Month: September 2020

Manchester Venue 17 – Old Trafford Cricket Ground

I have frequented Old Trafford a few times in its original incarnation as a cricket venue. My first visit was in 1983 when I was very fortunate as a 15-year-old to attend the World Cup semi-final with my dad where England were playing India. The times were so different then as we just wandered up and got straight into the ground through a cash turnstile.

The match was a sell out on a gobsmackingly hot day and as a result we were lamping drinks down to rehydrate. My dad offered me a beer which is the first proper ale I can recall partaking. Due to the heat I gulped down as if it was Vimto resulting in being somewhat hazy for the next couple of hours.

Despite England having a promising opening partnership they summarily collapsed and lost the match by 7 wickets.

The following year we tried but failed to get in to a one-day game versus West Indies and missed out on the mercurial Viv Richards plundering an infamous 189 not out.

I attended other test matches including Day 2 of the Ashes test in the famous 2005 series after which we mercilessly ribbed a couple of placid Aussies in a nearby pub.

We have also stayed at the Old Trafford Lodge a couple of times, once to attend a family wedding in 2007 on the day England beat Australia in the Rugby World Cup quarter final.

Round about the turn of the century Old Trafford decided to utilise the venue for an annual batch of summer concerts, for a period badging it as the Mood Festival.  

I was excited to note that REM were booked to play on 13/07/03 following on from their fine Glastonbury headline performance the previous month.

It was another staggeringly hot Sunday afternoon as the five of us in attendance melted on the train on the journey over. We decided to frequent the bars on Deansgate locks, in the first bar we visited the local celebrity Tony H Wilson was rather intoxicated but like a trooper he recovered to be in fine shape on Granada Reports the following day.

At the venue they had a very commendable beer voucher process which kept the queues down.  

The support acts were Badly Drawn Boy and Idlewild as we sweltered in the tropical weather watching from the pitch. Michael Stipe was in mischievous mood as he likened the one cloud in the sky to Badly Drawn Boy. Did that suggest he wasn’t enamoured with one of the support acts?

I recall him apologising for being American due to the Gulf War, perhaps he was also prescient of a future muppet becoming President. Though pots and kettles spring to mind here with Boris the Spider in power on our shores!

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REM. Image Credit BlogSpot.com

I had grown up with REM as I discovered them when I was 16 and they were magnificent that night with ‘Strange Currencies’ and ‘End of the World’ verging on being transcendental. They were arguably at the peak of their powers and fuelled by the ale, weather and the terrific music I was over zealously dancing away. It remains one of my Top 10 gigs.

We circumnavigated the metro and the crowds successfully by going the wrong way for one stop and then returning into town.

We saw them there 2 years later but whilst still being decent it was not in the same league as the first attendance. They had also foolishly moved away from vouchers to a first come first serve resulting in waiting in a devilishly long queue which covered a fair portion of Feeder’s support set, thankfully the beer hut was located to the side of the stage. My pal Algarve Ray timed it well as I was at the top end of the queue when he unexpectedly appeared so I could add his order to mine.       

My one other attendance was to see the Pixies for the first time in 15 years on their comeback tour in 2004. It was a grey rainy day, but Pixies served to brighten the mood with me bouncing around in the oldest moshpit I have ever encountered with ‘Where is My Mind’ being the highlight.

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Pixies. Image Credit Uncut.

We caught the initial portion of the Stereophonics headline set before heading off the site. We were distracted en route by unusual activity occurring in the DJ tent where there have been a friendly coup and the DJ was only being allowed to play Pixies tracks. The opening notes of each new Pixies song resulted in rapturous applause, it was quite a sight.  

We had just had time for a cheeky one in Thirsty Scholar prior to the train and wouldn’t you just know it on our entry to the pub they were playing a Pixies song!

Pandemic Paean of Praise to a Plethora of Music Palaces

Recently there was the initially sad news revealed that the Deaf Institute and Gorilla venues in Manchester will not reopen post-pandemic. I have attended both venues many times and will cover their reviews in future blogs. This news coincided with further reports of the closure of the Welly and Polar Bear venues in Hull.

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Hull Welly. Image Credit Pinterest

Even though the decision of the Manchester sites was subsequently miraculously reversed four days later via the partial intervention of a Pandemic hero Tim Burgess it only serves to illustrate the real and present threat to the future of all venues.

The are some rays of light in that there has been tireless work undertaken by the save our venues campaign resulting in significant crowdfunding to save 140 venues from ‘imminent danger’. Also, the Government has stumped up some funding for the Arts including music venues which will only help if the money is distributed speedily and equitably.

These events give me cause to muse on the fact that many of the conurbations in Britain will contain at least one small essential music venue. To name but a few, the Mad Ferret in Preston, the Leadmill in Sheffield and the Trades Club in Hebden Bridge.

The venues are the absolute creative lifeblood of the industry and of the local community, impacting on nearby retail outlets and the continued employment of associated roles, including bar and security staff, roadies, agents and publicists to name a few more. It even provides an opportunity for those pesky touts!

They also provide a priceless opportunity for the hungry local talent to initially learn and hone their craft. Everyone must start somewhere, like a nurse takes blood for the first time, so must a band enter and exit stage left.     

All bands who have gone on to bigger things will have tales to tell. Using Oasis as an example, their roster of very early gigs contains stellar venues such as Club 57 and the Hippodrome in Oldham and the legendary Krazyhouse in Liverpool, which I have visited once in its nightclub capacity.

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Liverpool Krazyhouse. Image Credit The Tab

As the pandemic has progressed, I do appreciate that alternative approaches have been understandably sought out by musicians to replace the missing gigs as that remains their primary source of income. Personally though, I have struggled to hook into the numerous twitter and streaming events because to me there is nothing to replace a live gig at a venue where you can see the whites of the eyes of the band. I would contend there is only very limited enjoyment to watching a festival from your own living room.  

This incorporates all facets of the experience. The expectation before a much-anticipated band, the gibberish discussions in the pub before and after (maybe that’s just me!), the shared acquaintance with like-minded souls all there for a communal experience, the sweaty mosh pits, the hairs on the back of your neck standing up when you see a great band, even better when it is unexpected. All in all, some of the best nights of my life have been at live gigs.  

Unfortunately, due to their very nature music venues will probably be last to be reintroduced so that makes it even more imperative they are supported right now.  

Another negative by product of the current situation is that I am not adding any new gigs or venues to my roster thus I am continuing to delve through my archives, and I am hoping I do not run out of material in the interim. It is doubly frustrating as I was hoping to pass my 1000th gig this year.  Who could have predicted when I launched my blog last November that a pandemic would strike 4 months later!

Please stay safe kids and we will eventually arrive at the other end of this dark tunnel and will soon be back in those mosh pits.