Author: jimmyc1968

Manchester Venue 192 – Palace Theatre

As you stride down the hill from Oxford Road train station you reach the junction of Oxford Road and Whitworth Street where Manchester Palace Theatre is located, situated across the road from the Refuge Bar. The grand old building designed by architect Alfred Darbyshire at a princely cost of £40,500 first opened its doors in 1891, and at that stage was known locally as the ‘Grand Old Lady of Oxford Street’, and the sister theatre The Opera House across town on Quay Street are owned by the same company. 

Manchester Palace Theatre. Image Credit ticketsonsale.com

Their first ever production was a ballet version of Cleopatra where they had a seating capacity of 3,675 though that figure has reduced significantly over the years to its current number of 1955. The theatre struggled initially but garnered more success when they had more popular performers playing there. Luminaries such as Lillie Langtry, Charlie Chaplin, Judy Garland, Gracie Fields, Danny Kaye and Laurel and Hardy have graced that very stage.

It had an extensive refurbishment in 1913 and was reopened seven months later by Harry Houdini. It was unfortunately struck directly during the Manchester Blitz of 1940, but then had successful productions of Guys and Dolls, Hamlet and Look Back in Anger running during the 1950’s and 1960’s.

It had a fallow period in the 1970’s and was threatened with closure but the intervention of the Arts Council saved the day. As a result, some further renovations took place before reopening again in 1981 with a production of Jesus Christ Superstar. In 2009 as part of the Manchester International Festival a premiere of Rufus Wainwright’s Prima Donna opera was staged there.

Musicians to have performed there include the Platters, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Pink Floyd, The Smiths, Johnny Cash, Damon Albarn, and the indefatigable Sparks were astonishingly playing there back in October 1975!

Sparks. Image Credit pinterest.com

The current layout contains three tiers of seating in the Stalls, Circle and Grand Tier. On our first visit in the early 1990’s we were sat in the vertigo inducing cramped seats ‘in the Gods’ watching West Side Story where we had a literal vertical view of the stage, but lessons were learned and never again have I ventured back up there! There are a plethora of amenities including the appropriately named Stage Door Bar and the whole venue is available to hire if you had the urge to do so!

I have cogitated long and hard regarding what may constitute a gig and have surmised (at least in my own head!) that in the scenario where bands are essentially part of the story of the theatre production that criteria is fulfilled.  

Thus, in September 2022, Gill and I had an outstanding credit note from previous shows that were cancelled during the pandemic so we utilised that in purchasing tickets to go and see the longstanding production of Ben Elton’s We Will Rock You, which had originally opened in the West End in 2002.

For the uninitiated the show was about the band Queen, and it is apparently classified under the category of a Jukebox musical, for which the definition is that it contains an abundance of pre-existing well known popular tunes, instead of songs being written specifically for the musical. Despite all that, the show personally didn’t work for me, and I found it all rather disappointing.

On the converse side, the other musical School of Rock that we saw earlier in that year was on a completely different level. It was an adaption of the original Richard Linklater movie released in 2003, which is an excellent feel good movie with a starring role for the effervescent Jack Black. Jack himself is a talented musician and was one half of Tenacious D who had a big hit with ‘Tribute’ which featured a cameo from Dave Grohl playing Satan.

The movie is based around the premise of Dewey Finn (Jack Black) impersonating a substitute teacher and turning a class of talented kids into a rock band in order to perform at a Battle of Bands contest.

Some of the children have had interesting lives since the movie with Lucas Babin who played lead guitarist Spider going on to be a district attorney in Texas. Miranda Cosgrove who was the agent Summer Hathaway was at the age of 19 in 2012 the highest paid child actor and has also released a few records herself.

Letter to Brezhnev. Image Credit imdb.com

There was also Caitlin Hale and Angelo Massagli who played classmates Marta and Frankie who met years later and subsequently got married 22 years after the original movie. This also brings to mind the two main actors Alexander Pigg and Peter Firth in the 1985 flick Letter to Brezhnev, who married other people but then later wed each other in 2017. I have recently watched the film again and it certainly stands up to scrutiny and my abiding memory from its initial release was the phrase ‘Kirkby Girls’ being uttered by Margi Clarke in a deep scouse accent!

