Author: jimmyc1968

Manchester Venue 113 – Aviva Studios Festival Square

Every couple of years they hold the Manchester International festival with various events dotted around the city. They do however always have a central hub and in 2023 this was based at the new Manchester Aviva Studios. It has been constructed on the former site of Granada TV studios and is located on Water Street which can be accessed either via Liverpool Road from the Deansgate side or New Quay Street from the Spinningfields side.

The germination of the idea occurred following George Osborne’s Northern Powerhouse announcement in 2014, where £78m was pledged to build a purpose-built cultural space in central Manchester. It was remarkably UK’s biggest investment in a culture project since the Tate Modern in 2000.

Manchester Aviva Studios. Image Credit confidentials.com

It is run by Factory International and Aviva paid £35m for the naming privileges. It subsequently opened in June 23, but was somewhat predictably £130m over budget and 4 years behind schedule. Contained within is a 1600 seat flexible theatre and an open industrial 5000 capacity space.

The opening event was the Yayoi Kusuma psychedelic exhibition You, Me and The Balloons and this was latterly followed by a Matrix style dance event directed by Danny Boyle. They will stage sporadic music events with Underworld already having performed there and Richard Thompson and Adrianne Lenker from Big Thief playing later this year. The Studios have had mixed reviews thus far with accusations as to whether it could be classed as white elephant, but I will let others make their judgement on that potential synopsis.

In an adjoining outdoor space, in the first fortnight of July they set up the Manchester Aviva Studios Festival Square overlooking the River Irwell and the shamefully underused Ordsall Chord (Castlefield Curve) which runs between Oxford Road and Victoria train stations.

There was a stage set up and a choice of food outlets and the first ever beer vending machine I have encountered. There were events all day and as it was less than 10 minutes’ walk from the office I filled my boots with bonus gigs every lunchtime and post-work where I could.

I assisted this approach by changing my commute to the metro, to ensure I could head to the nearby Deansgate station for the tram home. The festival programme coincided with the annual Castlefield Bowl events, and I passed the entrance on a couple of occasions where there were hordes of fans gathering for Pulp and Hozier gigs.

Aviva Studios Festival Square. Image Credit prestigeeventsmagazineblog.com

The first act I saw on the lunchtime on 04/07 was Vulva Voce, who are an all-female string quartet but with added improvisation of folk aspects to the mix. They evolved from the nearby Royal National College Music (RNCM) and they were the winners of Nonclassical’s Battle of the Bands in 2023. On the evening visit that day I witnessed a young R&B singer from Wolverhampton called Karis Jade.

The following lunchtime I saw Mabon Jones, Dan Springate and Carmen Snickersgill who were badged under the local Bothy Project who promote chamber music in Manchester. On the teatime jaunt I met Gill, and we grabbed some food there whilst watching Emer (Fat Out) and a R&B artist called Chyrsalid Homo. The best act was Lavender Rodriguez (or alternatively just Lavender) who was born in Hampshire but now Manchester based who provided a pleasing slab of heavy afro-beat sounds.

Lavender Rodriguez. Image Credit aah-magazine.co.uk

The following week I caught K’in Ensemble, a 15-piece fusion collective again deriving from RNCM who combine classical, pop and jazz musicians from Mexico and many European countries. I also witnessed part of a set from Jenna G. There was then another Bothy Project featuring musicians Jenny Dyson, Lady Lamp and Alice Roberts. Krin was the next act I saw who mashed up West African drums with techno. The final act of the festival for me was Nxdia who born in Cairo in Egypt before moving to the UK at the age of eight. She retains the heritage of her youth by singing in both English and Arabic.

Gigs from Aboard Part 13 Vietnam – Part 2

We continued our Vietnam trip in 2014/15 by heading over to Phu Quoc, an island off the south coast where we spent Christmas Day and the trickiest challenge whilst there was to decide whether I preferred either Saigon Red or Saigon Green beer (for the record it was a marginal preference for the Green).  

When we were sat outside the cabin one evening, we witnessed the surreal sight of a cockerel casually walking down the path and then up the steps of the lodgings opposite. It then proceeded to tap its beak on the door and waited patiently, after two attempts with no reply it retraced its route and strutted off into the sunset.

‘Not the actual cockerel’. Image Credit raising-happy-chickens.com

I was at that point checking that I wasn’t drinking a Saigon ‘special’ beer but then gathered the intel from our neighbours that the previous owners had been feeding it, but they had flown home that morning leaving our resident cockerel shy of a snack that evening. This event reminded me of a story in Paul Auster’s ‘True Tales of American Life’, a book I would heartily recommend.  

Our next destination was Hoi An, with its ancient town and bustling marketplace and excellent food. We hired bicycles for a couple of days and cycled out to the nearby beach and into the residential areas where the tannoy’s on the street spouted out their ongoing Government propaganda.

When we were in a particularly touristy area of Singapore, we were stung with a beer price of nearly £10 (near to Manchester Ritz prices!), but in total contrast in one restaurant in Hoi An I obviously had to sample their local moonshine beer at 42p a pint. Unsurprisingly it was pretty poor fare! As we had been away for a sustained period, there was one night where we craved some different food. In this regard, we discovered a nearby Australian diner called Dingo Deli where we feasted on some excellent cheese on toast and drinkable coffee!   

Dingo Deli. Image Credit tripadvisor.jn.

On New Years Eve we headed down to the busy bars at Hoi An Harbour where they had set up a big stage for the celebrations, and performing was a local act called Louie, who were then followed by a fireworks display.  The only downside was the monsoon weather, so we saw the New Year in with a very tasty doughnut from a street trader before heading back to our digs.

A couple of days later we walked past Hoi An Que Nha Bar on the way to a restaurant and intriguingly we could see a stage set up. We passed a couple of hours later and the place was in full flow, and we were encouraged through the door by the local punters outside. To our astonishment we were provided front row seats in the packed bar resulting in envious glances from later attendees.  

Hoi An river view. Image Credit pinterest.

The venue was in effect a karaoke bar with backing music provided by a band called Hang Truang. We had no idea of the required etiquette as we crouched down on the little stools, but gathered quickly that karaoke was a serious business here and is all about the audience reaction though it turns out we had vastly different viewpoints than the other customers.

One singer who we thought was high quality was subjected to a brutally complete silence at the end of the track, but another performer who literally murdered ‘Yesterday’ by the Beatles was rewarded with roses thrown on the stage. I also unintentionally caused a bit of chaos by breaking the lavatory door, and I had only had a couple of drinks! We stayed for about an hour and thoroughly enjoyed our karaoke experience and it was a fascinating insight into the local culture.