Author: jimmyc1968

Lancaster Venues 11 to 13

When attending a gig at Lancaster Library earlier this year we made our first visit to the new Tite and Locke bar on the station platform and noted a poster outlining the upcoming 13th edition of the Lancaster Music festival which piqued our interest. Thus, it came to pass on 14/10/23 that a group of seven made our debut appearance at the event.

It is an excellent well attended free festival taking place over three days over the weekend (Friday through to Sunday). It is a very wide ranging encompassing over 50 venues across the city including events within schools, musuems, theatres, cinemas, busking stops and also in a novel addition, even gigs taking place on a floating mobile stage on a barge on Lancaster Canal! The local legends Lovely Eggs headlined the festival on the Sunday night.

After an initial meeting and whistle wetting in the Tite and Locke at 1pm, we left the station and headed down to the nearby historic Lancaster Castle which I had not visited for a very long time. There was a decent crowd already gathered at this early hour and there were a suite of merchandise and food and drink stalls scattered around and there were festival programmes on sale.

Lancaster Castle. Image Credit melodromestage.co.uk

They had also set up a small outdoor stage within the castle grounds embossed in medieval ‘Game of Thrones’ style and named it the Melodrome Stage and a band called 2nd Leg were performing. They were a vibrant seven-piece combo complete with fiddles, harps and mandolins performing Irish and Scottish jigs and they had evolved from the Irish dance group Absolutely Legless. 

Nearby and standing as a gateway to Castle Hill is the Lancaster Storey Gardens Craic Inn where a stage had been set up in the gardens adjoining the building. The Grade II listed Storey building was constructed in 1887 and funded by local philanthropist Thomas Storey. It was built to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee and was designed as a creative hub and covers diverse events such as business conferences, films, music and theatrical recitals.

Lancaster Storey building. Image Credit Visit Lancashire

On the outdoor stage we saw the Dundee folk singer Rhuari Campbell play. After playing in many other bands for a few years he was now heading out as a solo artist. There were also bands playing in the grand indoor building setting, but we unfortunately landed between the scheduled sets, so it didn’t allow me to tick this off as visited venue, at least not yet!  

A further short walk away and you arrived at China Street and the established rock venue in town The Pub. The establishment has been around for many years, and I recall visiting as far back as the late 1990’s but had never yet encountered a live act there. On the day they were rotating bands across two stages with Space set up as the headliners.

We landed at Lancaster The Pub Outdoor Stage set up in the beer garden and we shuffled out to there after purchasing an aperitif from the indoor bar. It was extremely busy and reputedly the most well attended venue on the day. On stage were a noisy rock band from Manchester called Luna Market and these kids could play. They were covering 1970’s standards and had a powerful female lead singer and an excellent guitarist, though I think he had played one too many games of ‘Guitar Legend’.

The Pub. Image Credit flickr.com

Whilst I stood there, I had a moment of clarity as I was thinking what more can there be in the world than watching a commendable rock band in an outside space at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon with a cold beer in hand and in attendance with good friends and like-minded punters, sounds like my kind of heaven!   

Manchester Venue 107 – AATMA

One of the continuing delights of Manchester is the proliferation of different and unique venues that continue to spring up on the gig circuit. One such venue is Manchester AATMA, which when I first visited it was known under its previous moniker as Kraak Gallery. It is literally buried deep in the back streets of the Northern Quarter and was once a derelict former textile mill. It is arguably comparable to Islington Mill with its commendable DIY ethic and industrial vibe and is a multipurpose event space with a 150 capacity.  

I first became aware of its existence in 2012 and I have visited eleven times in total. The first challenge I faced was finding the venue, it is located at 14-16 Faraday Street off Stephenson Square and is accessed via an unmarked door in an alley off an alley! You then climb up to the first floor to find the venue and as you enter you find the stage to the right and a pop-up bar down to the left with a battered old sofa providing the sparse seating area.

AATMA entrance. Image Credit youtube.com

The act that night was the Jacuzzi Boys who are an excellent three-piece garage/surf rock band from Miami. Their debut album in 2009, ‘No Seasons’ caught the attention of none other than Iggy Pop who invited them to be opening slot on his tour. They have been quiet for a few years but have just released a new EP.

My next visit was in December of the same year when there was a punky bill taking place that we on the hoof decided to dive in to watch the noisy Canadian opening band called Sounds of the Swarm. Due to the warehouse setting the room was icy cold and the can of Boddingtons Bitter purchased nearly moulded itself into my hand!

The old sofa! Image Credit headbox.com

We then headed to our scheduled gig at Academy 3 to watch God is an Astronaut before returning to Kraak to see the headliners Victories at Sea who provided a sonic outro to complete an aural assault of an evening.  My only one regret with the venue is that I was unable to attend when the Nottingham noiseniks Cult of Dom Keller played as I had thoroughly enjoyed them when I had unexpectedly caught them in Brussels when visiting the Belgian city.

Many of my visits here have been part of the numerous Northern Quarter multi venue festivals.  On one such visit in 2014 I saw the Leeds post-hardcore trio Unwave. I then witnessed Tacetmusic there and the following year caught a singer songwriter called Sarah Walk from Chicago who was a former graduate of the Berklee College of Art.

Victories at Sea. Image Credit withguitars.com

In 2016 I saw some doomy hardcore from Berlin band Rope. A year later a caught a London three piece called False Heads, who had just released their debut EP. They were discovered and subsequently mentored by the former Ramones manager Danny Fields who has form in spotting a good un! Support slots followed with The Libertines and Queens of the Stone Age before releasing their debut album in 2020.  

In 2018 I witnessed the punky sounds of the Nectars who thoroughly embraced the sound from their home city of New York. Later that year I saw an enjoyable set from the all-female three-piece Peaness from Chester who had originally met at the University in the town. Next up was a lo-fi soul singer from Manchester called Darcie. My latest attendance last year resulted in seeing a band called Hup and a Latin tinged artist with the memorable moniker of Carlos Loverboy.