The theatre show was a faithful reproduction with extra gags included, and the child performers were absolutely superb making it a very fun night. It was topped off perfectly with the show finishing in synchronicity with us able to catch the last train home from the station opposite.     

Stockport Venues 13 and 14

In March 2024 Gill and I decided to have a gander at the events contained within the Stockport town of Culture Weekender. After some Steel Band action at the Viaduct Park, we continued up the A6 to reach the Stockport War Memorial Art Gallery located on the corner of Wellington Road South and Greek Street.

The gallery is this very year celebrating its centenary as it was initially opened on 15 October 1925 by Prince Henry. At the time, the local residents decided against a singular traditional war memorial and instead built this as a place of reflection and healing and to commemorate those lost in the First World War. They have a constant rotation of events and there is currently a special exhibition to mark the anniversary with items of hope featuring artworks from local artists, and it is titled ‘Beautiful Things’. 

Stockport War Memorial Art Gallery. Image Credit onestockport.co.uk

It is a neo classically designed building with ‘Rocky’ style steps leading up to the entrance and it achieved Grade II listed status in 2007. It has a marble paved hall and fluted Greek columns and contains four individual gallery spaces. There are plaques inscribed with the names of the 2200 World War 1 casualties and further plaques have been added since to include the later 20th century conflicts.

On the day of our visit there was a highly sobering exhibition in place containing health workers testimonials on their reflections of the realities of working on the front line during the recent pandemic, it brought tears to your eyes!

In the memorial hall at the rear there was a local musician with a fine voice called James Holt who was playing some acoustic tunes. I thought he sounded and looked familiar, and I later confirmed that I had seen him previously at the Tribeca venue in Manchester as part of one of the Dot to Dot festivals. Despite a pretty good memory of previous performers, it is an ongoing occupational hazard when witnessing the artists again in a completely different setting from the first time I encountered them.

Just off the M60 and within walking distance of the town centre there is a large retail park called Portwood. It has the usual ‘delightful’ retail outlets but has been enhanced recently with the addition of an M&S Food Hall, though a second mortgage is sometimes required to shop there!

Also, there is a branch of Dunelm where shortly after we relocated I had to navigate the traffic to make two visits in one day, as I had a ‘middle age shout out’ of having to return some curtains as I had measured them incorrectly.

Whilst I was searching through the tsunami of choices the curtains must have read my rare grumpy mood and all decided in unison to collapse on the floor around me, causing me to utter the phrase ‘For F£$%’s Sake’ rather loudly before stomping off in a ‘Piers Morgan leaving the ITV Studio’ style strop to the nearest lavatory to calm down. Not my finest moment, but undoubtedly my finest ‘Dunelm’ moment!

Arden Arms. Image Credit pubgallery.co.uk

As you head back into town, you cross the main drag at what surely has to be the slowest pedestrian crossing in the whole of Cheshire and if you swing a left on Millgate adjacent to Asda you reach Stockport Arden Arms. This Grade II listed olde-worlde pub was built in 1815 as a replacement for Ye Blew Stoops, a coaching inn that dates all the way back to 1650. It is believed to be the oldest hostelry in the centre of Stockport and there used to be five large inns in that vicinity, but the Arden Arms is now the sole survivor.

There must have been some nefarious activities being undertaken there back in the day as it used to have a secret passage that enabled punters to flee from any danger and which led them through a tunnel to the nearby St Mary’s Church. I cannot envisage anyone taking that route would then have stopped a while in the church to repent!

The story goes is that the original builder of the Arden Arms, George Raffald Junior, used to hide in the nearby trees to catch any would-be burglars and the cellar was used to store bodies during influenza outbreaks. The original stables that date back to Ye Blew Stoops days can still be seen in the beer garden.

Arden Arms beer garden which the stage normally located at the end of the room. Image Credit facebook.com

My initial visit there was to grab some lunch, at which point I identified that they stage live music every weekend. Thus, in September 2024 Uncle George and I made a pilgrimage there on a Saturday night and discovered that the small indoor pub opened into an unexpectedly large and very impressive outdoor space, with half of the area being covered in front of the stage. Thankfully it was dry and reasonably mild on our visit, but I did think that the heated sheltered space would be a godsend in the winter months.

On stage were Blues with a Feeling, a Manchester five-piece blues band named after a track of that name performed by Little Walter. They provided a pleasing blast of 1960’s Chicago blues inspired sound.