Category: Manchester

Manchester Venue 47 – Ruby Lounge

One of my favourite venues in Manchester was the Ruby Lounge situated on High Street opposite the Arndale Centre and backing onto the Northern Quarter. The venue opened in 2007 and sadly closed in 2018 as it was hoovered up in a £79m city centre development.

It was housed in a somewhat dilapidated seven store block and behind the unprepossessing metal doors were stairs carrying you down to the venue. It was one large room with battered sofas and a games machine to the left, bar facing and a stage to the right. It had a scruffy charm, and the capacity was 375 for live music and 600 for club nights. It had a thin access to view the stage that could be a slight inconvenience when it was busy.

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Entrance to the Ruby Lounge. Image Credit Britannia Hotels.

I attended there nine times in total and they always had a sonic sound system and as a result I have seen some astoundingly loud gigs. A case in point was my first attendance in 2009 to see A Place to Bury Strangers, a noise rock combo from New York. Remarkably the support band Dead Confederate outdid them on the decibel count. They hailed from the birthplace of REM in Athens, Georgia. Prior to the gig I had explored for the first time a selection of the plethora of bars located nearby in the Northern Quarter. Another regular pre-gig pub was the English Lounge which is only 100 yards from the venue.

My second and third visit also continued in that vein, first up were Rock Actions shoe gazers Twilight Sad. The next was to see Pelican, a post rock four piece from Chicago, Illinois. We were chatting to some punters prior to their set who advised us not to leave our beers on the wooden shelfs as the sound check was so loud, they had knocked a couple of glasses off. They were totally instrumental and ear splintering, and I would quantify them in my Top 5 loudest list, and they were also fabulous as it is so good to hear bands as uncompromising as they are!

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Pelican. Image Credit en.wikipedia.org

In 2010 I saw the grungy quartet Dinosaur Pile Up from Leeds. They did not stay long in the memory and it was one of those gigs where their friends and family were in attendance which I always find in equal parts odd but endearing.

In 2014, I saw Pains from Being Pure at Heart for the fourth time and it was by now unfortunately a case of diminishing returns as their output for me gradually depreciated after their stunning debut album. They were not a patch on their electrifying set in Chorlton 5 years earlier which I will cover in a future blog. They were supported by Fear of Men.

Later that year I saw again the perennial London punks Snuff who were in fine fettle and their cover of the Likely Lads propelled me as ever into the mosh pit! The following year I went to see Preston’s Evil Blizzard due primarily to support them on a Manchester date. Despite them putting on a show I couldn’t warm to their musical output. They were supported by Creature Comforts.

My penultimate gig there was a terrific double bill of Ex Hex and Jacuzzi Boys, both bands I had seen before. Jacuzzi Boys are a highly accomplished garage rock band from Miami in Florida. Ex Hex are all female three-piece hailing from Washington DC and are in the mould of the Go-Go’s and had an effervescent presence. My final gig there was on 28/05/16 to see an Australian band called the Rubens as part of the Dot to Dot festival roster.

Manchester Venues 44 to 46

As you traverse down the rather exposed A6 into the City Centre from Salford Crescent station you encounter the Old Pint Pot pub overlooking the River Irwell. It was originally a school and was called Adelphi Riverside in the eighties before obtaining its current moniker in the nineties and has been a regular haunt for Salford University alumni for many years.

It is a Marston’s Brewery pub and apparently has recently gone through an extensive refurbishment with the introduction of a state-of-the-art unique overhead beer dispense system called Palm Pour.  There is also a fine beer garden with a vantage over the river.

My first visit there was for a beer prior to watching AC/DC at MEN Arena in 2001. On another visit whilst meeting Gill after work I arrived first and upon entering the establishment my ears were assailed by the unmistakable sound of Husker Du’s sonic cover of the Byrds ‘Eight Miles High’. This remains one of my favourite ever Huskers track and I have never heard it in a pub environs before or after that day!  

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The Old Pint Pot. Image Credit scoopergen.co.uk

I have always been fond of this pub, and it remains a focal gathering point within the auspices of Sounds from the Other City festival. At the 2017 festival in the Old Pint Pot Main Bar, we saw a terrific band in an Americana vein called the Roasts, though searching now I cannot find reference of them, but I most certainly saw them! We also saw another act called Lord Kessell and the Drums.

On my first visit there in 2012 we saw a decent local post rock band called Day for Airstrikes, whose first full length album ‘Widows’ released in 2006 (not to be confused with Sennen’s debut album of the same name) through Piccadilly Records.   

There was a more conventional stage in the Old Pint Pot Upstairs and at the same event in 2018 we watched TV AM. At the following years event we saw a brief portion of indie band Pip Blom’s set, they were obviously a draw because we could barely push through the door!   

To exemplify the broad spectrum of venues utilised by the festival, the next one located just down the road is the Angel Centre, a healthy living centre offering free activities to the Salford community including events such as free E-Cig appointments and mental health and horticulture drop ins.

In the main room they had kitted up a small stage in the corner and a pop-up bar to the left. I have witnessed gigs there at each of the three SFTOC festivals I have attended.

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Angel Centre. Image Credit guerillapocasts.com

On my first foray in 2012 I saw Frazer King, a quirky six-piece band from the local suburb of Wythenshawe who were difficult to quantify but Ennio Morricone punk could be an apposite description of their sound.

In 2017 we saw a terrific band called Golden Dregs, led by driving force Benjamin Woods. They were a welcome blast of garage rock Americana and his vocals resembled Bill Callaghan of Smog; they went down a storm complemented by a cold brew from the bar. I completed the venue trilogy in 2018 by watching a local band called Cattle.