Month: October 2023

Manchester Venue 102 – Bridgewater Hall

Just down from St Peters Square whilst following the tram line back to Deansgate station you pass the grand building of Manchester Bridgewater Hall on the left-hand side. Nearby down some steps you would find the Piano and Pitcher which we used to occasionally frequent. This has in recent years adopted the contemporary trend by morphing into a large food hall called Society with various vendors and craft beers available, I visited there a couple of months ago and had a rather tidy but overpriced Tiffin Box. Your nearest hostelry on the Deansgate side is the ever reliable and olde-worlde Briton’s Protection.

Britons Protection. Image Credit pinterest.com

The earliest inkling of the concept of the Bridgewater Hall was when repairs were being considered to the nearby Free Trade Hall in the 1950’s following wartime damage. The Free Trade was at that stage home to the city’s Halle Orchestra and hosted concerts, and I visited there just the once in the late 1980’s to see a fabulous gig by 10000 Maniacs.

It was decided that a singular bespoke venue was required, and a site was chosen where the former bus station and car park used to be located. Architects were carefully chosen with the acoustic integrity being high on the requirements list. Construction started on 22 March 1993 with an overall resultant cost of £42million including a £1.2million pipe organ with an astonishing 5500 pipes and at the time of build was the largest instrument to be installed in the UK for over a century.

They adopted unusual building techniques in that it was formed from solid reinforced concrete and is built on around three hundred earthquake proof springs, both initiatives improve the sound and the second one protects the acoustics from all outside noise and vibration. These concepts are beyond my small brain to comprehend but I do know that the resultant impacts are highly effective as I have encountered some of the finest sound quality there of any venue I have visited.  

Image Credit Bridgewater Hall

The first concert there was held on the 11th of September 1996 and was officially opened by the Queen. Within the Hall there are food options in the Charles Halle Restaurant and the Stalls Café Bar, and they also serve ice creams at the intervals sparking childhood memories of Pearl and Dean music in the ABC and Odeon in Preston!  The main auditorium seats 2341 people and has been designed to be tiered in such a way for all attendees to be as close as possible to the stage.

They have around 250 events a year, mainly of a classical inclination but they do also undertake a smaller selection of carefully considered traditional gigs, often where the band’s sound matches the aesthetic of the venue. A friend of mine recently saw the Sparks there, of which I was rather jealous!

My first visit there was in May 2011 when Mercury Rev decided to play in full their timeless ‘Deserter Songs’ album. We were seated up in the balcony trying manfully not to do ‘Waldorf and Statler’ impressions. They played the record in running order even including the wonky ‘Happy End (The Drunk Room)’ track and then we were treated to a few bonus songs on top. The sound literally soared in all directions including vertically upwards to our box and it was a fabulous gig.

Bridgewater Hall. Image Credit meetmeinmanchester.com

My other attendance in 2014 was naturally to see Mogwai and was the 25th time I had witnessed them, this time we were sat in some exceedingly comfy seats at ground level.  I was envious of my pal Dave Dyson as it was his Mogwai debut, and they performed a stellar set with ‘New Paths to Helicon Part 1’ and ‘We’re No Here’ included in their encore.  

Other British Gigs – Part 6

Despite being a proud Lancastrian, I always enjoy visiting Yorkshire towns as they quite often have a rustic charm to them. In 2016 we made a visit to Ripon racecourse which has a long history dating back to 1660 and they were quite literally forerunners by having the historic first ever occurrence of a ‘ladies only’ race as early as 1723. It is an ongoing travesty that is has taken another three centuries since then to even reach any modicum of equality in this regard.  

The pleasant setting at Ripon Racecourse generates the moniker as Yorkshire’s Garden Racecourse, and we stayed nearby at the Black A Moor Inn which was literally five minutes’ walk away down a country road. We visited on St George’s Day where they rather quaintly had a separate turnstile and free access to anyone called George, if you could provide evidence of your name. It was a shame that we didn’t have Uncle George in tow on this trip!    

Ripon Racecourse. Image Credit the strayferret.co.uk

They had Theakstons beer on draught which is a good thing in my book and there was also traditional music with a set by the Wetherby Silver Band who have been performing since 1878, not with the same band members! It was a taxi ride into the town centre, and we found a couple of decent pubs to dethaw from the bracing winds outside and I recall the FA Cup semi-final between Everton and Manchester United was showing on a small TV in the corner.

We subsequently ended up in a rather average quality eatery, which was unusual as we always generally found a decent restaurant when away on these trips, quite often a curry house.   

In that regard when we visited Catterick races, we stayed in the nearby town of Catterick Garrison and had some tea in the Asha Tandoori, which I would quantify as a hugely traditional venue. This sparked a thought as what criteria constituted a perfect old fashioned Indian restaurant and I have identified five key elements evolved since my first experience of Preston’s ‘Curry 1/16th Mile’ down on Church Street back in the 1980’s!

The first is fine food and drink, including ice cold Cobra, which is a ‘Shay’ Given! The second is traditional bhangra music to tap your feet to and the third is a slopey floor and the dangerous vertigo inducing stairs, an example of this is in the Shahzaad Tandoori in Preston. The fourth is food being served on a trolley in true Mrs Overall style and the fifth is the most important of them all in that at the culmination of the meal you are served After Eights with no substitutes accepted!

Ten miles down the A61 from Ripon lies Thirsk where we visited the races in the summer of 2022, complete with a stay in one of the requisite quirky B&B’s you always find in these small towns!  They have been racing there since 1612 and it is a lovely homely old market town with many green areas on the outskirts and the course is within easy walking distance from town. They are the home of the World of James Herriot Museum and are also within a 20-minute commute of direct trains on to York.  

Thirsk Market Square. Image Credit reddit.com

At a bandstand at Thirsk Racecourse, we saw a chap called Aidan undertake a short set between races. We completed the day by visiting a couple of hostelries around the Market Square and then had a fine meal at Hung Moey Chinese restaurant to complete the evening.