Year: 2025

2024 Gigs – Part 3

I always manage to catch some random performances in venues around Oxford Road train station prior to heading home. One such venue is Manchester Grand Central where in May I saw a band called Level Up, in September I witnessed Throwback, in October I caught Ben from the Block and a month later Warrington act Pray for Mojo. The latter combo provided a pleasing slab of psych rock in the vein of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.  

The other venue in that vicinity is the old stalwart Manchester Thirsty Scholar. I visited the Scholar in August and October where I saw a couple of double acts called Alvin and Rob and Sid and Benny. Jenny Jazz followed at the tail end of October.

My final attendance in December was part of the Year’s End Festival on a monsoon style rainy day where first up on stage were a noisy garage rock band called Redchecks. They are a Welsh act who are now based in Manchester, but somewhat confusingly formed in Glastonbury in 2021.

Scatterchild. Image facebook.com

The other performers were locals Scatterchild who had recently released their debut album ‘An Everyday Landscape’. It was possibly the busiest I have seen the pub in all my visits, and we snuggled into a spot perched on the bar. It turned out be my last gig there prior to the recently rebadging of the hostelry into O’Connells Irish pub, still thankfully staging live music.

Another venue of the Year’s End festival roster was Manchester Retro Bar Downstairs Stage. It was only my third visit to the cellar and as it transpired my last as the venue is now closed for good after a thirty-five-year tenure. It is due to be demolished soon to make way for the Sister regeneration project which aims to generate 10,000 jobs and 1500 new homes.  

Retro however are still aiming to relocate and set up in a new site and are apparently exploring possible locations in this regard. The band on stage were called Wren and they cut a very heavy presence with their noisy sludge metal and it is the kind of music your Granny may love!  

The final festival venue to reference was further down Oxford Road at Manchester Deaf Institute Lodge. The first act I saw was Meelik who were most definitely the first ever band I have seen from Estonia. I then undertook some research on famous bands from the northernmost of the Baltic states and the intriguing name that caught my eye was the punk band called Bedwetters!

Meelik. Image Credit escbubble.com

Meelik fall more into the indie genre and are literally a high school band formed originally by their guitarist, Rain. Confidence in their musical ability was initially gained after winning one of their school song competitions. They had a break from 2011 to 2022 before reforming and entering their national Eurovision Song Contest qualifiers where they obtained a fourth place. On stage they wore school uniforms though they avoided Angus Young comparisons by the virtue of them wearing long pants! They were rather quirky, and I enjoyed the portion that I saw of their set.

The other act was Nadia Sheikh who is a Spanish/British singer and songwriter now based out of London. She self-released a slew of singles prior to obtaining a coveted 19 date support slot for Stereophonics on a sold out tour including dates at Manchester and Cardiff Arena. She had a heartfelt expressive voice which was overlaid over an indie backdrop sound.

There were also acts playing in the Manchester Deaf Institute Music Hall. First up was Kynsy who was probably my favourite performer of the whole day. Outside of her stage non de plume name she is known by her family as Dublin born, now London based lass Ciara Lindsey. She gained her musical stripes as a teen in an all-female rock band before branching out as a solo artist and received many favourable reviews. I liked her soulful voice and heartfelt tunes, and she reminded me of Hatchie.   

Kynsy. Image Credit NME.com

The other artist playing was Orphan Boy, a combo from Cleethorpes but now based in Manchester. Upon sighting them, I had a sense of déjà vu which turned out to be justified as my annals informed me that I had seen them twice before, once at the Wickerman Festival in 2008 and the other at the Mad Ferret in Preston.    

There was one additional visit to the Music Hall in August when I saw Southall, who are sometimes also known as Read Southall, reflecting the founding member who hails from Oklahoma. The sextet is strictly in the country rock mould and have released four albums in total since 2015 and the lead singer also has a likeness to the old crooner Mick Hucknall.

Although I can never reference the latter named without casting my mind back to Mark and Lard’s infantile but humorous Ancient Customs CD in 2010 where the singer, actor and comedian Bernard Wrigley (nicknamed the ‘Bolton Bullfrog’) undertook ‘Two Ronnies’ style readings on top of musical accompaniments with titles such as ‘Humping the Hucknall!

