Year: 2024

Leeds Venues 20 to 22

I am this week returning to and completing the story of my visit to the Live at Leeds festival in 2021. This is a multi-venue wristband event with venues dotted all around the city and we walked and walked that day, covering around 27k steps.

The next site we visited was Leeds HiFi situated on Century Road. The precursor to this venue was the Underground nightclub as when that club closed its doors for the final time in 2000, the three original promoters moved lock stock and barrel into the new basement venue. They transferred all existing staff and retained all the original club nights in the new building.   

Leeds HiFi. Image Credit Ents24.

They hold a suite of DJ and live gig nights and reside mainly in the funk and soul and roots domain. Amongst others Nightmares on Wax, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs and 6 music’s Giles Peterson have appeared there. They have also held comedy nights with Alan Carr and Reginald D Hunter having graced the stage, and weddings have also taken place there.

It is a small venue that has a nice vibe about it combining a nightclub feel with a traditional downstairs gig room, and this is reflected in its previous local awards for ‘Best Nightclub’ and ‘Best Live Music Venue’. The band on stage at the time of our visit were a local act called Van Houten and they provided a pleasing slab of slightly wonky dream pop, their sound reminiscent of Swim Deep and Fatal Charm. They released their self-titled debut album in 2019 and have just penned a decent new single titled ‘Coming of Age’.

We then sallied over to Leeds Headrow House which has a long previous history as a former textile mill and latterly an Inland Revenue site and is located in one of the oldest parts of the city. It now encompasses four floors housing an award winning restaurant called the Ox Club, a large beer hall, two roof terraces and a 150 capacity gig room.

Leeds Headrow House. Image Credit inyourpocket.com

There is also reputedly a large and probably spooky Civil Defence bunker located underneath the site. On stage that day was a rhythm and blues artist called Mysie from London who has had support slots with Corrine Bailey Rae.

Situated nearby on Cookridge Street is the Leeds Nation of Shopkeepers. Its current moniker provides a clear clue to its previous heritage as during the 1950’s it was known as Harris Grocers. It then morphed into the Corner Shop and the Courtyard Bar until rebadging under its current name in 2009. It has a locally renowned outdoor courtyard area known as ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’ and the establishment went through a major refurbishment in 2017.

‘Garden of Earthly Delights’. Image Credit tripadvisor.co.uk

They have a regular pub quiz night every Monday and have an all-day ‘foodie’ reputation. They have DJ nights and also live music in the multi-functional 850 capacity arts space. In those early days the likes of Willy Mason, James Blake, Death Grips, Darker My Love (who I sadly never saw) and Two Door Cinema Club played there.

Upon entering I thought it was a tidy eclectic setting, but extremely busy. On stage I could just witness a portion of the set from a London emo band called Sad Boys Club, who last year released their debut album ‘Lullabies From The Lighting Tree’.     

Manchester Venues 108 to 109

In the 1990’s the regular pre-gig haunt when visiting the various branches of Manchester Academy was the Jabez Clegg public house. As that establishment gradually declined and subsequently closed, we then discovered the allure of Manchester Big Hands.

The pub is located at the top end of Oxford Road opposite the Red Chilli Chinese restaurant. It opened its doors in 2001 with the concept of creating a NYC dive bar, the kind of equivalent place where you would have expected the Strokes in their early days to have gathered and discussed the concept of their debut album, over a few cold beers!

It has battered low strung sofas where you can babble nonsense with like-minded punters and suits me down to a T. It does remind me somewhat of a bar version of the Raiders/Warehouse nightclub in Preston.  In more recent years it has the welcome addition of a heated outdoor rooftop space which you reach once you have navigated the cramped steps taking you upstairs.

Big Hands bar. Image Credit reddit.com

Some bands tend to attend there post -performance but in that regard, I have only personally seen Tad Kubler of Hold Steady and the 6 music DJ Marc Reilly. They possess a terrific noisy jukebox that at times has free credits available for communal use, though some younger punters are confused by the sheer concept of a jukebox! It became a tradition for a spell to ensure we had played ‘Hells Bell’s by AC/DC before we departed.   

One particular Sunday we were in residence prior to a Meat Puppets show and remarkably our group of three were the only punters in, the DJ had just finished playing a vinyl record and I asked whether they could switch the jukebox on. They willingly complied and the track I had selected ‘Black Math’ by White Stripes came on at ear shattering volume, which they then respectfully only turned it down by a smidge!

They occasionally have bands playing there, and I have been fortunate to randomly catch a few whilst imbibing a couple of pre-gig scoops. The musical acts squeeze into the slightly raised area at the back of the bar and in keeping with the ethos of the establishment they are normally thunderously loud.

Big Hands bar. Image Credit oxfordroadcorridor.com

The first in 2017 prior to a Helmet gig was a three-piece from Oldham called Hopper Propelled Electric and they produced a noisy sludgy sound reminiscent of early Stooges. In 2019 I saw a local band called Lurker and in 2021 saw an act called World without Frontiers. A few weeks ago, prior to a Therapy? gig I saw a couple of bands called Pray for Mojo and Swamp Kids.

In 2018 the original jukebox was stolen and unfortunately was never recovered. This coincided with the death of the bar owner Scott Alexander from cancer at the tragically young age of 43.  He was close friends with the members of Elbow and is thought to be referenced in their song Some Riot in the line of ‘Tall Gentle Boy’. Scott also owned the sister bar Temple of Convenience down near Oxford Road station.

Temple of Convenience Bar. Image Credit manchestersfinest.com

Now I have spoken previously about the merits of this establishment so will not duplicate that here. However, one tale relates to me and Uncle George being outside the Manchester Temple Of Convenience Bar Entrance and encountering a busker called William who asked us to name a tune and George challenged him with two obscure tunes, (so obscure neither of us to this day can recall the songs!). William without batting an eyelid instantly played vibrant versions of those songs to a rapt audience of two punters. For that very reason alone I have allowed him inclusion onto my gig list.