As I am sure regular readers of this blog can attest, I have always been a huge advocate of attending Manchester venues. This is even though for my first 49 years on this Earth I was living in Preston, which has involved an extraordinary number of train ride commutes, quite often in challenging circumstances due to Northern Train’s incompetence. Don’t even start me on their brazen temerity relating to a staggeringly unjust penalty notice I received from them recently for making the ‘catastrophic’ error of buying two singles instead of the intended purchase of an open return for virtually the same price!
My first Manchester venue back in the mists of time in 1985 was the Apollo with the 10th being the short-lived Planet K in the Northern Quarter which I first visited in 1999. The 25th followed in 2011 with the Castle and the 50th was the Sound Control downstairs club venue in 2013.
The dramatic spike in numbers of venues visited on the numbers between 25 to 50 was in no small part to my attendance at several multi venue wristband events including Dot to Dot and Sounds from the Other city (SFTOC) festivals and it became a personal mission around then to see how high I could increase the overall number to.
When we relocated to Manchester in 2017, I had at that stage reached 76 venues and I knew the much sought after century was a question of when not if and I have since rolled on to run past over 150 and counting Manchester venues.
At SFTOC they utilise a central gathering area of the Regent trading Estate located behind Islington Mill where they have drink and food outlets and have acts performing in the Manchester Regent Trading Estate Car Park. In 2017 I saw the local artist Dub Smugglers and the following year witnessed an act called Kiss Me Again.
Manchester Regent Trading Estate Car Park. Image Credit soundsfromtheothercity.com
In a more recent year, they based the whole festival site around the Regent Estate, I didn’t attend that year, but I saw the feedback was unfavourable as punter’s preference was to have a suite of venues dotted all around, and they have not since repeated that experiment.
The other three venues in the vicinity are very novel as they based in the warehouse units which I am assuming are normally working areas at other times and can imagine they could have been fine sites for Acid House gatherings back in the day!
The first and largest one we visited was Manchester Unit 5 Regent Trading Estate. The first band I saw there was HMLTD, an art punk band from London town whose original moniker was Happy Meal Ltd. They were a vibrant bunch, and their garb embraced the 1980’s New Romantic era. The following year, I witnessed another London jazz infused artist called Laura Misch.
HMLTD. Image Credit nme.com
When in attendance at the SFTOC 2018 event I reached my 100th Manchester venue which was a big deal for me as it had taken 33 years to achieve that aim, the venue itself was Manchester Unit 2 Regent Trading Estate. I was hoping and praying it would not be a limp act to celebrate this milestone and thankfully the music gods were smiling on me!
The band was an upcoming Australian artist called Hatchie and her backing band and they produced a terrific slab of dream pop which was perfect for the occasion. I attended the festival again this year and we saw an excellent set from the C-86 infused shoegazers The Early Mornings, who turned out to be the band of the day.
Hatchie. Image Credit vrtxmag.com
The other area was the smallest one on the Reform Radio Stage within Manchester Unit 4 Regents Trading Estate where I have seen Bennett is Coming and a Spanish soul singer with African roots called Femme Fatene.