Year: 2025

Manchester Venues 163 to 165 – Jazz Festival

The HOME complex in the centre of Manchester is in effect three venues rolled into one and has five cinemas, two theatres and a decent 500 square metres of gallery space contained within. They encompass all stages of the delivery as they cover the commissioning, production and presentation of those aforementioned artistic pursuits. The modern building is situated on Tony Wilson Square and is a stone’s throw from the old Hacienda nightclub site and was opened in May 2015 at a cost of £25 million.

Home Complex. Image Credit hotels.com

It was a joint venture between the Cornerhouse cinema and arts centre next to Oxford Road station and the Library Theatre company and both organisations then relocated into their new home. The Cornerhouse was famous for hosting the UK premiere of Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs and was the first public gallery to display artefacts from Damian Hirst. I have sampled a couple of cold ones in the bar that used to be located there prior to its closure.

HOME has inherited several patrons including film maker Danny Boyle, actresses Meera Syal and Suranne Jones and musician Phil Collins. It is a busy old spot as they host 10,000 events annually and it has been included in the TimeOut’s list of the Top 10 cinemas in the UK. They are commendably forward thinking environmentally as they stand as carbon literacy champions.

I have never yet actually visited one of their arts events, but I have devoured a pizza in their café if that counts! I have also basked there in the summer on their outdoor tables and recall watching Coco Gauff’s first dramatic appearance at Wimbledon on one of the big screens.

In this quarter which is classed as being located in the Oxford Road Corridor you would also find the large Gas Works Brewbar, built on the old Gaythorn Gas Works which contains an in-house brewery, shuffle boards and a large seating area outside. Simon Wood’s restaurant used to be located here prior to its recent closure but there still remains Hakkapo and the Indian Tiffin Room.

Manchester Jazz Festival. Image Credit manchesterjazz.com

The longest running festival in the city is the Manchester Jazz Festival which was first staged in the summer of 1996. The first event took place in St Ann’s Square and was jointly organised by Manchester City Council, Musicians Union, Northwest Arts Board and a local brewery. It was a very small scale venture with only nine bands and a DJ on the roster. The first year coincided with the IRA bombing, but commendably the inaugural event was rearranged and staged a few months later.    

The annual event is run as a not for profit charity venture and has grown considerably over those intervening years, with an international exchange organised to mark the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester. In 2005 further exposure was gained when BBC Radio 3 chose to undertake a live broadcast on the launch night. The most recent edition featured over 60 free and ticketed events incorporating multiple venues and they will celebrate their 30 year anniversary in 2025.

Now I have to be upfront and confess that Jazz is my least favourite musical genre, however when I noted I was in that very area on the sunny opening night and there were free gigs on prior to the event I was attending, the ‘gig addict’ in me knew I had to take advantage of these free hits!

Thus, on the night on the seventeenth day of May 2024, CCTV would have picked up Marcus, Uncle George and I mulching down to the Manchester First Street Main Stage. In a very busy area, a band called Mangorata were performing. The 6-piece jazz fusion band derive from Leeds, where they met initially as students at Leeds Conservatoire and a year earlier, they had released their self-titled album.   

Heading further away from Whitworth Street West you then arrived at Manchester First Street (Ask Garden Stage) located on James Grigor Square. Mr Grigor was a renowned 19th century botanist from East Anglia.

James Grigor Square. Image Credit alamy.com

The band on stage were the Gaz Hughes Trio, with Gaz being the original drummer for the Matthew Halsall Band and one of their early albums was nominated for a MOBO and they won Best Jazz Album at the Giles Peterson worldwide awards. On a personal level he won the people’s vote for Jazz Drummer of the Year in 2019.  The trio is completed with Andrzej Baranek on piano and Gavin Barras on double bass.  

The final venue of the day was inside the bar area at Manchester Home Stage where we witnessed Secret Night Gang, a local jazz, funk and soul act who had recently released their second album ‘Belongs on a Place Called Earth’.   

Glasgow Venue 11 – Bellahouston Park

Glasgow Bellahouston Park (Pairc Bhaile Uisdean in Gaelic) is a public park in the Southern quarter of Glasgow and encompasses a tidy area of 180 acres, it first opened its doors to the public in 1896. There were additions to the site over the next few years including a municipal golf course being located there.

