Year: 2025

Liverpool Venues 11 to 12

I am returning this week to the ‘Beatles influenced’ musical haven of Mathew Street in the centre of the city. One of the establishments even goes so far as to name itself after one of their albums, namely Liverpool Rubber Soul. There are a suite of bars that line the street, and they are badged within the ‘Rubber Soul Complex’ and located within the Cavern Walks area.

Rubber Soul Bar. Image Credit go-eat-do.com

I surmise that the bar has been open for many years but can find no detail of this apart from the fact that it unexpectedly closed in 2009 before being extensively refurbished and reopened in 2013. One of the two bar rooms incorporates an exhibition pertaining to its history as a former fruit market and the legendary Liverpool Eric’s nightclub that is situated in the downstairs space.  

Additionally, TP Molloys the site of the previous Tutti Frutti nightclub which was originally behind the venue was changed into a carvery and grill restaurant. That building which dates back to the 1930s had lain empty for many years but this was also restored and is now called Yesterday. Rubber Soul is a fairly basic sports bar showing big screen sports and has DJ’s playing every Friday and Saturday. On one particular night I saw a singer called Callum play there.

The afore mentioned Eric’s opened on 1 October 1976 in the basement of the Fruit Exchange building in Victoria Street. Shortly after they moved to their new location of Mathew Street opposite the Cavern Club. The local promoter Roger Eagle was the driving force and used his experience from previously hosting nights at the Stadium in Liverpool and the Twisted Wheel in Manchester.

He was joined in the enterprise by Ken Testi, who managed Deaf School and Pete Fulwell who was the owner of the ‘Inevitable’ record label and latterly manager of local bands It’s Immaterial and The Christians. The choice of Eric’s name was a tad tongue in cheek and its particular plainness was in response to the trend at that stage of naming disco clubs with funky names such as ‘Tiffany’s’!

The original Eric’s in the 1970’s complete with intriguing graffiti! Image Credit pinterest.co.uk

A lot of life’s successes and failures can come down to timing of ‘sliding doors’ moments and they were very fortunate in this regard as the opening of the club coincided with the explosion of punk. Thus, in the opening month the Stranglers played and there were huge queues for The Runaways.  The Sex Pistols also performed which transpired to be their one and only Liverpool gig.  Other acts to play there include The Clash supported by The Specials (a fine double bill!), The Ramones, The Slits and X-Ray Spex.

They also had the novelty of staging two shows on Saturday’s, one a matinee set in the afternoon for the under 18’s and then a more regular gig in the evening. There was apparently one famous afternoon show when Iggy Pop played a storming set to a posse of school children who took him by surprise by singing a full rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ back to him. He finished the performance with ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ though due to his star quality the price of the show had doubled from the usual price of £1 to £2!

The mention of matinees makes me reminiscent of those days where bands would not arrive on stage before 11pm. It has now gone so far the other way that due to club nights following the gigs in some venues, the event can be finished by the very early time of 9.30pm. There were also in those days’ gigs taking place all year round and I recall Blondie once playing Glasgow Apollo on New Years Eve in 1979 which was recorded for Radio 1 and Old Grey Whistle Test.

Talking of timings and also the recent onset of spring makes me recall when my brother and I were young lads down in London on a weekend when the clocks changed and were heading back to Preston on an early train on the Sunday morning. When we got on the train back into the city, we both commented that it seemed remarkably quiet, little wonder as we had tangled up on our spring forward/fall back understanding. Thus, our thinking was that we were on an 8am train, but the real time was actually 6am, what a couple of plonkers!   

Iggy Pop on stage at the infamous Eric’s gig. Image Credit liverpoolerics.blogspot.com

The club survived until March 1980 when it was raided by police for drugs offences, and the last band to play there was Psychedelic Furs, I never visited in that era as I was far too young. The club was then briefly Brady’s before closing again shortly after. There was a significant time gap after that before the original venue reopened in 2011, with OMD playing on the opening night. I once recently visited the pub at ground level and saw a chap called Teddy playing.   

In 2009 Eric’s history was covering extensively in the tome titled ‘Liverpool Eric’s: All the Best Clubs are Downstairs, Everyone Knows That’. An ethos I can readily attest to as I have found that many of the most atmospheric venues are in cellar spaces, The Ruby Lounge, Roadhouse and Peer Hat in Manchester, EBGB’s in Liverpool and the 13th Note Bar in Glasgow to name but a few!

