's. It's currently called The Maze. However, for anyone who frequented the many wonderful gigs at the club during the late 80's and early 90's, the Tropic will always remain nothing short of legendary!