Between May and December 1938, the Empire Exhibition was held in the park and the opening ceremony which took place in nearby Glasgow Rangers Ibrox stadium attracted a crowd of 146,000. Despite it being an exceptionally soggy summer, the Exhibition attracted an astounding 12,800,000 visitors and it wasn’t even open on a Sunday! I know it is a long time ago as that is the year my beloved Preston North End last won the FA Cup.

A flyer advertising the 1938 Exhibition. Image Credit barnebys.co.uk

The most striking exhibit was Tait Tower (the Tower of Empire) which rose to 300 feet in height. There is an urban myth, though hotly denied, that its subsequent demolition the following summer was due to concerns around it being cited as a geographical reference for German bombers.  Regretfully of the 200 artefacts built for the exhibition, only the Palace of Art remains and even that is now a Sports Excellence Centre!

The site is a perfect backdrop for large public events. It has hosted the 1978 World Cross Country Championships, a gathering for the evangelist Billy Graham and two papal visits, the first in 1982 by John Paul II attracted a crowd of approximately 250,000. On the musical front, there have been Scottish pipe band competitions and Coldplay and Snow Patrol have also performed there.

Due to its inherent suitability, resembling a mega size version of Avenham Park in Preston, they began in August 2013 to stage three-day Glasgow summer sessions events there with Kings of Leon, Avicii and Eminem being the original cast of headliners. In 2019 Mogwai announced they were to play but in a slightly unusual twist via being in a support role to the Cure. Upon hearing this fine news, tickets and trains were purchased with Uncle George and Andy Berry escorting me on this particular jaunt.

Bellahouston Park. Image Credit Ents24.

I undertook the now extra leg from Manchester to Preston where I met the other chaps, and we jumped on to the next Avanti going North. After we grabbed our digs for the night, we had a couple of cold ones in a local bar which preceded a fish and chip tea. We then travelled on the Paisley Canal line from Glasgow Central to the station at Dumbreck, which is located 250 yards away from the park.  

There was a pleasant treelined avenue en route before landing at the security gates. Inside we met up with Marcus and his then current girlfriend Sarah who were also in attendance. The weather was unfortunately a bit tempestuous, and the ground was a tad muddy as a result. First up were the ever noisy Twilight Sad who now reside on Mogwai’s Rock Action label, and I was witnessing them for the fifth time in total.

Mogwai played under the worst of the weather and after so many years of watching them it felt hugely odd that they were not the headliners, but they were clearly honoured to be asked to play on the bill by one of their favourite bands. Their shortened set still contained the highlights of ‘Ithica’ and ‘Mogwai Fear Satan’.

Before the main act we decided to refuel with some more overpriced ale and trogged up to the hill to the main beer tent. Upon arrival, the people waiting kept snaking outwards and it wasn’t immediately evident where was the end point of what must have been the longest beer queue in the whole of Christendom! One upside was that we had a clear view of the stage, but the Cure were already performing by the time we finally reached the front.

Somewhat surprisingly, and not least to myself, I had never managed to catch the Cure live, the nearest I had come previously was at the Manchester Move Festival, but a decision was made to catch the reformed Pixies who played the night after. I had heard reports from my peers that they could sometimes be a tad ‘Neil Young contrary’ by playing a set of album tracks but on the counterpoint of that others had said they were compelling in a live setting.

The Cure on stage on the night. Image Credit youtube.com

Thankfully on the night I witnessed them, they fell into the second category. They were one of the tightest bands I have ever witnessed, bringing to minds other such accomplished bands on first sightings such as Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Wolf Alice, Electric 6 and Fontaines DC.

They were also mesmerizingly uncompromising with the refreshing attitude of if you don’t like it, move on, I have so much respect for bands like that! They performed a 27-song set with an epic seven track encore and despite tough competition, my favourite was ‘A Forest’ as I have always adored that tune.                          

On the return journey home the next day, we encountered a very strange scenario. The train ground to a halt at Lancaster station with no discernible sign of onward traction, it transpired that our forward engine was broken. Thus, the ask was for us to walk over the bridge to the other platform and swap places onto the original northbound Glasgow train, which would then retrace its route back to Preston. 

This necessitated ten full carriages of punters swapping from one train to another, including the young, old and infirm and as I am sure you can appreciate it was a fair period of time before we on our way again!