Category: 2024 Gigs

2024 Gigs – Part 4

In March I made another pilgrimage to Manchester Band on the Wall where I went to see BDRMM for the second time. I will cover the band in more detail when I review my first sighting of them on what turned out to be a chaotic night at Manchester White Hotel.

I thoroughly enjoyed their set, but the downside was that it was exceedingly busy with no wriggle room to gravitate from your chosen slot. Uncle George, John Dewhurst and Riggers were in tow, and I recall pre-gig drinks at Northern Monk Refectory MCR and Smithfield Market Tavern and pre-gig tucker at Viet Shack.   

Manchester Northern Monk. Image Credit reeceleung.com

Around the time of the Cheltenham Festival and St Patricks Day I was on the way to another gig, and I happened to catch a portion of the House Band at Manchester Blues Kitchen Bar and a segment of the set of a singer/songwriter named Harriet at Manchester Albert Schloss. Later in the year I saw a couple of other acts at Albert Schloss when they had regular daytime gigs taking place to coincide with the student graduation season.

The gig I was indirectly heading towards was at Manchester Albert Hall and was preceded by imbibing a couple of bevvies in the Sir Ralph Abercromby located in an alley right behind the venue. My Albert Hall attendance was to see the Pixies for the fifth time and my ticket was booked prior to realising that they were playing ‘Trompe Le Monde’ and ‘Bossonova’, my least favourite of their albums as my personal highlight of theirs has always been ‘Surfer Rosa’.

Having said all that, it was beneficial to reappraise these records and there is some belting tunes sporadically dotted about on them including on the night fine versions of ‘Velouria’, ‘Allison’ and ‘Planet of Sound’. I have also just clocked that earlier this year they released a live album of the shows on that tour. They were supported by The Pale White who were a three piece from Newcastle who include in their ranks brothers Adam and Jack Hope. 

A small matter of eight days after I returned to the venue to have my latest sweet fix (Some Candy Talking?) of Jesus and Mary Chain. I have in the last month travelled past the 40th anniversary of my attendance at their legendary gig at Clouds in Preston on the 6th of September 1985.

Preston Clouds attached to Preston Odeon approximately 1981. Image Credit facebook.com.

There was a posse of seven gathered in the afore mentioned Sir Ralph Abercromby prior to the show for beers and badinage. They started with a bang with ‘Jamcod’ and ‘Happy When It Rains’ and completed the main set with a flourish of ‘I Love Rock and Roll’ and ‘Just Like Honey’. I also had the veritable treat of finally catching up with fellow local music aficionado Cath Aubergine at the conclusion of the gig. The night as many before it culminated in the Temple of Convenience bar.    

In October I had my final 2024 visit where I saw Public Service Broadcasting performing. They were as ever at a decent level but was probably my least favourite viewing of them across the four times I have witnessed them so far.

There were two appearances at Manchester Ritz, bringing my total there to 37, which places it in third place on my most attended venue list. The first was the Australian band Jet who formed in 2001 and disbanded in 2012 before two separate reformations, the second one preceding this tour. They were playing their original popular first album ‘Get Born’ and it was around 15 years since I saw them previously in the same venue.   

The other gig was with the stellar company of Rick Clegg and his daughter Charlotte and her pal Laura. We went to the newly reopened and revamped Grosvenor pub on Oxford Road with the obligatory visit to the Umami noodle bar close by. The band playing was English Teacher from Leeds, led by the charismatic singer Lily Fontaine. Their debut album ‘This Could Be Texas’ had recently won the 2024 Mercury Prize, thankfully breaking a nine-year stronghold of London-based musicians winning the award. They were a quirky bunch and very enjoyable.

English Teacher. Image Credit nme.com

The final show of the year to reference was at Manchester Night and Day and came to my attention via some musical gurus on Twitter (now X) before I decided like many others to ditch that poisonous platform. Marcus and I attended, and we watched a portion of that night’s Euros 24 match in the boozer beforehand.

The band was the Reds, Pinks and Purples which is the brainchild of Glenn Donaldson who is also a photographer and record collector. He is a prolific singer/songwriter exemplified by writing 200 songs and releasing seven albums in seven years. When he is playing live, he is part of a five-piece band comprised of musicians from his San Francisco home. He has a soothing evocative voice and was one of my favourite gigs of the year. He was supported by Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse band who hail from Kentucky.

