Year: 2023

Manchester Venues 75 to 76 – Blues Kitchen

As you head down Deansgate and just across Bridge Street you reach the Lost Dene pub, which was a Covid hero establishment for me. We attended with a couple of friends just prior to the third and most challenging lockdown at the tail end of 2020 and they were superb finding us two tables adjacent to each other even though we were in different households. It justifies the mantra of always bring honest as groups were denied entry as they were patently not in the same household when challenged for additional details!  

A little further down Deansgate brings you to Quay Street where you find the Opera House. An establishment I have yet to visit even when in theatre mode, but I recall Uncle George and Tony Dewhurst attending there to see Gil Scott Heron shortly before his death in 2011, by all accounts it was a belting gig.

Next to there on Little Quay Street resided for many years the Old Grapes owned by Coronation Street’s character Vera Duckworth (actress Liz Dawn). It was for a while a meeting point for us and was utilised if we ever undertook a group taxi to a gig. It was situated round the corner from the old Granada studios. It finally shut its doors for the last time in 2016 and is now an office block with the 20 stories restaurant at its apex and is contained within the large Spinningfields complex.

The Old Grapes pub. Image Credit Manchester Evening News

Back on Quay Street there used to be the large Aussie sports themed Walkabout pub which I periodically used to visit. It opened in 2000 and closed for good on New Year’s Eve 2015.

The building itself used to be a Victorian Eye Hospital with many original features. It apparently bears similarities with the Manchester and Salford Skin Hospital that used to be further down the block. It then became the Post Office Social Club prior to the Walkabout era.  

The site remained empty for a few years until the Blues Kitchen group purchased it and added it to their existing three sites in London and it was opened post pandemic. They stage music seven nights a week and as the name implies, they dabble in the blues, soul and funk domain.

It has made great strides to retain the blues heritage, and this is exemplified by it retaining a stained-glass window retrieved from Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in New Jersey where the legendary Woody Guthrie once resided. It has a gospel roof created from 19th century tin plates retrieved from a disused church in Manhattan and there is also a bizarre option available of booking private parties inside a 1920’s Air Stream Caravan.

I had never really intently studied the roster here but when a couple of friends invited us to a gig, I jumped at the chance to visit. So, on 26/08/22 after a quick libation at Brewdog we deliberately arrived a bit earlier to sample the Manchester Blues Kitchen Bar downstairs which is an open access area even if you are not attending a gig upstairs.

It was vibrant and busy with standing room only and had low lighting and I liked the place instantly. On stage was the Kitchen House Band modelling the smoky Amy Winehouse vibe (not her tribute band Amy House Wine!).

  

Manchester Blues Kitchen interior. Image Credit secretmanchester.com

We then traversed up the ornate stairs to the 500 capacity Manchester Blues Kitchen Venue. The band we had come to see was Smoove and Turrell who have supported the irrepressible Nile Rodgers and Chic on a previous tour. My colleague at work John Scott (I do always try to resist calling him Bon!), used to DJ with Smoove in Newcastle back in the day.

They hail from Gateshead and have been in existence since 2007 and the bedrock of the band is Jonathan Scott Watson (Smoove) and singer/songwriter John Turrell. When they tour, they expand the combo with several other members.  On the night they produced an energetic slab of Northern Funk despite them all having to cram on to quite a small stage!  

Leeds Venues 12 and 13

The University of Leeds has a long history traversing all the way back to 1874. It was once part of the combined federal Victoria University which subsequently splintered into the universities in Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester. It is also the 5th largest establishment in the UK with over 36k students and the previous distinguished alumni include Keir Starmer, Jack Straw, Mark Knopfler, Corinne Bailey Rae, Little Boots and six other Noble laureates.  

At the 2014 Live at Leeds event, Leeds University Stylus was our final venue visited and was always designed to be the culmination of the evening as one of my all-time favourite bands Hold Steady were on stage. The Stylus is the 1000 capacity venue buried in the heart of the campus. In 2011 they installed a L’Acoustics KARA Sound System (apparently the only system of its kind in the UK) and have followed that up with regular gig and club nights.

Bars at either side surrounded the lower pit and dance floor in front of the stage and the set up was not wholly unreminiscent of the old Preston 53 Degrees Main Hall venue. Hold Steady came on about 10.30pm and opened with ‘Stuck Between Stations’, they were in good form as ever though arguably Craig Finn was perhaps a tad more wired than normal. ‘Your Little Hoodrat Friend’ was outstanding and they finished with aplomb with ‘ Massive Nights’ and ‘Stay Positive’. 

The Hold Steady on stage. Image Credit Grantland.

It was Gill’s first sighting of Hold Steady and she was fascinated by the devotion of the crowd towards the band, generated in my view by their evangelical interactive performances and the fact that Craig is a modern-day poet.

There was a further venue called the Refectory in the establishment where Albert Hammond Jr was still playing, but we had been on our feet for eight hours already, so we vetoed that one. There was an epic taxi queue outside, but we eventually made it back our digs in the outskirts of town.

We decide to make a return visit to Live at Leeds in 2021, delayed to October that year due to Covid, and there were still restrictions in place that made a multi gig event more challenging than it normally would be.

It was a chaotic start to the day as Northern trains excelled themselves again by cancelling our initial train to Piccadilly necessitating a No 50 bus ride and a walk across town. Refuelled by a healthy snack at the Pasty Shop we then boarded train to Leeds.

We found our hotel and then headed to the ticket exchange point at Leeds City College at Quarry Hill. So, finally wristband and clash finder had been obtained and a quick review of the listings revealed where we would go first to watch some music.

I wanted to grab the opportunity to visit some of the more outer based venues, so we headed up the A660 (Woodhouse Lane) beyond the universities to the edge of Hyde Park where we found the Leeds Lending Room @ The Library.    

The Grade 1 listed building is an impressive structure and has in a previous life been a fire station before its present guise as a library where the 200-capacity upstairs room was opened up as a music venue in 2009. Alt-J and Allusondrugs amongst others have graced the stage there.    

It was an intimate venue room and I liked it and on our visit The Blondes were playing. The band are a five-piece who got together at college and became housemates in London during the pandemic.

The Blondes. Image Credit pcnmagazine.uk

Despite the Covid restrictions they gained some traction and acclaim via their single ‘Coming of Age’ going viral on Tik-Tok resulting in two million streams. In the live setting they produced a likeable slab of indie pop.