Month: May 2023

Manchester Venues 84 to 85

At the rear of the previously reviewed Blues Kitchen venue on Quay St lies Artillery St which runs into Longworth St. It is a hidden unprepossessing street with many industrial units and at its intersection resides the renowned Rafa’s Tapas restaurant. I have never sampled their wares and have heard it is a challenge to book due to the enduring demand for punters to find a table. My preferred Tapas option is either one of the Evuna’s in town or nearer home the terrific Casa De Moor in Heaton Moor.

Rafa’s restaurant. Image Credit Yell.

Next to there is the ‘superclub’ History nightclub which unsurprisingly I have never felt the need to visit! Back round the corner on Artillery Street you would have found Manchester Sub 61, a very short-lived gig venue, and I can now source only scant information on its history, but it looks like it existed between approximately 2009 and 2010.

They did hold a regular indie-rock night there which was showcased as the ‘Little Black Book’ and also operated as a Visual Arts space for local artists to exhibit. It is listed as a basement club, but I have memories of heading upstairs so perhaps the venue had a separate gig room. Apart from the gig I attended the only other band I can reference playing there was Chameleons Vox in December 2009.

On 25/09/09 I met up with Uncle George in the Old Monkey pub on Portland Street after he had been watching the cricket at nearby Old Trafford. I mentioned I had just heard of this new venue, and we decided to go and check it out. The venue was housed in an industrial unit redolent of what a New York apartment looks like when portrayed in the movies.

The first support was Die Der Daus, the name translates from German as three different descriptors of ‘The’, namely the Masculine, Feminine and Neuter Noun versions. The main support were called  Tamallas.

The headline act was Doll and the Kicks from Brighton who were a four-piece formed in 2005 and were personally chosen to support Morrissey on his 2009 European tour. They had just released their self-titled debut album and disbanded in 2011 but it does like they subsequently reformed and are still active.

Doll and the Kicks on stage at Sub 61. Image Credit flickr.

In a half empty venue Hannah Scanlon (Doll) was an engaging energetic presence on stage and their music had elements of Be Your Own Pet, Blondie and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the latter perhaps reflecting the aforementioned NY vibe of the venue.

Manchester Satan’s Hollow is situated just off Princess Street between China Town and the Gay Village and a stone’s throw away from the nearby Night People venue. It was opened in 2000 and is firmly in the rock/metal genre. They have club nights and also a regular roster of gigs.

The entrance aims to exemplify the gates of hell replete with devil horn insignia and inside is an archetypal ‘toilet circuit’ venue with sticky floors and lamentable beer. We visited there on 06/02/10 on a whim as we were passing, and the chance presented itself to tick off the venue on the Jimmy roster. We were en route to our debut attendance at Sound Control.

Looking at the archive listing of gigs that have taken place in the venue, one caught my eye when I saw Leatherface performed there in 2007. I quite liked their material, but I am more of a fan of their spin off band Former Cellmates and particularly their terrific 2008 album ‘Who’s Dead and What’s to Pay’.

  

Manchester Satans Hollow. Image Credit homes4u.co.uk

The band on stage during our visit was Envy of The State, a rock band from the musical backwater of Telford and the band were unmemorable but there was the novelty of having a stage in the middle of the room allowing you to stand behind the band and watch them from a rarely seen angle!   

Other British Gigs 5 – Ayr

I always readily jump at every opportunity available to head North of the border and one of my favourite places to visit is the town of Ayr. The town is situated on the southwest coast of Scotland and lies just south of Prestwick Airport.

The main musical claim to fame of the airport occurred on the date of 3rd March 1960 when a certain Sergeant Elvis Presley had a stopover as he was just finishing up his national service. Upon alighting from the plane, he reputedly asked ‘Where Am I?’. Due to the astonishingly unhealthy control his ‘manager’ Colonel Tom Parker held over him this was rather mournfully the only two hours he ever spent on British land!

Elvis has left the plane! Image Credit pinterest.com

Ayr is a popular tourist destination due to its railway links and the fact that it has a fabulous beach slap bang in the centre of town. Robert Burns was born nearby and there is also a considerable musical heritage with Stuart Murdoch (Belle and Sebastian), Simon Neil (Biffy Clyro) and Mike Scott (Waterboys) having been born there.  It was also obscurely recognised as the second healthiest town centre in the UK in 2014 by the Royal Society of Public Health.

I missed an opportunity to visit in the late 90’s when John and Tony Dewhurst and Uncle George had a very merry night in the many hostelries before the following day heading to catch the ferry at Wemyss Bay over to the Isle of Bute.

The reason for them visiting this unusual location was to witness a famous Mogwai gig in Rothesay on the island. I was always then under the impression that the band headed back on a chartered boat with fans to the Port of Glasgow whilst undertaking a DJ set, but Stuart Braithwaite corrects me on that take of events in his recent autobiography where they actually stayed on Bute that evening and had their own private party.    

A random fact for you now, Rothesay Castle is one of a very small list of castles in Scotland that still has a remaining moat. The source of this information was from a line in an Iain Banks book Raw Spirit, purchased in a charity shop in Settle, that I am currently reading where he went in search of the perfect Whiskey dram. Iain remains my favourite ever author and his early untimely death in 2013 still stings alongside the corresponding loss of the delightful anticipation of waiting for his latest novel to be released.

Gill and I have visited Ayr a couple of times to attend the Gold Cup and the Scottish Grand National meetings at the nearby racecourse where they have been held since 1965. On the second occasion I recall it being absolute carnage on the packed shuttle bus back into town, but in a Scottish high jink’s fun kind of way!

On our initial visit in 2011 we stayed the night before the races due to the long commute journey involved getting there. There were some fantastic restaurants located in the town including a superb ‘cheap as chips’ Chinese place next to the Wetherspoons and Gill still contends she sampled the best ever Lasagne in one of the Italian restaurants.   

On the Wednesday night, I was corresponding with my pal Tony Dewhurst who was down in Somerset to potentially witness Lancashire Cricket Club win their first County Championship title for 77 years, but it was looking very unlikely at that stage. On the Thursday morning, we took a life-affirming walk along the beach trying to pick some winners for the day and the sunshine was thankfully cracking the flags.

Ayr ‘Riviera’ Beach at night. Image Credit Pinterest.

After the meeting had finished, we headed into the Ayr Racecourse Horseshoe Bar to allow the crowds to clear before heading back into town.  As we were chatting to another couple a local band called Sistrum booted up and played a set in the corner of the room.

In the taxi back into Ayr I got a text from Tony informing me that Lancashire had just sealed the title, so a glass was thus raised to their historic achievement in an Irish bar near to the station, prior to having a superb curry to finish the trip in style.