Author: jimmyc1968

Gigs Abroad Part 7 – Utrecht

I am fortunate to have a regular group of pals who undertake an annual weekend trip away in Europe, though our first post-apocalypse trip next year is a change of direction again to Belfast. The trips consist of a splash of culture, music, and lathering’s of ale!

There have been numerous incidents along the way, Uncle George’s Wallace and Gromit imitating ‘Wrong Trousers’ in Munich springs to mind, but that is another tale entirely.

Whilst I am referencing our visit to Munich, we did our usual Day 2 train trip, this time to the nearby chocolate box town of Freising. Upon arrival we climbed the hill out of town to Brewery Weihenstephan which is the oldest brewery in the world and is an independent profit-seeking enterprise owned by the Free State of Bavaria, where we proceeded to spend a leisurely couple of hours in the sunshine.

Brewery Weihenstephan. Image Credit TripSavvy.

When we landed back at the small train station, we noticed it had a very thin platform. This fact became hugely relevant when a seemingly endless freight train sped through and the air pressure it created was extraordinary, perturbing enough for adults and I am sure it would have been terrifying for kids.

I recall there were a suite of large outdoor beer halls in Munich with a particularly huge site contained within the local park. 

On another trip in Heidelberg, we passed a sleepy town called Bruschal and decided to jump off and have a peruse. A couple of the lads hunted down a bar whilst a group of us were peckish, so we headed to the Thai Restaurant across the road from the station. I was a tad dehydrated so I put in a simple request for some Jasmine Tea. They mistook the order and proceeded to brew six pots of tea for all of us, you could hear the kettle running for over half an hour, it must have displayed as a mysterious spike on the Karksruhe district electricity meters!  

On a subsequent visit to Heidelberg, we took a break from the Christmas markets to head up into the hills on the funicular train. As we approached the apex there was a voluminous drop of snow from the heavens which caused some significant hindrance to the bemused looking driver on the return trip.

Returning to the musical spectrum, we visited Utrecht in 2012. After landing, we made a tactical error at Amsterdam station by catching the slow train, which stopped at every lamppost en route! The lesson was learned, and we ensured we caught the express train when returning back to Schipol airport. Whilst residing there, we undertook our day trip into the bright lights of Amsterdam.

Utrecht is an ancient city dating back to the Middle Ages, is the fourth largest city in the Netherlands and Utrecht University is the largest in the country.  It is an eminently walkable city with a proliferation of barges and gobsmackingly enormous bike shelter storage areas that created in my mind the scenario of desperately trying to find your bike at the end of a long day. They also have miles of bike lanes that you absolutely do not cross unwittingly for the fear of being flattened!  

One night we found Utrecht T’Oude Pothuys, residing on Oudegracht. It is situated in a grand old building that is over 400 years old and it has a canal side patio therein. It was an inviting place and had an olde world feel and have music on every evening of the week and is open until 3am at the weekends. On our visit a local act called De Avonduren were playing who had a jazzy trip hop vibe about them.     

Utrecht T’Oude Pothuys. Image Credit russchertekstenbeeld.nl

Manchester 74 Soup Kitchen – Part 2

I recall being sat in the Soup Kitchen bar in early 2017 when I knew that we would soon be relocating to Manchester, in the background I could hear the distinctive intro theme song to Marc Reilly’s 6 music show and for some odd reason that very event made the upcoming move feel infinitely more authentic!  

In Feb 2015 I unearthed a diamond when we saw Ex-Hex there, coincidentally my 550th gig. They are an all-female garage rock trio from Washington DC and had just released their terrific debut album ‘Rips’.  Uncle George’s reaction was priceless, he watched silently for the first three tracks and then spun round and exclaimed ‘where the hell did you find this lot Jim?’. The justification for his infectious enthusiasm was due to a compelling performance by the band, inciting memories of previous forbearers The Runaways and the Slits.

Ex-Hex. Image Credit The Daily Telegraph

They had supported the legendary Rocket from the Crypt and I also saw them on a later tour double billing with the Jacuzzi Boys. On this night they were supported by Princess, an arty American band who could be loosely labelled in the ‘math rock’ category.

The next band on the roster was The Cheatahs, who unusually had Canadian, American and German members but were based in London! I had first picked up on them via their excellent self-titled debut album evoking highly favourable comparisons to the seminal Sugar album ‘Copper Blue’. After releasing their second album, they sadly disbanded in 2016.

For the first half of the gig the sound was shambolic as it could not cope with their sonic attack. The second half was very enjoyable and perhaps their finest track ‘The Swan’ was especially glorious. They were supported by a Brighton psychedelic rock band called Novella.  

The Cheatahs. Image Credit Genius

In May 2016, Babeheaven were on the roster. The London duo produced introspective electronic pop music and finally issued their debut album in 2020 called ‘Home for Now’. Later that year I witnessed Trudy and the Romance, a three piece from Liverpool, previously they were simply called Trudy. They were perhaps best quantified in the country blues bracket. 

In February 2017 the weather gods did not smile on us as there was a huge storm that evening, but we just about managed to navigate into and out of Manchester on the infrequent trains left available. I am glad we did because Julia Jacklin was excellent with her uniquely soothing voice. She was brought up in the Blue Mountains outside Sydney in Australia which we have fortunately had a chance to visit. She deservingly now receives a lot of radio airplay.

I then saw Jakl (Hughie Gavin) who was a singer/songwriter from Margate. I have just read a story about him where his dad was hospitalised with a Covid coma, he wrote a specific song and played to him every day, his father woke up a week later and sang the melody of the song back to his son as it was the only thing he could recall when he was in the coma.

Next up was multi-instrumentalist Jacob Allen who was originally a bedroom recording artist from South London who plays under the stage name of Puma Blue. He was followed six months later by Fizzy Blood, an indie rock band from Leeds.

I made two further visits in 2019, the first being a six-piece synth band from Manchester called Mealtime. They were in the LCD Soundsystem mould and have been garnered quite a bit of media attention since then.

The second was a four-piece named Two Weeks in Nashville, whose sound leaned heavily into the 1970’s genre. Their moniker derived from an inspirational holiday they took in Tennessee’s capital city which reinvigorated their musical ambitions. My latest attendance was on 02/04/22 as part of the Fair Play Festival to see a local artist called Tyler Crude.