Author: jimmyc1968

Leeds Venues 6 to 7

Continuing the tale of the Live at Leeds multi event in 2014 takes us onwards to Leeds Wardrobe. The venue is situated on St Peter’s Square, Quarry Hill in the Cultural quarter alongside Leeds College of Music, Northern Ballet, Yorkshire Dance, and the BBC. It is accessed via crossing the very busy ring road.

The venue opened its doors for the first time in 1999 and has established itself as one of the city’s longest running independent venues and regularly hosts over 250 gigs per year. Its roster is primarily in the jazz, funk and soul domain and previous acts who have played there include Sly and Robbie, Beverley Knight, and Amy Winehouse.

The establishment models itself in a New York retro vibe and the ground floor consists of the main bar and restaurant. On our attendance I recall they had booted up some temporary pizza ovens and the Pepperoni’s were cooking up a storm. At our second Live at Leeds in 2021 they had some acoustic acts playing in the main bar, but not whilst we were in residence.

Leeds Wardrobe. Image Credit whatpub.com

Stairs then take you down to the main venue with the stage immediately to your right which sits in front of a sunken dance floor and bars to the left and the back of the room. I liked it instantly as it felt spacious and had a good vantage point from all areas. It was blessed with a terrific sound system. There is also a local story that a ghost is resident in the basement room and the site is built upon an old well.

We purloined a seat at the back and the band on stage were CYMBALS (not to be confused with Cymbals with Guitars) from London town. They were a four piece post punk act and had just released their second album Age of Fracture. They splintered after that album and became and remain a two-piece to this day. They had an 80’s sound to them and resembled to a degree Bloc Party.

On our return to the venue at the delayed 2021 festival we saw a full set from a solo artist called Louis Berry, who turned out to be the last act we saw that day and we grabbed seats to the side of the stage as we had walked many miles traversing to venues far and wide.

He was a young Liverpool lad who had a very challenging upbringing as he was born to a heroin addict father. He could fair belt it out in a busker style reminiscent of Jake Bugg. After the 2014 gig, we headed up out of the basement, temporarily blinking in the afternoon sun prior to then grabbing some tea.  

The next venue was Leeds Holy Trinity Church located on Boar Lane. It was originally built in the 1720’s and has Grade 1 listed status. In 2020 a major refurbishment took place and became the home to a mid-week ministry for city centre workers.  They periodically have events there with listed for later this year a couple of movie soundtrack nights and as appears to be inevitable the obligatory tribute to Queen performed by a string quartet.  

Leeds Holy Trinity Church. Image Credit en.wikipedia.org

At the 2014 event they had a full day’s roster of acoustic acts performing with Marika Hackman near the top of the bill. On the bill as we attended was a young Irish folk singer called Orla Gartland from Dublin. She had only released a couple of EPs at that stage, but she has built a huge following on You Tube since by posting cover songs and has had over 24m views. Her music was featured on the recent BBC hit series ‘Normal People’ and she was firmly in the Joni Mitchell mould.  

Manchester Venues 65 to 67

Continuing the circular route of the Sounds from the other City Festival brings us to the historic Kings Arms on Bloom Street. It is situated deep in the old industrial quarter of Salford, and it is an easy five-minute jaunt from Salford Central train station. The pub was first licensed in 1807 and the original building initially resided on the other side of the street.

Lucy Davis was a landlady there in the 19th century and after throwing her husband out for being a drunken lout, she created a profitable dance hall and den of ill repute upstairs! It has been the base for many interesting clubs, namely the North of England Irish Terrier Club, the Knitting Club and the Salford Friendly Anglers Society, the world’s oldest angling club and a sign of the final listed club is still visible on the gable end of the pub.

Many pubs fell by the wayside in this area, but the Kings continued to flourish being famously taken over in 2011 by Zena Barrie and Paul Heaton of Housemartin’s and Beautiful South fame. They embellished the artistic undertakings and a pot pourri of arts exhibitions, vaudeville, comedy, poetry nights and gigs took place under their tutelage. They were also apparently regularly heard rehearsing in the upstairs function room.

Paul Heaton. Image Credit Hull Daily Mail.

The pub has also been used as a location for music videos and TV shows like Cracker, Fresh Meat and the Hairy Bikers and was always a good gathering point to commune with like-minded souls on the SFTOC monorail, much like the other central hubs of the festival such as Islington Mill and the Old Pint Pot.

It is an olde world pub with a large main bar room area downstairs with seats dotted around the perimeter. At one of the festivals, I saw a Chinese dragon parade the room, it is that kind of quirky place. They are a renowned real ale venue and have been in the Good Beer Guide for the last decade and are a keen supporter of small local breweries. There is also a small beer garden accessed from the back of the pub.

Stairs led you up the Manchester Kings Arms Events Space.  It is a theatre style space and has a standing capacity of 120 and seating capacity of 50.  The venue even holds a wedding licence.

My first visit there was on 06/05/12 was to see Meddicine from London. An appropriate act considering the industrial history of the area as he resembled a lo-fi Death in Vegas though a single released last year sounded more like Eminem.   The other act that day was a good fun two-piece local scuzzy garage rock band called Brown Brogues. 

Five years later I witnessed Manchester electronic artist Vacuumorph and in 2018 I saw AYA, a Manchester rapper and producer who formerly recorded under the moniker LOFT.

Kings Arms. Image Credit kingsarmssalford.com

In a room adjacent to the main bar was Manchester Kings Arms Downstairs Stage where acoustic gigs occasionally took place. In 2012 an act called Yule FM played there and six years later in 2018 a local chap with the vaguely unpleasant moniker of DJ Acid Rephlux performed on that stage.

At the 2017 festival they excelled themselves by creating a third stage putting them on a par with Chorlton Irish Club and the Adelphi in Preston as the only other venues where I have attended three stages.

The only issue was that nobody could find the third stage, before we eventually realised, we had to traverse down the stairs past the kitchen and into the beer cellar. Thus, Manchester Kings Arms Basement became and remains the smallest venue I have ever attended, with about 10 people crammed in and myself outside with my head craned around the entrance peering into the dark interior. The band on the tiny stage was an act called Maeve Rendles 9 Victims, and despite an extensive search I can find no back story behind their mysterious and sinister name! 

The continuing joy for me of these festivals is the chance to visit these types of different venues that in any other context you would not normally attend.