2024 Gigs – Part 2

My opening gig of the year was on the 9th of February at Manchester Yes Pink Room, where I attended a novel event. The band playing was Mull Historical Society who are the brainchild of singer and songwriter Colin MacIntyre who was born on the island. He has recorded five albums under that band name, one of them on the Blanco y Negro record label which released possibly my favourite ever album, Jesus and Mary Chain’s ‘Psychocandy’, which is now somewhat astonishingly 40 years old, but in my view remains a timeless recording.

It was declared as an early show as he was undertaking two sets, and he proceeded to rattle through his plethora of folk tunes. Outside his musical pursuits he is also a novelist and published his debut tome ‘The Letters of Ivor Punch’ in 2015 which is unsurprisingly set on Mull. Therefore, it made a degree of sense when he brought the prolific Scottish crime fiction writer Val McDiermid onto the stage.

Mull Historical Society record flyer. Image Credit mullhistoricalsociety.com

She has created many different series and personas in her books, two of which have been dramatised for television, namely Wire in the Blood and Karen Pirie, the latter I have been watching recently and thoroughly enjoying. She has been badged in a sub-genre rather lazily described as ‘Tartan Noir’.

Mr Macintyre had recently created an album called ‘In my Mind There’s a Room’ where he approached many authors including Ian Rankin, Nick Hornby and Jacqueline Wilson to pen articles describing a past or present space that has had a significant impact on their life. He then devised music to complement these personal words and scribing’s that had been kindly donated to him.  

Val was chosen for the Manchester date as she used to reside in the city and has used it as a backdrop for several of her novels. She was also the Manchester Evening News crime reviewer for four years. Her contribution on the night was to read a couple of passages pertaining to the room where she writes her books.

I had one further attendance there later in the year to see Chubby and the Gang. The band derived from members of the British hardcore punk scene that was in place at the start of the century. They had previously been in groups such as Violent Reaction, Arms Race and Gutter Knife. The driving force throughout has been a chap called Charlie ‘Chubby’ Manning-Walker. You could certainly see the spirit of Ramones in their sound and approach, and I enjoyed their short but spiky set.

One advantage of the Yes venue is that there are two music locations within the same building and with some chicanery and schmoozing you can sometimes smuggle yourself into the other venue after your particular gig has finished. Thus, on the night I saw Mull Historical Society I managed to catch the last three songs of Hayden Pedigo’s performance in Manchester Yes Basement.  

Hayden Pedigo. Image Credit The Fader.

Hayden was raised in Amarillo in Texas, and he had guitar lessons from an early age and subsequently sent in a video of him playing in an abandoned school into Maramara Records label. This resulted in him being signed up and releasing his first album ‘Sevens Years Late’ in 2013, at the tender age of 19.  

He launched an unsuccessful campaign in 2018 to run for a local council seat, but his quirky and sometimes surreal approach garnered national attention. He has also runway modelled alongside other musicians including St Vincent at Gucci’s 100th anniversary fashion show.

I believe he was undertaking his first ever British tour, and his music was in the folky acoustic nit-picking guitar instrumental domain. He reminded me mostly of John Fahey and you could literally hear a pin drop in the venue.  

On a weekend in the middle of September we undertook a double header with Ride on the Friday following by a gig at Manchester Bridgewater Hall on the Saturday. It was a late summer type of evening, so the show was preceded by a couple of scoops in the Rain Bar beer garden.

Upon entry to the venue, we encountered a very civilised circular queue at the bar, which is somewhat synonymous with the establishment in general. We had a fine seat right above the stage and the act that night was the old troubadour Marc Almond who I was seeing for the first time.

Marc Almond on stage at Bridgewater Hall. Image Credit weshootmusic.com

He was born down the road in Southport and has been performing for around 50 years and initially came to prominence in Soft Cell in the early 1980’s. He had a horrendous motorbike crash in 2004 resulting in being a coma for a month. In 2018 he received an OBE for his services to arts and culture.

When he arrived on stage, he did outline that he had nearly cancelled the gig as he had a sore throat, but like the trooper he is, he carried on and you really could not notice that he had an ailment as he had a fine set of pipes for a 67-year-old. He was premiering a covers album and was playing no original tracks thus us a result he did not play my favourite track ‘Say Hello Wave Goodbye’.