Month: June 2021

Manchester Venue 37 – The Parrs Wood

We had for a sustained period considered relocating from Preston to Manchester as we craved a change of scene and culture. By early 2017 Gill and I had secured jobs in the Manchester area making this possibility a reality. The house was placed on the market and despite us one stage having to withdraw from a deal with an unscrupulous buyer we accepted an offer in the autumn of 2017.

Estate agents nowadays appear to have a laissez faire attitude to finalising completion dates and we only finally confirmed the move on a Tuesday morning prior to moving two days later. As a result, we had to employ a flexible removal firm who turned out to be charlatans.

Thus, on the day of the move after numerous increasingly irate calls we secured thankfully three brilliant lads from Bolton, but due to original firm’s ineptitude they did not arrive until 2pm. This resulted in the surreal scenario of the new buyer’s removal van turning the corner to discover ours in the final throes of being completed. Stress is a massively overused word, but this was day was aptly meeting that description!

A frantic rush hour drive, then ensued in the rain for the 30-mile drive to the estate agents to pick up the keys resulting in everything finally being delivered to the new pad by 7.30pm. To say we were tired would be a gross understatement but with no food in we headed out to the nearest pub, the Parrs Wood.

We sat at a table near the door and supped our first ever Manchester residence pint and devoured some Sausage and Mash. As a result, I will always view this pub fondly and we revisited on our first-year anniversary (07/09/18) and sat at the same table!

Debut Manchester Beer (07/09/17). Image Credit Jimmy Crossthwaite

The following day we visited a local Frankie and Bennies and requested a breakfast after the allocated time window, they took one look at us and shuffled off without complaint to prep said breakfast, avoiding a ‘Michael Douglas Falling Down’ moment!

From a philosophical viewpoint, for someone who had lived in the same town for 49 years, notwithstanding some initial bumps in the road and odd bouts of isolation I have surprised himself how relatively easy I have found the relocation.  

The Parrs Wood is a large 1930’s L-shaped corner building (previously the Parrs Wood Hotel) and was taken over by local brewer JW Lees in 2014, thereby selling a fine pint of JW Lees or Manchester Pale Ale. It has a decent size beer garden at the front and a smaller one at the back and has been a reliable location during the breaks in the pandemic window. Inside it is a large open room and serves some decent grub.

The pub is in the Didsbury/East Didsbury area and past local luminaries include the talented porcelain doll actress Holiday Grainger of Borgias and Strike fame. It is located on the corner of Parrswood Road and School Lane.

I only discovered this recently with an article on the local news that opposite the pub was the Capitol Theatre which originally opened as a cinema in 1931 before morphing into ABC Weekend Television studios between 1956 and 1968. In that time, early episodes of Avengers and Opportunity Knocks were filmed, and the Beatles had their first radio interview there.

ABC Weekend Television opposite the Parrs Wood pub in the 60’s. Image Credit Flickr.

It was subsequently a theatre where Julie Walters, Bernard Hill and David Threlfall, students at the time graced the stage. It had subsequent various incarnations before being sold for flats in 1997, the theatre relocating to create the Capitol Theatre on Oxford Road. Understandably there are various pictures of the original Capitol Theatre adorning the pub walls.     

On the Sunday after moving (10/05/17) we wandered in back to the pub prior to a scouting trip in Didsbury Village to discover Elvis was in the building. He naturally modelled himself on the older portlier version than the younger 1950’s hipster version. He was a particularly abysmal act, and it was tempting to request a ‘Taxi for Elvis’!

Via a veritable plethora of train journeys, I had prior to the move amassed about 85 different venues in Manchester and I had now moved the radar from a likely to an inevitable setting that I would fly past the century of Manchester venues landmark!  

Gigs from Abroad Part 2 – Bremen

I have been fortunate to have a group of like-minded pals who for around 15 years as a group have had a weekend jaunt to different European cities. I have attended ten of these shindigs and they are a combination of a splash of culture and a large dollop of beer! They have thus far been mainly based in Germany, but we have also visited Holland, Belgium and Portugal.

