Category: Manchester

Manchester Venues 199 to 200

In the year 2000 (could be a song lyric there!) a bar opened on New Wakefield Street adjacent to Manchester Oxford Road train station. It was called the Font Bar, and the split-level site was a no frills establishment and became eternally popular with the University students due its cheap drinks. 

Font Bar. Image Credit manchesterbynight.com

For around a decade from 2004 the area was the location for an annual festival called Eurocultured where three local streets were closed and there were over two hundred artists playing over three stages, one being positioned under the arches near to the Gorilla venue, and the residual artwork from that festival remains on the walls today. The festival was initially founded because of that year’s enlargement of the European Union, though those events sound like they from another era considering what has happened since!  

They utilised other nearby bars and venues including Revolution, the Blackdog Ballroom and the much missed Sound Control and it was an event I had never heard of until researching it for this very article. The ethos of the gathering was to embrace and celebrate the European cultural heritage and created eclectic rosters and a sample of this from 2013 included three French electronic music composers who collaborated to form a gypsy jazz trio called Caravan Palace.  

There was also Swordfishtrombones from the Czech Republic, dub step from The Correspondents, Irish dance from the Japanese Popstars and some Ukranian folk dancing with the Orlyk Dance Ensemble to jig along to whilst becoming suitably merry if you imbibed the Swedish cider Rekordelig. Additionally, there was Datarock, labelled as the Norwegian version of ‘Happy Mondays’, who were known for wearing red jumpsuits, though for an unknown reason in 2018 their sartorial choice shifted to all-black versions!  The performers on the acoustic stage were covered live on the then local TV Channel M.

Datarock during their ‘Red’ phase. Image Credit lifeinnorway.net

The Font Bar survived the covid period and even added outdoor seating for the first time prior to the bar closing unexpectedly in January 2023. Their Fallowfield outlet had previously shut in 2018, but their Chorlton branch remains. It was not a bar I visited regularly but had sporadic forays with my last being in September 2022 when Paul, Marcus and I imbibed far too much after a Ducks Ltd show at the nearby Yes venue.  

After a fallow eighteen months, Mother Marys took over the reins and opened in June 2024 with the new venture headed up by nightlife gurus Joseph Finegan, Greg Dwyer and Chris Sharp. The first named had hosted many events at the nearby Gorilla and the Deaf Institute venues and the latter named brought with him the pedigree of also owning the renowned music venue The Fleece in Bristol. They devised a weekly event schedule of an open stage on a Monday, stand-up comedians and regular live bands and DJs across the two gig spaces on other nights.  

They invested in a bespoke KV2 sound system and a state of the art lighting system.  Food was also served with all-day breakfasts and in a homage to the previous history of the building a £2 cocktail called ‘The Font’ was also available. It then suddenly closed in November 2025 due to financial pressures, which was hugely unfortunate as they had at that stage been listed as a shortlisted nominee in the This Is Manchester Awards.

As you enter the bar, Manchester Mother Marys Upstairs Stage was directly facing you in an alcove above the stairwell. I first visited in August 2024 and saw a local singer called Damon playing there.  My next attendance was on 07/12/24 as part of the Year End Festival, where this was being utilised as the base and the ticket collection point.

Mother Marys. Image Credit secretmanchester.com

When I was collecting my wristband there was a local chap called Elijah Jenkins playing. Elijah is a soul singer who initially had a solo support slot with Reverend and the Makers before evolving into a four-piece band. I then headed out in the monsoon conditions to meet Paul in another venue before later returning to base camp. On the second pass we saw Patrick Saint James, a Derry born now Manchester based performer who has been on the support roster for Kate Nash.

When I first moved over to Manchester nine years ago, I was at that stage positioned on a total of 76 venues in the city, and I very quickly achieved my century. The new sites then kept being ticked off enabling me to record Manchester Mother Marys Downstairs Stage as my 200th different Manchester venue. The band to commemorate this milestone was a Rochdale female led combo called Foxglove who provided some soothing dream pop.     