2024 Gigs – Part 2

My opening gig of the year was on the 9th of February at Manchester Yes Pink Room, where I attended a novel event. The band playing was Mull Historical Society who are the brainchild of singer and songwriter Colin MacIntyre who was born on the island. He has recorded five albums under that band name, one of them on the Blanco y Negro record label which released possibly my favourite ever album, Jesus and Mary Chain’s ‘Psychocandy’, which is now somewhat astonishingly 40 years old, but in my view remains a timeless recording.

It was declared as an early show as he was undertaking two sets, and he proceeded to rattle through his plethora of folk tunes. Outside his musical pursuits he is also a novelist and published his debut tome ‘The Letters of Ivor Punch’ in 2015 which is unsurprisingly set on Mull. Therefore, it made a degree of sense when he brought the prolific Scottish crime fiction writer Val McDiermid onto the stage.

Mull Historical Society record flyer. Image Credit mullhistoricalsociety.com

She has created many different series and personas in her books, two of which have been dramatised for television, namely Wire in the Blood and Karen Pirie, the latter I have been watching recently and thoroughly enjoying. She has been badged in a sub-genre rather lazily described as ‘Tartan Noir’.

Mr Macintyre had recently created an album called ‘In my Mind There’s a Room’ where he approached many authors including Ian Rankin, Nick Hornby and Jacqueline Wilson to pen articles describing a past or present space that has had a significant impact on their life. He then devised music to complement these personal words and scribing’s that had been kindly donated to him.  

Val was chosen for the Manchester date as she used to reside in the city and has used it as a backdrop for several of her novels. She was also the Manchester Evening News crime reviewer for four years. Her contribution on the night was to read a couple of passages pertaining to the room where she writes her books.

I had one further attendance there later in the year to see Chubby and the Gang. The band derived from members of the British hardcore punk scene that was in place at the start of the century. They had previously been in groups such as Violent Reaction, Arms Race and Gutter Knife. The driving force throughout has been a chap called Charlie ‘Chubby’ Manning-Walker. You could certainly see the spirit of Ramones in their sound and approach, and I enjoyed their short but spiky set.

One advantage of the Yes venue is that there are two music locations within the same building and with some chicanery and schmoozing you can sometimes smuggle yourself into the other venue after your particular gig has finished. Thus, on the night I saw Mull Historical Society I managed to catch the last three songs of Hayden Pedigo’s performance in Manchester Yes Basement.  

Hayden Pedigo. Image Credit The Fader.

Hayden was raised in Amarillo in Texas, and he had guitar lessons from an early age and subsequently sent in a video of him playing in an abandoned school into Maramara Records label. This resulted in him being signed up and releasing his first album ‘Sevens Years Late’ in 2013, at the tender age of 19.  

He launched an unsuccessful campaign in 2018 to run for a local council seat, but his quirky and sometimes surreal approach garnered national attention. He has also runway modelled alongside other musicians including St Vincent at Gucci’s 100th anniversary fashion show.

I believe he was undertaking his first ever British tour, and his music was in the folky acoustic nit-picking guitar instrumental domain. He reminded me mostly of John Fahey and you could literally hear a pin drop in the venue.  

On a weekend in the middle of September we undertook a double header with Ride on the Friday following by a gig at Manchester Bridgewater Hall on the Saturday. It was a late summer type of evening, so the show was preceded by a couple of scoops in the Rain Bar beer garden.

Upon entry to the venue, we encountered a very civilised circular queue at the bar, which is somewhat synonymous with the establishment in general. We had a fine seat right above the stage and the act that night was the old troubadour Marc Almond who I was seeing for the first time.

Marc Almond on stage at Bridgewater Hall. Image Credit weshootmusic.com

He was born down the road in Southport and has been performing for around 50 years and initially came to prominence in Soft Cell in the early 1980’s. He had a horrendous motorbike crash in 2004 resulting in being a coma for a month. In 2018 he received an OBE for his services to arts and culture.

When he arrived on stage, he did outline that he had nearly cancelled the gig as he had a sore throat, but like the trooper he is, he carried on and you really could not notice that he had an ailment as he had a fine set of pipes for a 67-year-old. He was premiering a covers album and was playing no original tracks thus us a result he did not play my favourite track ‘Say Hello Wave Goodbye’.