Category: Manchester

Manchester Venue 92 – Band on the Wall

At the top end of Oldham Street, you find the Comedy Club and the iconic Crown and Kettle public house across on the other side of busy Swan Street. Hundred yards to the left of there is the oldest venue in town, Manchester Band on the Wall, which sits opposite to the Fringe Bar.

Crown and Kettle interior. Image Credit eatmcr.co.uk

The venue was originally opened as the George and Dragon pub in 1803 within a big market area, even in those very early days it had a licence for song and dance. It was located near the old gathering place of ‘New Cross’ where many an Industrial Revolution demonstration took place. The landlord in residence between the 1930’s and 1950’s was a no-nonsense chap called Ernie Tyson who decided to expand the repertoire and created a stage halfway up the wall at the rear of the pub, hence the name of the establishment was formed.

During the 1960’s and 1970’s it sat in the jazz domain before punk hit and the Buzzcocks and Joy Division played early gigs, the latter allegedly signed in blood their recording contract there with Tony H Wilson. The venue is registered as a charity so allows more artistic freedom and its music resides mainly in the roots and soul genre and because of this not one I have visited regularly. To exemplify this musical ethos, Craig Charles has for many years undertaken a monthly DJ residence there.   

It is an award-winning establishment and has recently been refurbished, it has an initial bar area as you enter which now has the ability to stage smaller performances with an 80-person capacity. Then to your left there is a step free access into the main music room with an additional balcony overlooking the stage and this area now has an increased capacity of 500 due to an expansion into the adjoining three-storey Cocozza Wood building.  

Band on the Wall. Image Credit DesignMyNight.com

One of the seminal and most influential bands of my youth was Husker Du and I was fortunate to see them twice back in the day and at the first gig had a brief chat with the band and I have been playing a lot of their considerable output recently. Post their breakup in 1988 I kept a close eye on the individual output of the members of the band and saw Sugar several times and Bob Mould solo a couple of times.

The drummer Grant Hart was less prolific in his output and toured far less prior to his untimely death in 2017. His passing hit me like a sledgehammer in much the same way Mark Lanegan’s did, perhaps also inciting selfishly the mourning of your past youth! 

He was a fabulous drummer with my personal favourite of his art being the thunderous driving rhythm of Husker Du’s ‘New Day Rising’, go on have a listen to it right now! He also released some terrific solo records, particularly the first two ‘Intolerance’ and ‘Good News for the Modern Man’, the initial one being issued via the legendary SST records.  

I was therefore excited when I saw the news he was touring in December 2011, so tickets were purchased and off we popped. I was a tad worried when I saw it was just Grant and a backing track machine but surprisingly it worked with him topping up the sound on his guitar.

He had a considerable back catalogue and was inviting requests from the audience, however when one punter somewhat rudely stated ‘you need to play xxxx’, he was met with an instant withering response ‘you need to be on the streets man’! Standout tracks that evening were ‘2541’, ‘The Main’, ‘Never Talking to You Again’, ‘There’s a Girl who Lives on Heaven’s Hill’ and ‘Green Eyes’.  

Grant Hart. Image Credit SFGate

My other three attendances were all part of wristband events, the first in May 2018 was to see Desperate Journalist, a decent post punk band from London. At the following years Dot to Dot event, I witnessed part of an excellent set from Kilmarnock’s Fatherson. I very nearly saw them in Edinburgh a few years earlier but was glad to finally catch up with them. My final appearance was in November 2019 to see a local artist called Elysse Mason who reminded me to a degree of Lana Del Rey.

Manchester Venues 89 to 91

One of the constants of Manchester gig going over the years has been the continuing existence of Manchester Thirsty Scholar, which is a hostelry that lies under the train arches at Oxford Road Station. Once you have navigated down the 56 steps outside the station you walk past the Salisbury pub and Zombie Shack and the Scholar is just to the right further up the cobbled steps. It was adjacent to one of my favourite ever Manchester venues, Sound Control which sadly closed a few years ago.

The Thirsty Scholar. Image Credit frenchysrant.com

I could not find any history reference to the pub, but I have been frequenting at least since the mid 1990’s and it may have been previously called Archie Bar. It was for a spell the only vegetarian pub in Manchester, and they had club nights in the Attic upstairs. It was for a sustained period our first meeting pub point on arrival before very often heading down Oxford Road to one of the Academy venues. It also doubled as the final port of call for a flying beer before scampering up the aforementioned steps to catch the last train.

It is a small cosy pub and has always had some decent ales on tap and regularly has Northern Soul nights with vinyl DJ Martin the Mod spinning some rarely heard 45’s. In more recent times it appears to have more of a jazz slant.

They regularly have live bands on who play on the raised area to the right of the bar, and I have inadvertently caught a few performances there, many after attending other gigs in the city. I have never paid to watch a band apart from attending one year when the venue was part of that year’s Dot to Dot festival roster.

The first band I saw there in 2013 was a rather woeful U2 tribute band. At the Dot-to-Dot event later that year I witnessed Ellie Rose who was a singer songwriter who napped a prestigious spot a couple of years later at the BBC introducing stage at Glastonbury and she released a suite of singles in 2019.

In 2017, Uncle George and I landed there after a Car Seat Headrest gig at nearby Ritz and there was a band on stage, who when approached for their name stated ‘We Don’t Have One’ so naturally that became their new moniker in the Jimmy annals. The remaining four gigs there involved house jazz bands.    

There is a decent sized sheltered beer garden outside the pub and in 2020 prior to seeing Ladytron at the Ritz there was a temporary Manchester Thirsty Scholar Outside Stage set up where I witnessed a chap called Acoustic Dave play. 

The Revolution bar chain has been trading since 1996 but the story began in 1991 when two friends opened a small bar in Ashton-Under-Lyne. This has now expanded to 69 nationwide outlets and also the spin off Revolution De Cuba bars. There used to be a Revolution in Preston on Main Sprit Weind which occupied the site of Lou’s Longbar, one of the first pubs I ever visited in my youth.   

Manchester Revolution Bar. Image Credit keytothecity.co.uk

There are currently three branches in Manchester, namely on Parsonage Gardens and Deansgate Locks and the remaining one is Manchester Oxford Road Revolution. I have naturally in my time visited all three sites! On the 29/04/16, Gill and I happened to visit prior to catching the train and an act called Ste and Cassey were performing in the corner of the pub.