Gigs Abroad Part 23 Belfast – Part 3

This week’s article makes a return to the fair city of Belfast and my third visit in totality. Back in the late 1980’s when Gill was undertaking her nurse training in Crewe, she shared accommodation with two ladies who go by the names of Mandy and Debbie. Since then, we have remained in touch and had some annual meetups over that time, a few in York and this one was our first foray abroad.  

I will cover Mandy and her husband Paul in a later article, but I will make a reference here to Debbie and Andrew’s hometown of Stamford in Lincolnshire. We have visited a few times, and it dates back to the 9th century and is a lovely olde-worlde market town. It has no fewer than five medieval parish churches and has held an annual fair since the Middle Ages which is referenced in Shakespeare’s Henry IV. Due to its picturesqueness, it has been chosen regularly as a location for TV and films including Middlemarch and Pride and Prejudice. Famous alumni include Colin Dexter, author of Inspector Morse and Nicola Roberts of Girls Aloud.  I have also finally managed to inveigle Andrew into the delightful world of relatively obscure indie music.

Nicola Roberts. Image Credit hawtcelebs.com

After arriving on different early planes on the Friday, we met up at Belfast Airport before jumping on the transfer into the city. After we had refuelled at a café we went into full tourist mode by diving onto the tour bus with a welcome reduction in ticket prices due to Mandy and Debbie’s Blue Light Card which is available to active NHS, Social Care, Armed Forces and Teaching staff. The open double decker with us wrapped to the hilt took us around the Titanic Quarter and past the famous Divis Towers which were a central flashpoint during the Troubles.  

We then located a hostelry and appropriate to the location Guinness’s were ordered. Paul was unconvinced but Debbie discovered she was partial to a bit of the black stuff! After finding the hotel, we spruced up and headed out for the evening with our first port of call being Belfast Five Points Whiskey and Alehouse located on Dublin Road.

The name of the establishment was derived from a notorious part of New York which was a hotbed of rapscallion Irish immigrant gangs. The pub itself was infinitely more welcoming than its moniker and there was a little stage where music takes place 7 nights a week. On our visit a chap called Paddy was strumming away. The pub has been previously known as Aunty Annie’s and The Bar With No Name. There is now talk of opening up a venue upstairs which will also stage music and will be called Cow Bay.  

Divis Towers. Image Credit geograph.ie

Via the assistance of a delightfully sassy hotel staff member, we grabbed our tea at the excellent Joy Inn Chinese restaurant. From there we headed for a couple of night caps at Belfast Linen Hall Bar where we ensconced ourselves in front of a homely fire and there was a small TV in the corner showing the tail end of the Aston Villa v Liverpool match, with the home team running out 4-2 winners.

The moniker of the bar reflects its location in the Linen Quarter of town and was originally opened in the 1980’s and had recently been subject to a £500k refurbishment. It was a friendly spot and there were two separate artists performing on a stage at the top end of the bar whilst we resided there.  

On the Saturday morning, we walked up to the Botanic Gardens and spent a pleasant couple of hours strolling around the expansive grounds and the accompanying museum. There was then a split in the fellowship with the lasses heading back in the city centre for shopping and more Guinness whilst the lads trotted up to Belfast Laverys. The pub was established in 1918 and has the accolade of being Belfast’s oldest family owned pub. Upstairs are a grand total of 22 competition-grade pool tables where Andrew and I shared two frames.  

Belfast Laverys. Image Credit visitbelfast.com

The primary purpose of our visit though was to watch the afternoon’s FA Cup Final, and the venue was perfect for that with screens literally everywhere in the ground floor area. Both finalists were represented by one Chelsea and one Manchester City fan with me sat in the middle playing my Switzerland role as an impartial observer. The result on the day was a narrow 1-0 for the blues of Manchester. From there we found a bonny cocktail bar and had some grub at the Scalini Italian restaurant before a final beverage at Liquor XXX bar.

On the final morning, there was an issue at the hotel, so we headed out for breakfast. The initial thinking was to find a table at the busy St George’s Market, but we couldn’t locate one, so we found a terrific local café instead. The final venue on the Sunday lunchtime was the Belfast Dirty Onion which is housed in a 17th century building that had previous lives as a Fishmonger and grocers before opening as a pub in 2013. Playing outside but with the music piped inside were Eoin Murphy and Tom Keenan, two local musicians who perform regularly there.   

