Month: August 2024

Manchester Venues 133 to 134

The Manchester Retro Bar is located on Sackville Street, at the other end of Charles St from the Joshua Brooks pub and Factory 251 venue. It is situated underneath the train line at the mid-point between Oxford Road and Piccadilly. It is actually listed under the auspices of Manchester University as it resides in their North Campus area which houses the school of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. It is close by Vimto Gardens where the unusually large Vimto bottle and associated fruit is housed, which can clearly be seen when scooting past on the train.   

Vimto Gardens. Image Credit mikkitiamo.com

It was originally called the Swinging Sporran, which was an archetypal biker’s rock bar. Due to its proximity, UMIST students also frequented, and it was the site of very early sets by the Chemical Brothers, who at the time were called the Dust Brothers. The Retro Bar has a modernist vibe and would not feasibly look out of place within a 1990’s housing estate as it is essentially a pub built into a car park!  Gill and I stayed once at the hotel next door, now called Pendulum, in the days of affordable hotels in Manchester before they skyrocketed to the London prices now in place. 

The Retro has a bar area at the ground level where they once filmed a concert scene in the Cold Feet TV series when John Thomson played drums for his son’s band. Downstairs is a 120 capacity club and live music venue which hosts regular shows. The Retro Bar closed for a spell in 2017 but was subsequently reopened later that year under the name of Hive. Perhaps living up to its original name I did discover that in the last couple of years Tiffany and Spear of Destiny’s 40th anniversary tour took place there with Kingmaker scheduled for September.  

Retro Bar. Image Credit trustinns.co.uk

I had walked past the venue many times and noticed there was a live band scheduled to play on 28/02/13 when I was in town. Thus, after a Joy Formidable show at the Ritz I dragged Uncle George along to grab the opportunity to pay a visit prior to heading up to Piccadilly for the last train. The act that night was a local combo called Paper Tigers.  

My second and only other visit was as the first venue of the Dot-to-Dot multi venue wristband event on 24/05/19. The act that afternoon was a 3-piece from Cheadle called Elephant and the Rider. They had an indie angular sound and had only issued a couple of EPs at that stage. They have just recently released a couple of further singles which are starting to garner some radio airplay and interest from BBC Introducing.

If you travel further down Sackville Street across Whitworth St West, you reach Manchester Tribeca located in the area of that name which skirts both Chinatown and the Gay Village much as it does in the original incarnation in New York. The literal translation of Tribeca is Triangle below Canal. This was our second location of the same Dot to Dot event referred above.

In a continuation of the attempted New York replication, the bar is multi-tiered with a mezzanine area by the entrance with comfy sofas then onto a raised area by the bar. Downstairs, in a bizarre twist you will find a lounge bar with real beds, appropriately named B.E.D! They also have additional spaces called Blue Lounge and Purple Lounge and there are regular DJ sets at the weekend running into the wee small hours.

Tribeca Bar. Image Credit licklist.co.uk

When we visited, we grabbed a stop in the upper bar with a view down to the makeshift stage which was located in front of the huge bay windows with the afternoon sun filtering through, it created a bonny vista.

There was a decent local singer/songwriter called James Holt playing. He had a challenging start to his life as he was diagnosed with bilateral moderate to severe hearing loss at the age of four. However, he didn’t let this define him by subsequently graduating with a first-class honour’s degree and MA in Music Composition at the University and Salford and then launching a musical career. He has recorded at Abbey Road Studios and has been cited as ‘fresh and exciting to listen to’ by the producer Brian Eno.   

Gigs from Abroad Part 17 – Tenerife

Tenerife is the largest and most populated of the Canary Islands, containing 43% of the total population of the archipelago. Located there are two separate World Heritage sites at La Laguna and Teide National Park. Back in the day of the New World colonization many Spanish expeditions on their way to the Americas had a cheeky stop off there for additional supplies. It was also the location of the worst ever aviation crash in 1977 when two Boeing 747’s collided on a foggy runway resulting in 583 deaths.  

Teide National Park. Image Credit peakvisor.com

Many movies have been filmed there including Fast and Furious and Jason Bourne and music videos with artists such as Brian May, Mike Oldfield and Pendulum. It is a popular holiday destination with five million tourists visiting annually and we decided to make our debut in November 2023 in the Costa Adeje resort. Whilst in residence we walked many miles and frequented numerous establishments and restaurants where we saw a plethora of low quality music acts but as cited previously, I need to cover everything in these blogs for it to be a full compendium of Jimmy gigs!

So, let’s begin with the Tenerife Berlin Bar on the main road where we saw an artist called Paddy. From the road to the harbour front there are a suite of escalators and on the first level down is Tenerife Scallywags Family Showbar where in passing we witnessed Rebecca Bond and an excruciating Boy George tribute. Maintaining that outstandingly low bar, we briefly endured a Chris Rea and a Neil Diamond at Tenerife Old Lodge.

We spent many hours walking up and down the promenade which at the following restaurants Tenerife La Farolo De Mar we saw Pablo, Tenerife Qomo where Beth was performing and Tenerife Cala where Ella played. Nearby was the Amalfi restaurant overlooking the sea where we visited one lunchtime and there was an unseasonably torrential downpour resulting in half of the establishment flooding out, thankfully for us that was an anomaly as the sun shined for the rest of the week.       

There were also beach bars visited and these were namely Tenerife Diana’s Bar where The Fleetwoods were playing and Tenerife Cocoa Beach Club where a half decent performer under the moniker of Purple Rain was playing a set. Back up on the main road was Tenerife Unique Bar where a chap called Dave T was on stage and further round the street in the ground floor shopping arcade a place called Tenerife Cocktail House sprung into life in the evening hours and a crowd gathered for Doug to sing his tunes.  

One night we took a break from the bright lights of the resort and took a cab up into the hills to find some solace in the quiet streets of Costa Adeje old town where we located a panoramic vantage point. There were also some homely local restaurants and one that locals flock to is called the Oasis near the top of the hill and the Church. We managed to purloin a table and enjoyed their simple and tasty staple of spicy chicken and chips washed down with a couple of ice cold beers! 

Costa Adeje old town. Image Credit tenerifebooking.com

The remaining four events at least had some quality control to them. First up was Didi in the Tenerife Sky Bar who had a lovely smoky voice and there were fine views from there overlooking the ocean. Nearby is the live music bar Tenerife Route 66 where we witnessed a decent band called ElectriccirKus. The next occurred when we were heading down Tenerife Bar Duque Promenade and there was a terrific violinist called Maria performing. I recall she did an absolutely stellar version of the ’Game of Thrones’ theme which was spellbinding!

The final one occurred at Tenerife Harleys American Restaurant and Bar which is modelled on a biker bar diner with large plates of unhealthy food and live music from Wednesday to Sunday each week. It was a very busy spot on the night we visited, and we could only obtain seats perched at the bar.

The resident house band were Soundchaser who formed in 2004 and have twice won the ‘prestigious’ Tenerife Entertainment Award for best live band. They have recorded a couple of albums and undertook a European tour in 2012. The lead singer Marcos Rodriguez took a break in 2013, living in Belgium and Germany and undertaking a six year stint as the composer and music producer for the heavy metal band Rage, before ‘getting the band back together’ in 2019.

Harleys Bar. Image Credit harleystenerife.com

They are now a covers band but played at a very healthy volume and played three AC/DC tracks, which is always fine by me. These kids could play and had an engaging banter with the audience and had a humorous extended monologue in Spanish with the gist being that they would continue in their native tongue until the crowd became more responsive!