Manchester Venues 166 to 167

Directly outside the Manchester Oxford Road station in an old coffee shop and cycle hub they have now opened the Oxford Road Tap which completes the trilogy of tap bars at Manchester stations alongside the already existing Victoria and Piccadilly Tap. I have had one visit thus far to this small tidy craft beer spot where it has a large repurposed National Rail sign and also a live timetable, so you know exactly how much time you have to drain your pint!

Oxford Road Tap. Image Credit uk.news.yahoo.com

Opposite the train station access road and the Palace Theatre you will find the Grade II listed Principal Manchester building, though it is more widely known as the Refuge Assurance building. The Refuge company was founded in 1858 and moved to its Oxford Road location in 1890.

After purchasing the site, they worked with the renowned Victorian architect Alfred Waterhouse in designing their new head office, whose previous work included London’s Natural History Museum. The grand ornate high ceiling interior was built in 1895. There were further extensions in 1905 and 1912, the latter incorporating the impressive 220ft baroque clock tower which formed the new main entrance, with clock quarters stylised with a Manchester bee, which is now synonymous with many other contemporary artefacts in the city. The latest incarnation accommodated up to 1900 clerks.

During the Second World War they constructed two air raid shelters in the basement but thankfully avoided any direct hits. The Refuge company relocated to Wilmslow in 1987, the building then becoming Charterhouse Hotel and in 1996 it was renamed as the Palace Hotel. It changed hands again in 2016 with the Manchester Refuge Bar taking over one half of the building.

Refuge Bar. Image Credit we-heart.com

There are many separate spaces in this vast space, and these include the public bar that you encounter immediately upon entry. Behind there is the Dining Room where we have visited once for a very decent Sunday lunch, it is exceedingly popular, and we had to book a couple of months in advance. Next to there is the Winter Garden area and there is additionally the Den and a Private Dining Room which can both be booked with capacities of 80 and 10 respectively.  

I had walked past this building for many years on the way to the station, but it was around 2018, a couple of years after opening, before I finally made a visit to the bar. It is also handy as an alternate though tad expensive venue to contrast the nearby fine grungy pubs and has been utilised prior to late trains and for post Ritz and Gorilla gig drinks.

They have regular DJ’s on there but in April 2024, the day we sampled our Sunday fodder, I was delighted to find that my ‘bonus gig’ banner was flashing as there was a jazz band playing in the main bar.

The aforementioned attached Manchester Principal Hotel (now renamed post-covid as the Kimpton Clocktower Hotel) was subject to an extensive £25m refurbishment in 2016 which resulted in the creation of the largest hotel ballroom in the whole of the Northwest of England. The hotel is alleged to be haunted by a grieving war widow who committed suicide by throwing herself down the staircase from the top floor and this area was only accessible to the menfolk at that time! Room 261 is also to be avoided with reports of the sounds of children playing in the hours of darkness.  

The annual Manchester Literature festival has been in place since 2006 and was built on the legacy of its forerunner the Manchester Poetry festival. It is a two-week multi venue event that occurs every October and also provides a year-round Creative Learning programme which supports the next generation of readers and writers.

Principal Hotel. Image Credit Country and Town House Magazine

One of the selected venues for the 2018 event was the Principal Hotel. Marcus had a spare ticket for an audience with the Wedding Present lead singer Dave Gedge and this took place in one of the numerous function rooms on a Sunday afternoon.

As we exited the lift I ran into Jo Davies (nee Brewer) who was one of the large crew that I used to attend the Raiders/Warehouse indie nightclub with in the early 1990’s. I was a regular there between 1985 and my last attendance on John Dewhurst’s stag do in 2005. I know the next generation of sons and daughters now attend, though I did hear last week from one of those old timers on a recent attendance that one of the DJ’s was playing Taylor Swift, by heck that would never have happened in my day!

Dave was there to talk about a book he had recently penned with the interviewer Richard Houghton called ‘All The Songs Sound The Same’. The theme of the tome was to present 300 Wedding Present stories from fans, friends and band members including one from our current PM Sir Keir Starmer. He then followed the chat by playing acoustic versions of four of the band’s finest tunes.