Month: August 2023

London Tenth Trip

A Northern invasion of London is always to be savoured when Mogwai decide to play in the capital city. Thus, when they announced they were to be incorporated in the bill for the Meltdown Festival in 2014 by playing Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank we jumped at the chance to attend.

Uncle George, John and Tony Dewhurst and I headed down on the Virgin express to and dropped our bags across the road at our digs at the handy Premier Inn opposite Euston Station. We met Nigel who had headed in from Brighton at a boozer in Borough Market where we discussed my gig list and the very early germination at that stage of the idea to create this very blog!

We progressed down the river and had a drink at the bar within the Globe Theatre. As we passed London Tate Modern, I witnessed a young singer called Jolie Fox on a makeshift stage. We continued down the river afterwards to then arrive at the London Royal Festival Hall.

Globe Theatre. Image Credit travellousworld.com

The Festival Hall was opened in 1951 after an expenditure of £2m and was built as part of the Festival of Britain which was instigated to provide a boost to the national morale after the Second World War. It sits alongside the Hayward Gallery, The Queen Elizabeth Hall, and the Purcell Room within an 11-acre site all under the auspices of the Southbank Centre, with the main venue having an all seated 2900 capacity.

It has been run as an independent concern since 1988 and the building has Grade 1 listed status. In 2014, their Festival of Love concluded with 70 couples, including 15 same-sex couples marrying on the main stage. On the musical front, Grace Jones and Patti Smith have played there and Brian Wilson premiered his sixth album Smile with a live performance.

Royal Festival Hall. Image Credit circular1.com

We mulched about briefly in the downstairs area and I purchased a new Mogwai t-shirt from the merch stand, Clinic had supported that night, but we had missed their set. We headed upstairs and grabbed our seats and admired the surroundings before Mogwai took the stage. I thought ‘Travel is Dangerous’, and a thunderous ‘Mogwai Fear Satan’ were excellent, with the latter track ending the initial set, before the aural assault continued into the encore with ‘New Paths to Helicon Part 1’ and We’re No Here’.   

Afterwards we jumped on the nearby tube for the commute to the final gig of the evening, but annoyingly I left my newly purchased T-shirt in the carriage when disembarking! Our destination was Chalk Farm station which takes you instantly into another of those innumerable London suburbs with its own high street, bars and community.

The tube station is next to the Roundhouse venue where many fine bands have undertaken residencies there, our next venue was not as highbrow and was namely London Chalk Farm Fiddlers Elbow.

Chalk Farm Fiddlers Elbow. Image Credit londonsubscene.net

It was a filthy rainy night (not in Soho!) and we struggled to locate the pub, but we landed eventually much to our relief. The hostelry was built in the 1840’s and was previously known as The Old Mother Shipton before holding the Fiddler’s name since the 1970’s. It is a Grade II listed building and a homely venue with Chesterfield sofas and a music room with a 150 capacity.

It is an independently run concern and they host alternate event such as poetry readings and book signings, but their main pursuit is live music, with both the Vibrators and The Damned having played there back in the day.

On the night of our visit, the band on stage were the MOBBS, who billed themselves as ‘garage punk rock ‘n’ roll at one hundred miles per hour’ but unfortunately, they did not quite live up to that rather enticing preamble!            

Manchester Venue 93 – Rose and Monkey

Nearby to Shudehill Bus Station, you will find two fine old-fashioned boozers, The Angel and the Marble Arch, the naming of the latter indicating its linkage to the Marble brewery and the pub also has the added bonus of a sloping floor, evident even before you have imbibed a drop of ale! If you then headed from there over towards Ancoats you would locate the Wing Yip Chinese supermarket where Gill and I used to visit in the 90’s to obtain ingredients for us to be wannabe chefs during the time Gill was undertaking her nurse training further across the city.

Marble Arch pub. Image Credit timeout.com

Back on Swan Street is the food hall Mackie Mayor where you can take your pick from a choice of cuisines and a plethora of craft beers, and I have sampled a couple of wares there, including some tasty pizzas. Mackie seems to have set a trend by inciting other similar establishments to spring up in other suburbs of the city and also at Stockport Market.

Just around the corner is Manchester Rose and Monkey. The building that now houses the pub was built in 1783, the reason for the creation was a reaction to the boom in population resulting from Richard Arkwright building the world’s first ever steam powered mill right outside the front door. Sixty years later it was first recognised as a pub, in fact two, as there was an additional one in the basement! There were many names across the years, The Glasgow Tavern, The Grapes, John O’Groats, Tam O Shanter and then latterly the Burton Arms.  

In the late 19th century, the two local gangs of ‘Angel Meadows’ and ‘Bengal Tigers’ regularly clashed. Around that time the Smithfield Market was built directly behind the pub and the olde world charm of the nearby Smithfield Arms still remains. Music also abounded on the streets with the production via the residents in ‘Little Italy’ of barrel organs and hurdy gurdies and the proximity of the market turned the Burton into a renowned yet somewhat dubious musical establishment.

Manchester Rose and Monkey beer garden. Image Credit mancunianmatters.co.uk

It was a brash Man United football supporters haven in the 90’s before rebadging itself into a real ale pub and a subsequent name change to the Rose and Monkey. It is now a homely establishment, and the small stage is just inside the front door and has hosted events by The Blinders, Goa Express and John Bramwell of I Am Kloot fame who performed in the large beer garden at the rear which contains a fully functioning vegan bar in the summer. There is also a bonny resident pub dog called Django who has somewhat bizarrely been credited on a recent Mysterines album.  

My one musical visit there was during the 2019 Dot to Dot festival. It was the most geographical stretching version of that event I had attended, and we had walked up from somewhere in the Ritz area so were craving a quick sit down. They had closed the front door due to the proximity to the stage, so we gained access via the beer garden.

Upon entering we were met by the sound of a lass who was performing on a piano on the little stage, she had a beautiful voice and was a compelling soothing watch. The artist in question was Megan Dixon Hood from Macclesfield and she has been referenced in the ‘forest pop’ genre and perhaps could be likened to Florence and the Machine and she has recently released her debut album ‘East of the Sun’.   

Megan Dixon Hood. Image Credit bandsintown.com