Manchester Venues 196 to 198

This week I am continuing the tale of my Manchester gig treasure hunt on the eve of Friday 29th August 2025. So, as you gravitate up Bridge Street away from Salford Central train station you traverse past the impressive People’s History Musuem before reaching the renowned day and night pizza parlour spot Crazy Pedro’s. In the 1960’s the latter location housed Edwardia, a boutique clothing store created by footballers of the day, George Best and Mike Summerbee.

Beyond there are two subterranean bars opposite each other across the street, the one on the right is the Gas Lamp which is housed in the former Manchester & Salford Children’s Mission building. Across the road was the Brink, a cracking real ale establishment opened in 2014 that had a mural of bees on the stairs painted by local artist Qubek, but unfortunately it never reopened after Covid.

 

 The Gas Lamp. Image Credit Time Out

Three doorways further down is a new venue on the block called Manchester No Vacancy. It is virtually an all-day establishment opening at 10am for breakfast and brunch before staging live music from 5pm onwards from Thursday through Sunday before finally closing the doors at 4am, hopefully they operate split shifts for the staff employed there! When I visited there was a local singer/songwriter called Trev playing.  

As Bridge Street hits Deansgate, there is Katsouris Deli with their belly busting portions, diagonally opposite the Sawyer Arms, which is believed to be Manchester’s oldest pub with a continuously held licence, dating back to 1730. Now this compares to the Old Wellington Inn which despite being built way back in 1552 it did not actually become a pub until 1830.  

A further couple of doors down is the Lost Dene public house which was one of my hero establishments during Covid. In the days where you had to book your two-hour boozing slots we visited with Jo and Paul and when we were upfront about having different addresses, they had no choice but to separate us initially but were then gracious enough to arrange adjacent tables so we could converse verbally instead of texting each other across the pub! These small human touches were gratefully appreciated in that bleak period.  Just beyond there is the atmospheric Rylands Library which certainly rocks a Harry Potter vibe.

The Ape and Apple. Image Credit Dreamstime.

If you then follow the route from Bridge Street onto John Dalton Street you shortly find yourself landing at the Manchester Ape and Apple. The hostelry which went through a £400k refurbishment in 2025 is a multipurpose venue with long running Comedy Balloon nights, salsa classes and Murder Mystery events and also contains a heated roof terrace. It was initially opened by the footballer Denis Law in 1997 after its previous life as a bank and is owned by the Manchester brewers Joseph Holt.

A lady called Jane Kershaw is the great great great granddaughter of Mr J Holt and on one dull soggy day at the age of ten, she was tasked with designing a sign by her father. That very sign depicting an ape balancing an apple in its hand whilst perching on a beer barrel still hangs over the pub entrance today and Jane is now within the sixth generation of the family to work for the company.  The walls also contain a blue plaque to honour the scientist John Dalton who has the moniker of ‘The Father of Modern Chemistry’.

I arrived before Marcus so ensconced myself in the homely room armed with a cheeky ale. He arrived just as a singer called Evan hit the stage who despite being acoustic was thumpingly loud drowning out our conversation, so we moved on after a couple of tracks.  

We then progressed onwards to our next port of call, Manchester Founders Hall which directly faces Albert Square. The hostelry was previously called Duttons for a decade from 2014 before JW Lees brewery took over the reins and they decked out the spacious beer hall with dark wood surrounds and black and white tiled floors. A lot of the furnishings were reclaimed from their 200-year-old Greengate Brewery.   

Founders Hall. Image Credit manchestersfinest.com

Alongside the plethora of tempting real ale options, they also have regular quiz nights and ambient DJ evenings. They also stage live music and on the night of our visit a three-piece act called Late Last Night were playing, who in their bio portray themselves as a Wedding band from Stretford. After my flurry of five new venues that evening, we then headed on to my sixth new venue and our feature gig of the evening, one that I will cover in a future blog.