Author: jimmyc1968

Clitheroe Gigs

About 20 miles east of Preston down the A59 lies the town of Clitheroe. The name is purported to derive from the Anglo-Saxon for ‘Rocky Hill’ and the Battle of Clitheroe was fought there in 1138 during the Anarchy (a civil war that took place in England and Normandy).

I have always been fond of the place and visited many times and have memories in my youth of climbing up the steep hill to the castle and enjoying the view from the elevated position. I recall a bandstand being located on the slope, and I have probably seen musical acts there, but they were never recorded in the Jimmy annals so would unfortunately drop into the ‘Lost Gigs’ criteria.

Clitheroe Castle. Image Credit www.rvta.co.uk

Similar to travelling to Southport there are somewhat annoyingly no direct trains from Preston, the route requires one change at Blackburn. Clitheroe is the terminus station so the train heads onwards to turn around and come back the other way, though I do believe there is a linkage from there onto the famous Settle to Carlisle line. 

For a lengthy spell, Gill visited a hairdressers in Clitheroe and on occasions I would head over and meet her afterwards and have a sally around the many hostelries in the town. We once broke the routine and grabbed the opportunity to visit the town of Whalley which is a smidge earlier on the same line, and that transpired to be a fine place to spend a few hours at.  

My good friend Tony Dewhurst has for many years lived in a village just outside Clitheroe, and is a huge Killing Joke and music fan and began to become involved with press duties at the Clitheroe Grand.

The Grand’s first function when built in 1873-1874 was as Clitheroe Public Hall, before morphing into the Grand cinema in 1921 and remains now as a Grade II Listed building. In a change of direction in 2005, the Lancashire Foundation purchased the building and re-opened it in 2008 as a community family focused arts venue also including sponsorship of a skate park in the previously mentioned castle grounds.

They also regularly have live music on the roster and the driving force and promotor behind the musical element was a thoroughly decent chap called Matt Evans who suddenly and sadly passed away during covid. Matt was a huge muso, and his personal favourite band was the Chameleons. Amongst others to grace the stage there was Wishbone Ash, John Bramwell and New Model Army. They also reintroduced the annual Ribble Valley Jazz festival in 2010 after a gap of 40 years.

It lived up to its name as a ‘grand’ venue as it had a homely layout with a decent vantage point from all angles. It reminded me of a more inviting version of the old main hall venue at Preston 53 Degrees.

Clitheroe Grand. Image Credit sseaudio.com

I attended two non-music events when a group pf us headed over in 2011 to see a Q&A with two Lancashire cricketers Mark Chilton and Ian Austin as a celebration of the county winning their first County Championship for 77 years. The other was to watch a woeful England draw 0-0 against Algeria in the 2010 World Cup where the best thing about the match was the very fine curry they laid on at half time. I also recall watching us beat Paraguay 1-0 in the 2006 World Cup in the Castle pub in the town centre.    

I have seen a total of three gigs here, the first was on 27/05/11 to witness an AC/DC tribute band called Livewire who featured both Bon Scott and Brian Johnson eras, the band were suitably thunderously loud. I must say have always struggled with the concept of tribute acts and not seen many and in the main when attending festivals. They on one hand serve their purpose, but they cannot feasibly lay a glove on the real band themselves. Having said all that, I saw them the same band there again on 11/03/16 where we subsequently missed the connection home at Blackburn and had to flag a taxi home!   

The other gig was a belter with The Beat in town and Rankin Roger and Junior Rankin in full flow and they topically transplanted the name David into their version of ‘Stand Down Margaret’. It was a very merry evening, and the train journeys home are a tad hazy!  

Manchester Venues 79 to 81

Heading into Didsbury Village down Wilmslow Road from the East Didsbury side brings you first to the Crown Pub. This establishment was cited for flouting the COVID rules and was shut down for over a year before recently reopening under new ownership. Nearby to there is the terrific Sangam Indian restaurant which I have frequented many times.

Closer to the metro stop lies the Fletcher Moss pub, previously the Albert, which I must pay homage to as it is a proper old-fashioned boozer with fires on in the winter and a large beer garden to bask in during the summer months. It has always been run by the Hyde’s Brewery and is firmly entrenched in the ‘Blue side of Manchester’ camp, so much so they lay buses to and from the Etihad for Manchester City games on match days.

A hundred yards away on School Lane you would find the Manchester Botanist. This establishment was previously a Wetherspoons pub called the Milson Rhodes before in 2016 becoming the 12th branch of the Botanist chain. The Botanist pubs all have an inviting cosy layout, on my first visit there it was more in the restaurant domain, but they have recently recalibrated to having a larger drinking only area.  

The Milson Rhodes, predecessor to the Botanist. Image Credit ssmcamra.co.uk

I have seen five musical acts here, the first two being a local singer/songwriter called Liam. The third being an unnamed band and the remaining couple being a geezer called Piano Man who tinkled away in the background with laconic deliveries of easy listening cover songs, though he did have a fine singing voice. The last of these attendances was the cold Christmas Eve just passed.

Many of these pubs referenced are quite often listed in either the original or updated Didsbury Dozen. This is a renowned list of twelve commended places to visit though attempting all of them on one evening could be detrimental to your health!

Picking up the route again on Wilmslow Road brings you the Dog and Partridge. Recently Paul Heaton of Housemartins and Beautiful South fame generously placed money behind the bar of 60 pubs to celebrate his 60th birthday, including this establishment. Also, In the last year he ensured the prices at his gig at the Manchester Arena were capped at a reasonable level to consider the impact of the current cost-of-living crisis, much like Billy Bragg did all those years ago where he had stickers on his albums to pay no more than £4.99. All in all, Mr Heaton sounds like a thoroughly decent principled geezer!

Next door is the Dockyard, previously the Stokers where in an extremely busy setting I watched the 2018 World Cup England Quarter and Semi Final matches. The owners at this point also ran their sister pub of the Plough in Heaton Moor.

A couple of strides away is Rudy’s Pizza restaurant which was previously Rafa’s Tapas where on 30/11/17 we perched on seats on the street opposite Manchester Didsbury Library to watch the Christmas light switch on (even Santa arrived on a fire engine!) which also included a set from the Didsbury Brass Ensemble.

Didsbury Library. Image Credit wikimedia.

On the same side of the road as the library is the Station Pub owned by Marston’s brewery where they host music three nights a week, but I have not yet seen an act play there but I have sampled their fine Guinness and sat in their cosy back room watching the Masters Golf.

Opposite there is the Manchester Head of Steam, a pub chain of eight venues created in 1995 that is owned by Cameron’s Brewery based up in Hartlepool. The Didsbury branch opened in February 2018, and I twice have seen a young folk singer called Callum Rory Norton play there.