Year: 2019

Manchester Venue 5 – Academy 2 (Part 1)

This venue was originally known as Manchester University or Main Debating Hall (MDH) when I first visited. It first opened in 1963 as a Jazz Club. However when the Academy was built it was incorporated under that umbrella and became known as Academy 2. It is located on the first floor of the Manchester University building down Oxford Road just prior to Rusholme.

The whole complex has the old ‘school corridor’ vibe about it, but not too its detriment. The venue itself is an enclosed room and initially just access in and out at a small door at the back which when busy can occasionally give it a slightly claustrophobic feel. In latter years they have introduced an entrance/exit to the right of the stage. There used to be a very small bar just outside the venue where it is was virtually impossible to get served and they have now introduced a bar at the back of the venue. 

I have attended 35 gigs there and have a further two planned in the coming months placing this as my No 2 most populated venue.

My first gig there was hotly anticipated, namely Wedding Present in February 1988. I was a huge fan at that stage and had their first album ‘George Best’ on heavy rotation. They did not disappoint and I recall ‘Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft’, ‘Favourite Dress’ and ‘You Should Always Keep in Touch with your Friends’ as standouts. By the end of the gig I was a sweaty specimen after spending the majority of the gig in the moshpit. After the gig I recall hoovering a pizza purchased from an establishment opposite the public lavs that subsequently turned into the Temple of Convenience bar.

George Best album cover. Image Credit Radio x

I have since seen the Weddoes a further two times there in February 2005 and October 2018 and have a further attendance planned in December 2019.

The 2018 gig was an interesting one as I attended with a new Manchester brethren Martin W, Howard not Tom, Donna and Wedding Present ‘superfan’ Marcus. We had just bought our new home a week before which solidified our move to Manchester so hence a big moment in life. The gig was great with them incorporating the 30th anniversary of George Best but the commute was stunningly chaotic with cancelled trains, ubers, then the Jimmy Sat Nav having a rare malfunction by getting off the night bus far too early in monsoon conditions and then eventually a £15 cab journey as I was in the middle of nowhere – still a good night though!

Boo Radleys in 1994 was an especially good one with ‘Lazarus’ the highlight.

The Boo Radleys’. Image Credit creation-records.com

I saw Marie McKee there twice in 1991 and 1996, the second time she was compelling viewing as she had recently released ‘Life Is Sweet’, in my opinion her best solo album. This was despite a somewhat annoying heckler in attendance which resulted eventually in a portion of the audience including myself ordering him to ‘do one’ in no uncertain terms.

https://www.manchesteracademy.net/

Manchester Venue 4 – Boardwalk

The Boardwalk was a small venue (capacity initially about 250 before increasing to 400) in an industrial area on Little Peter St behind Deansgate station. It was a stone’s throw from the Hacienda and was a fine venue between 1984 and 1999. It doubled up as a recording space and Oasis played their first ever gig on 18/08/91.

You went up some narrow steps to the main room with a bar on the left and I recall it was a very warm venue.

Picture of John Robb, journalist and lead singer of Membranes and Goldblade, who despite being a Blackpool FC fan is a genuinely good bloke. Image Credit mdm.archive.co.uk

Between 18/06/1987 and 09/10/1992 I attended five gigs there. The first being a very early fine gig by the Proclaimers supported by the Rhythm Sisters. They came on at 11pm with late stage times being a regular occurrence and they played the whole first album and then ran out of songs so played the first track again.

The second gig on the 18/07/87 was a proper event. On John Peel’s show on the Wednesday it was referenced that the legendary Big Black were playing their final ever British dates, the penultimate one being on the Saturday. I put a call into Piccadilly Records box office on the Thursday morning and was informed there were a handful of tickets and asked them to save me two which we agreed would be picked up in person on Saturday afternoon, but upon arrival we were informed that there had been an oversight and the gig was now sold out. Hope extinguished one might think, however there was a chink of light as we were informed that the venue always held 50 tickets back. So off we trotted and we were the first in the queue at 8pm to obtain said tickets. I recall a minibus arriving from Crewe with the aspiration of garnering some tickets.

Pubs were then visited in celebration and we returned to catch the support band Death by Milk Float. Big Black themselves were an intense slightly unsettling experience with their industrial noise, at one point in their enthusiasm the crowd pulled lead singer Steve Albini into the moshpit, causing a 10 minute delay. They were thoroughly worth the ticket palaver to witness them before the band disbanded, ‘Kerosene’ was outstanding. We returned home to watch a recording of Steven Roche wrap up the Tour De France which he won the next day.

Steve Albini of Big Black on stage. Image Credit blogspot.com

The third gig the following year was a band called Pussy Galore who were not that memorable.

The fourth in Sept 89 was Firehose supported again bizarrely by Death by Milk Float. My now wife Gill was studying in Crewe at the time and one of the ticket outlets was located in a record shop there. So on a weekend visit I scamped in to purchase some tickets completing the full circle of the Crewe/Boardwalk link. Firehose appeared out of the original band Minutemen after the untimely death of their lead singer D Boon in a car crash. A chap called EdFromOhio made an approach and encouraged the band to reform with him stepping in as lead singer.

When they came on stage we realised that we had unwittingly being sat near them in the Briton’s Protection pre-gig (very limited band photos available pre-internet to know what people looked like). They were a terrific live act and for some inexplicable reason I wandered into their dressing room and said hello to Ed who walked off without a word which I took as my cue to curb my interloping activities and go home!    

My final appearance at the Boardwalk was to watch Sugar supported by Venus Beads on 09/10/92. Sugar was ex Husker Du Bob Mould’s new band which finally brought him some much deserved critical acclaim. They produced a thunderous set which was a suitable epitaph to a sorely missed venue.