Year: 2023

Manchester Venue 107 – AATMA

One of the continuing delights of Manchester is the proliferation of different and unique venues that continue to spring up on the gig circuit. One such venue is Manchester AATMA, which when I first visited it was known under its previous moniker as Kraak Gallery. It is literally buried deep in the back streets of the Northern Quarter and was once a derelict former textile mill. It is arguably comparable to Islington Mill with its commendable DIY ethic and industrial vibe and is a multipurpose event space with a 150 capacity.  

I first became aware of its existence in 2012 and I have visited eleven times in total. The first challenge I faced was finding the venue, it is located at 14-16 Faraday Street off Stephenson Square and is accessed via an unmarked door in an alley off an alley! You then climb up to the first floor to find the venue and as you enter you find the stage to the right and a pop-up bar down to the left with a battered old sofa providing the sparse seating area.

AATMA entrance. Image Credit youtube.com

The act that night was the Jacuzzi Boys who are an excellent three-piece garage/surf rock band from Miami. Their debut album in 2009, ‘No Seasons’ caught the attention of none other than Iggy Pop who invited them to be opening slot on his tour. They have been quiet for a few years but have just released a new EP.

My next visit was in December of the same year when there was a punky bill taking place that we on the hoof decided to dive in to watch the noisy Canadian opening band called Sounds of the Swarm. Due to the warehouse setting the room was icy cold and the can of Boddingtons Bitter purchased nearly moulded itself into my hand!

The old sofa! Image Credit headbox.com

We then headed to our scheduled gig at Academy 3 to watch God is an Astronaut before returning to Kraak to see the headliners Victories at Sea who provided a sonic outro to complete an aural assault of an evening.  My only one regret with the venue is that I was unable to attend when the Nottingham noiseniks Cult of Dom Keller played as I had thoroughly enjoyed them when I had unexpectedly caught them in Brussels when visiting the Belgian city.

Many of my visits here have been part of the numerous Northern Quarter multi venue festivals.  On one such visit in 2014 I saw the Leeds post-hardcore trio Unwave. I then witnessed Tacetmusic there and the following year caught a singer songwriter called Sarah Walk from Chicago who was a former graduate of the Berklee College of Art.

Victories at Sea. Image Credit withguitars.com

In 2016 I saw some doomy hardcore from Berlin band Rope. A year later a caught a London three piece called False Heads, who had just released their debut EP. They were discovered and subsequently mentored by the former Ramones manager Danny Fields who has form in spotting a good un! Support slots followed with The Libertines and Queens of the Stone Age before releasing their debut album in 2020.  

In 2018 I witnessed the punky sounds of the Nectars who thoroughly embraced the sound from their home city of New York. Later that year I saw an enjoyable set from the all-female three-piece Peaness from Chester who had originally met at the University in the town. Next up was a lo-fi soul singer from Manchester called Darcie. My latest attendance last year resulted in seeing a band called Hup and a Latin tinged artist with the memorable moniker of Carlos Loverboy. 

Gigs from Abroad Part 12 – Majorca

My first ever holiday abroad was in 1986 at the age of 18 to the Palma Nova resort in Majorca. My old pal Rick Clegg had managed to craftily purloin us the holiday through some chicanery from his employers at the time, a short-lived travel agent company called Jet Wing. The firm was based in Winckley Square, just round the corner from the Winckleys public house in Preston.  

Site of the old Winckleys Public House. Image Credit mawconsulting.co.uk

We were booked on night flights, and I recall us watching the latest episode of Minder before the parental lift to the Aeroporto. On arrival at the apartment complex, we discovered there was no room allocated to us, but they finally found us some digs right next to reception, though it looked like we had taken the room off other previous residents, as there were several feral cats residing outside the patio doors giving us the evil eye!

Whilst there we had many games of pool and Galaxians via 25 peseta coins and lashings of dirty beer. On the Saturday we had to utilise the services of World Service in a bar to retrieve the PNE result. Somewhat predictably, we nearly ran out of money on the last day as the final traveller’s cheque drained away!   

Galaxians. Image Credit blogspot.com

The returning flight was unfortunately redirected to Luton resulting in a 3-hour coach ride back to Manchester. I crawled into bed about 8am before being rudely awakened by a phone call from Rick about 3pm, who had reawakened his Boddingtons Bitter dependency that very lunchtime!  

Majorca is the largest island of the Balearic Islands and is a huge tourist destination with around 28 million passengers passing through Palma De Mallorca airport every year. It has the odd fleshpot locations, but there are many beautiful spots on the island. One of my sporting heroes, the tennis player Rafa Nadal was born and raised and still lives there in Manacor. Other previous and current musical residents include Eakthay Ahn, composer of the Korean national anthem, John Lennon’s ex-wife Cynthia, dance producer DJ Sammy and Sheila Ferguson from the Three Degrees.    

Sheila Ferguson. Image Credit Broadway World.

In subsequent years we have stayed in the resorts of Santa Ponsa and Cala D’or. In 2013 we headed to the most northerly resort of Alcudia. This sits close to Puerto Pollensa and the very picturesque old town of Pollensa old town.

In the resort there was a comfy friendly bar with sofas called Alcudia Bar Du 1. The first time I ever visited the owner who I had never met gave me a bear hug, which was slightly disconcerting, but he was full of joie de vivre!  They had a large open-air stage and we saw a decent set there from a band called Soulsearchers.  Further down the promenade there was another stage at Alcudia Harbour where we saw an act called Tres Quatro.

Throughout the fortnight I was tracking Andy Murray’s progress at Wimbledon before we headed home a couple of days before he secured his maiden title. We had glorious weather whilst we were away, and I recall we brought it home with us as Britain had a sustained heatwave for the next few weeks. 

We were able to fly in and out of our small local airport at Blackpool which had the added benefit of instantly accessing the car park outside the building and a very short 30-minute commute home. Unfortunately, it was a last trip out of Blackpool as the airport shut permanently a couple of years later.