Milestones Part 2 – Venues

This week I am returning to my milestone spin off articles and moving on to the venues category. I am currently a month away from the 43rd anniversary of my first gig and just recently I have moved past a total of 1700 gigs. Now I do wholly appreciate that to the layperson that is a significant number, but I know pals of mine who have done over twice that number of gigs, so all in all not an exceptional achievement.

However, without intending any braggadocious behaviour I have always thought that my gig ‘superpower’ is the number and breadth of venues that I have visited over the years and there is always a strong element of ‘FOMO’ in play as when a new venue appears on the block, I simply have to endeavour to attend it.

They have varied immensely in size ranging from the 40k in attendance at the Etihad stadium down to the twelve people that could fit in the beer storage area in the basement of the Kings Arms in Salford! They encompass standard venues, cafes, festivals, churches and even once a barbers in numerous towns and cities across the UK with many also visited in foreign climes.

Kings Arms. Image Credit camra.org.uk

So, let’s do the numbers bit as I know you love it! I have recently moved past 800 venues in total making the previously seemingly unattainable 1000 venues now a potential possibility. Unsurprisingly the largest proliferation has been in Manchester (currently 258 and counting) followed by my hometown of Preston with 67 and Nottingham with 48. The remaining 400 odd venues are scattered over a further 91 towns/cities including 163 venues visited in locations abroad.  This particular article will concentrate on the build up to hitting the landmark 500th one.  

In October 2023 a seven strong group of Gill and I, Marcus and Anita, Tris and Ross and his lad Dylan headed over for the Saturday of the annual Lancaster Live weekend. Prior to arrival I was sat on a grand total of 487 venues and fully aiming to hit the roman numeral D mark before we embarked on the train home. I remember Tris casting a little doubt on my ambitious intentions but with periodic single wanderings I knew I could potentially pick up enough cheeky hits to keep it in range.

Looking back to some earlier milestones my first venue was my one attendance to Lancaster University and the 50th was at a rather chilly Reading Festival in 1995 where on a grunge heavy bill I saw Neil Young, Pavement, Soundgarden, Ash, Babes in Toyland and a Tourette suffering White Zombie! My centenary was at Nottingham Malt and Cross and the 150th was Manchester Moho (latterly called Dive NQ) based in the Afflecks building on Oldham Street. My 200th was at Lancaster Yorkshire House and the 250th at Manchester COW clothes shop as part of the Dot to Dot festival in 2016.    

White Zombie. Image Credit pinterest.com

On the festival day we progressed from the train station but not without an obligatory visit to the rather fine Tite and Locke bar and their Lancaster brewery ale which is located on the platform. We split up before reconvening in the Royal Hotel (Venue 498), grabbing some tea in a Chinese restaurant next door and then progressing forward for the final push.   

Naturally Mogwai would have to make their obligatory appearance as my 300th venue was witnessing them at the cavernous Glasgow Hydro with the 400th being the Lending Room in Leeds. My 700th was the Church Inn down Canal Street in Manchester and the 600 and 800 ones will be covered in future blogs.

In relation to my most visited venues the top of the list is currently as follows: –

Preston Mad Ferret                      43

Manchester Academy 2             42

Manchester Ritz                           37

Manchester Academy 1             33

Manchester Night and Day        21

Manchester Albert Hall              21

Manchester International 1       20

Manchester Academy 3             19

Manchester Gorilla                     18

A couple of quick observations are that it is somewhat appropriate that the Ferret currently holds top spot as it remains a jewel in Preston’s crown. The other is that despite closing around 35 years ago Manchester International 1 (still my favourite ever) proudly holds a highly commendable seventh place on the list.  

Merchants 1688. Image Credit tripadvisor.com

So, returning to the story, I hear you ask (very quietly!) what was my landmark venue? Well, it turned out be Lancaster Merchants 1688 Restaurant & Bar, which in retrospect was a highly appropriate spot as it resulted in me returning to the city of my first venue. The Grade II listed building in the Castle quarter dates to the 17th century and was previously a merchant house before turning into the pub we know now in 1984.   

Melodrome Stage. Image Credit flickriver.com

Over the years it has been a regular haunt and quite often the first port of call due to its proximity to the railway station and I have also eaten there a couple of times. It is a proper old-fashioned bar with three tunnel spaces in which to imbibe a fine ale.  In the third cellar I saw The Manfredis playing who have no correlation whatsoever with the Sly Stallone character in the current Tulsa King TV series. They are in fact a long-standing local act and are also the house band for the unique Melodrome Mobile stage utilised at the festival.