2025 Gigs – Part 2

I will continue my tales of 2025 gigs with Manchester St Ann’s Square where they have regular events around key dates of the year, for example St Patricks Day. At three at those singular events at different points, I saw the Bovver Boys, Barry’s Brass Band and a singer called Gwenda.  

Nearby to Manchester Piccadilly station resides the old atmospheric venue Manchester Star and Garter where in February I fell into capturing a small segment of an all-day gig there and witnessed some thunderous grindcore from local noiseniks Burnt Body, though I did sagaciously decide to abstain on the moshpit duties at that one!

Burnt Body. Image Credit facebook.com

In July I saw a Philadelphia ska punk act called Catbite whose chief vocalist was a lass called Brittany Luna who had previously trained as a jazz singer. She has recently performed with Laura Jane Grace who was previously the lead singer of Against Me, a band I saw on my 42nd birthday back in 2010. The duo performed some shows primarily paying a homage to Operation Ivy, a short-lived band who were a forerunner of the California ‘East Bay Sound’ in the late 1980’s. In the next step of the family tree two members of the Ivy then set up Rancid in 1991 who are still playing to this day.

In May I returned to the Academy complex for my 101st gig across all their four sites, this particular one taking place at Manchester Club Academy. My enigmatic pal Matty Allen is a Death Metal guru and had for a spell been jokingly sending me gig invites for various events, and I finally threw him a curve ball by accepting an interesting sounding one.  Another friend at work Ben, let’s call him Death Metal guru 2 was also knowledgeable and approving of the bands on the roster.

Thus Matty, his mate Rob and I gathered in Big Hands prior to the gig and had a conflab in their roof garden. The support band were called Cryptopsy who are from Montreal and were formed in 1988 and are now nine albums into their lineage. They were my preferred act on the evening, and the drummer Flo Mournier was particularly impressive, and they also used to have a vocalist with the jocular name of Lord Worm.

The headliners were Decapitated from Poland who formed in 1996 with the members ranging from 12 to 16 at that stage. They suffered untold tragedy in 2007 when the original drummer died in a car crash at the age of 23. They are regularly touted as one of the key proponents of the genre.

An additional observance of the crowd is that due to the intense nature of the music you could perhaps surmise they may have more of an aggressive outlook, but they were in fact one of the friendliest audiences I have ever encountered with a refreshing lack of phones in my eyeline.

Mani. Image Credit yahoo.com

At the nearby Manchester Academy, I caught Black Rebel Motorcycle Club for the sixth time and a full decade since my last sighting, they were playing the ‘Howl’ album which was celebrating its 20th anniversary. It is a softer sounding record but still contains some terrific tunes with ‘Complicated Situation’ being my fave. They were in good form and included a touching tribute to Mani, who had passed away three weeks earlier, by playing a solo acoustic Stone Roses track with full audience singalong.        

Prior to the gig at the aforementioned Manchester Big Hands, I saw a fuzzy and noisy garage rock band called Ahmed & The Romans who contained in their ranks three Italians and the lead singer Ahmed who is an Anglo-Egyptian. 

At the tail end of September Marcus and I trundled into Manchester Yes Basement. The band in question were called The Pill, an act that we had both simultaneously heard playing and being interviewed on Steve Lamacq’s 6 music show. Texts were instantly sent confirming that our interests were piqued and tickets were swiftly purchased.

The Pill. Image Credit genius.com

The Pill consist of spiky female duo Lily Hutchings and Lottie Massey from the Isle of Wight. They derive from the island that has recently spawned the not dissimilar Wet Leg and also Coach Party. They happened on a musical career via an unusual route as they started with the creation of a punk rock Pinocchio digital puppet show. They began to receive a considerable and unexpected following, and the band was the natural next step though Lily had never played before, so she actually learnt the guitar for the formation of the combo!

On the night, they were bloody good fun with tracks such as ‘Woman Driver’ and ‘Scaffolding Man’ with their whip smart lyrics that many prehistoric men would take literally and simply not have a scoobie that they were taking the proverbial!

2025 Gigs – Part 1

After an initially sluggish start to the year the concert attendances began to exponentially increase as the months progressed and by the time Hogmanay arrived, I had created a personal best of 200 gigs and alongside that a total of 95 new venues visited. At the time I thought that would transpire to be an unbeatable gig number; however, the numbers are rattling along in 2026, and I have given myself a chance to surpass it, but time will tell in that regard! As in the previous annual review articles I shall only incorporate venues covered in previous blogs. 

So, let us begin initially in chronological order with a visit back to the God’s country on Preston on the 25th of January. After watching Preston earn a slightly fortuitous 2-1 victory over Middlesbrough, I met up with John Dewhurst and Uncle George for a few scoops. We started in the Eldon pub and then travelled over to my old stamping ground of Ashton Lane Ends.

I lived in that area for nine years and the sole pub during that period was the Lane Ends, but there is now a veritable pub crawl as four new pop-up bars have appeared in that district. We had a skelp around those establishments before grabbing some tea at the Silk Route Indian restaurant. Post-food we walked up to the Preston Wheatsheaf which as ever was well populated, and a band called Groove Thing were performing.  

The Lane Ends pub back in the day. Image Credit www.bing.com

There was another Preston trip in August with Gill added to the crew this time and we were celebrating a more consequential and deserved 2-1 win over Leicester. We encountered local legend Big Steve near the Wallace and Gromit monument whilst we were heading towards Preston Market.  On the stage they have located outside the Orchard Bar that night was a local singer called Phil Ireland.  

The original Wheatsheaf gig inspired me to kick start my year in earnest so four days later I headed into the city on a solo trip to hunt down some gigs in order to boost my numbers. I visited Lost Cat and Affleck and Brown for the first time which have been covered in past articles. I also attended Manchester Matt and Phreds and on stage was a Liverpool band called Sweet Beans whose music has been classed as either riot jazz or daft funk! I returned a month later and at another free show the Jazz Quarter were playing.

The Whiskey Jar. Image Credit www.skiddle.com

Also visited was what I now call Manchester Old Freemount on Oldham Street (renamed since to the Mother of Invention) where a chap called Jeff was playing. I also attended three other times that year with different singers each time. There was the obligatory foray to Manchester Whiskey Jar on the way back to Piccadilly train station where I saw a double act called Steph and Alan. Before the year was out, I saw a couple of further shows at that venue.

The final one to tick off that evening was to the Manchester Copper Bar, which has been another welcome addition to the roster and where they regularly have free gigs. On that particular visit the band on stage was a local act called Windbourne. The Copper Bar is the parallel room to the Manchester Band on the Wall and sometimes they have bands playing as an addendum to gigs in the main room.

Band on the Wall. Image bandonthewallseetickets.com

On one such visit I witnessed a combo named Love Like Me after we were leaving a show next door. The primary reason for our attendance was to see the reformed Pains of Being Pure At Heart for the sixth time in total who were in excellent fettle. They were touring their superb eponymously titled debut album and as soon as the distinctive chords of the opening track ‘Contender’ assailed my ears I knew we were in for a treat. Our small but perfectly formed group also included Gill, Marcus and Anita and we had undertaken pre-gig aperitifs in the nearby Smithfield Market Tavern.   

I have also made a visit to Manchester Nancy Spains (previously known as the Corner Bar) on Hilton Street adjacent to Stevenson Square where I saw a singer called Paddy. Over on Oxford Street I caught my tenth gig at Manchester Albert Schloss where Jasper was performing on the small stage.

There was an isolated trip into Levenshulme to the Manchester Bia Café Bar where I saw the regular chilled house band sounds of Grace Kelley and Debbie Garvey.