Month: July 2025

Manchester Venues 179 to 180

It recently came to my attention that there are Thursday night live music events in a couple of hostelries in Didsbury village. So, on the 15th May this year I enrolled Marcus for a jaunt around the streets and also to have an overdue catch up over a couple of cold brews. When I first moved over to Manchester we did visit the Manchester Art of Tea a couple of times on Barlow Moor Road, but I had not frequented for a while so made that our initial meeting point.

Art of Tea. Image Credit spottedbylocals.com

The café bar is owned by Ryan Thompson and Karen Schofield who after working in a suite of Manchester bars decided to open their own business in 2010 in the location of a former record shop. Within a month of opening, the establishment had signed up with the Manchester Food and Drink festival. It is a cosy little European style establishment with a long narrow main room on entry with a scattering of seats outside.

They operate as a café during the daylight hours with tidy breakfasts and tempting fresh cakes before morphing into an informal bar in the evening and additionally they have the quirky touch of a display of tea pots that have been donated to them. It also doubles up as a picture framer and a second-hand bookshop with a further room at the rear displaying their current selection.

In 2014, they began to stage Thursday Music nights with an open mic and also featured bands. The events were organised by the local musician and promoter Matt Hibbert, and they ran for a spell of five years. He also set up specific ‘Artist tribute’ nights and hosted amongst others Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young evenings. A couple of regular performers in that period, namely Ayanam Udoma and Chloe Jones apparently appeared on the Voice TV programme and the former was chosen to be coached by Tom Jones.   

Ayanam Udoma. Image Credit thesun.ie

On my arrival on the night, I discovered a ‘Jimmy bonus’ as unbeknownst to myself I had happened to land on a rebooted Music evening. The place was very busy, but we purloined a couple of continental beers from the bar and managed to squeeze onto a small table at the back.

First up to the microphone was the new promoter and local singer called Emily Mercer who performed a short acoustic set. Her first musical foray was at the age of 13 when she played guitar in an emo band before she decided that the piano was now her instrument of choice. She was also one of the co-founders of the Manchester Women Songwriters collective. She has appeared at the Manchester Jazz Festival and has also released a slew of singles.  

We decided to hang around for the next act as they were playing in quick succession, which transpired to be an acoustic two-piece with the distinctive name of Jimmy Page XI. The main singer has been performing on the local circuit for around three years, and they played some jaunty upbeat tunes with active audience participation including the punters sat outside the open doors.  

As you walk back to the junction and turn left into Wilmslow Road there was for a short spell a bar called Juicebox but after that closed it was reopened as a cocktail bar called Bunny’s Outpost. This is the latest outlet of the Bunny’s Dive Bars chain and adds on the four existing branches located in the city centre.

Saints and Scholars. Image Credit tripadvisor.co.uk

Just beyond there and prior to reaching the library you will find Manchester Saint and Scholars, which has been a bar and restaurant situated in very that spot since approximately 2008. I can only assume the name derives from Irish history where in the 5th century following the collapse of the Roman Empire the country managed to stay immune from all the resultant European turmoil. As a consequence, on an intellectual and artistic front they entered into what is now described as ‘Ireland’s Golden Age’ which then derived the title of ‘Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum’ which translates as the Island of Saints and Scholars.

There are a few outside tables and a small bar area when you enter the ivy clad building which opens out into a larger main room where we have dined a couple of times. The venue also contains worryingly wonky stairs up to the lavatories. On the evening of our visit a band called Ceilidh Boys were playing a chilled set in the function room area.

Oldham Gigs

Whit Friday is the name given to the first Friday after Pentecost or Whitsun (White Sunday) and the date has a historical cultural weight in the Northwest of England as it is the date Whit Walks traditionally took place. On that very day in 1870 a brass band contest was held in Stalybridge and that expanded to further events in Uppermill and Mossley in 1884. From the germination of these initial competitions there was then a metamorphosis into a huge brass band event held in the Saddleworth district and the eleven villages that are within that vicinity. This is now known as the annual Whit Friday Brass Band contest.

A Whit Walk. Image Credit Manchester Evening News

It attracts hundreds of bands from around the country and the world and generates thousands of spectators. It is meticulously planned and organised as each band has their own individual transport to ferry them from location to location throughout the day and there is even a code of practice they sign up to.

Each village has an event on an hourly basis where the groups gather at a start point, play a song of their choice whilst heading to the stage where they undertake their competition song which is marked by individual judges. There is a minimum number of village events to attend for a band to have a valid cumulative score to enter into the overall competition. The whole shindig runs from 3pm until 11pm at night.     

I had heard about this event many years hence and always wanted to attend, so in 2024 that came to fruition with Jo and Paul alongside Gill and I making the sabbatical trip. Aside from driving, which was an absolute no-no, the only realistic form of transport was on a busy train where we could alight at Greenfield station.

You could put in some serious mileage if you wanted to cover all the locations, so we had to pick and choose and decided to head to Uppermill first as we had heard that it was the busiest location as the day progressed. It was about a 15-minute walk down the country road, and at one particularly treacherous road crossing there was a young punk speeding who very nearly mowed down a couple of punters we were walking down with!

After that drama, we entered into the village and liked it instantly and we headed to the march start point and waited for the 3pm bells to officially mark the event open for business. There were lots of hostelries and outside beer points, so we naturally purchased a cold beverage.

Uppermill High Street. Image Credit saddind.co.uk

Thus, we caught a suite of bands at the Uppermill Street Stage, and they are too numerous to review but I will reference the Brighouse and Rastrick brass band. They formed in 1881 and derive from Brighouse in West Yorkshire and are known around the world and they famously played a version of the Floral Dance that reached number 2 in the UK Charts in November 1977 and stayed there for six weeks and was only blocked from the top spot by Wings ‘Mull of Kintyre’. They have also been champions six times of this very event since 2011.    

At this juncture, we saw Dobcross Brass Monkeys, Boarshurst Silver band, Langley band, Redbridge band and Maltby Miners Welfare band. It was a very chilled atmosphere with interaction with the crowd on the heavily populated pavements who were gradually increasing their merriment levels with the numerous hostelries doing a roaring trade. I fully intend to return here for a proper look round on a quieter day. 

We traversed round to the playing fields where the Uppermill Stage was located and watched a few acts playing their performance piece. These included the Goldstone band, Ireland Colliery Chesterfield band, Uppermill School band and also the far travelling Lambertville band from New Jersey who were formed in 2007 to play British style brass. 

Munchies kicked in at that point and we raided a local chippy for a tasty snack and then walked back past the train station, considered heading down the hill to the Greenfield stage but eventually decided to walk a little further to the Friezland Stage.

Goldstone band in full flow. Image Credit flickr.com

We stood on the road opposite the church and observed that the bands introductory tunes included the ‘Wallace and Gromit theme’, ‘Take me Home Country Roads’ and my personal favourite was a jaunty version of ‘Baggy Trousers’.  The performers there included Amersham band, Lancaster University band, Ravenswood band named after a renowned marching track and the Backworth Colliery band formed in Newcastle in 1878.  

We then needed to warm up so gravitated back to the homely Railway Inn opposite the station. The pub has been there for over 150 years and does not provide food however does apparently have pork pies with various mustard options!

They also have regular music and that night’s band started to set up their kit, but we left before they began playing as we took a cautionary decision to catch an earlier train as they can be a tad unreliable on that particular branch line. Another busy train back into Piccadilly was the final journey leg thereby completing a fine afternoon out!