My first trip was to the scenic city of Cologne with its gothic cathredral where we also visited the old capital of Bonn. My second sojourn was in January 2010 to Bremen in the North west of Germany. On arrival on the Thursday it was a short tram ride from the airport to our hotel opposite the Hauptbahnhof.     

That evening we headed out for a good sally to the bars in the University end of the City and found a terrific bar where they had a rarely sighted posted of Husker Du ‘Metal Circus’ and they also had a band advertised for the following evening, so plans were hatched for a return visit. Bremen also being the home of Becks beer, a brew that I find a bit metallic tasting at home was transformed in its home town environment. There were many variants, Haake Becks being my favourite.

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The rather fine Haake Becks. Image Credit canmusuem.com

It has become a tradition on these trips to partake a train trip on Day 2 to a nearby town and on this occasion, Bremerhaven was chosen, the location being a port city on the North Sea coast. The weather that weekend was biting and to arrive by the waters edge took this to a new glacial level, resulting in being possibly the coldest place I have ever visited. Tony Dewhurst pottered off to the local zoo where he said even the polar bear was trembling!  

We walked around shivering and after spying the rare sight of a C&A next to a Woolworths on the main shopping drag and visiting the submarine museum we went searching for an aperitif. This proved tricky as there was a dearth of bars, but we eventually located one near the station. The mein host was a tad miserable but we stacked the jukebox and had a couple of brews prior to heading back into Bremen.

Whilst heading to the gig that evening, we saw a poster advertising that the indefatigable UK Subs had played in a local venue the night before which we unaware of until that point in time!

I am not altogether sure what it called so it shall be known as The Eisen Bar. It was infinitely busier than the previous night and was packed to the rafters. The headline band were a local group called International Removals who were of the post-punk variety singing in English and produced a thoroughly enjoyable set. A google search informs me they are still in operation which gladdened me to see, and their recent output sounded good.   

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The Eisen Bar with the Husker Du ‘Metal Circus’ poster in the foreground. Image Credit Facebook

A central gathering point in German cities is the main Train station with trains running until very late. It is also a hub for food outlets, and we devoured some unwholesome snacks about 2am.

We were heading back to the hotel when one chap in the crew highlighted that he had seen an indie nighclub called ShagAll on the far side of the square, so we foolishly headed over to investigate. What an absolute gem of a place where the DJ playing a blinder and more Becks were supped, I recall Electric Six’s ‘Gay Bar’ being aired. This quality musical output resulting landing back at the digs at 4.50am!

5.5 hours later I was awoken by my roommate Dave Keane informing me we had to vacate the room by 11am. He was in fact incorrect as it was noon, thereby losing one hour of absolute golden slumber! Outside the hotel Bayern Munich fans were streaming past on their way to their Bundesliga match against Werder Bremen, who are coincidentally but unsurprisingly sponsored by Becks Brewery.

We mulched around town for a bit with stifling hangovers before heading to Paddys Pit, a subterranean Irish bar near the hotel. The reason for this alcoholic masochism was to watch PNE in a FA Cup tie v Chelsea.     

The first pint equated to the hair of a very vicious Rottweiler but worryingly I soon started to come around. We subsequently lost the match 2-0 and had some good-natured banter with locals who were in residence for the Bremen v Munich match immediately following our game.   

From there, we grabbed a taxi to the airport for the short flight back to Liverpool. We had pre-booked a taxi from a firm who turned out to be charlatans as they had not even departed from Preston by the time we had landed. When they eventually arrived, we remain convinced the driver had impaired version as he only very nearly avoided an incident at Switch Island!  

On arrival back in Preston we grabbed a sit-down curry in the Royal Piri Piri restaurant on East View on Deepdale Road, near the old Hollywood Bar and Stephenson Arms, before finally heading home for some desperately needed sleep!