Category: Manchester

Manchester Venues 75 to 76 – Blues Kitchen

As you head down Deansgate and just across Bridge Street you reach the Lost Dene pub, which was a Covid hero establishment for me. We attended with a couple of friends just prior to the third and most challenging lockdown at the tail end of 2020 and they were superb finding us two tables adjacent to each other even though we were in different households. It justifies the mantra of always bring honest as groups were denied entry as they were patently not in the same household when challenged for additional details!  

A little further down Deansgate brings you to Quay Street where you find the Opera House. An establishment I have yet to visit even when in theatre mode, but I recall Uncle George and Tony Dewhurst attending there to see Gil Scott Heron shortly before his death in 2011, by all accounts it was a belting gig.

Next to there on Little Quay Street resided for many years the Old Grapes owned by Coronation Street’s character Vera Duckworth (actress Liz Dawn). It was for a while a meeting point for us and was utilised if we ever undertook a group taxi to a gig. It was situated round the corner from the old Granada studios. It finally shut its doors for the last time in 2016 and is now an office block with the 20 stories restaurant at its apex and is contained within the large Spinningfields complex.

The Old Grapes pub. Image Credit Manchester Evening News

Back on Quay Street there used to be the large Aussie sports themed Walkabout pub which I periodically used to visit. It opened in 2000 and closed for good on New Year’s Eve 2015.

The building itself used to be a Victorian Eye Hospital with many original features. It apparently bears similarities with the Manchester and Salford Skin Hospital that used to be further down the block. It then became the Post Office Social Club prior to the Walkabout era.  

The site remained empty for a few years until the Blues Kitchen group purchased it and added it to their existing three sites in London and it was opened post pandemic. They stage music seven nights a week and as the name implies, they dabble in the blues, soul and funk domain.

It has made great strides to retain the blues heritage, and this is exemplified by it retaining a stained-glass window retrieved from Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in New Jersey where the legendary Woody Guthrie once resided. It has a gospel roof created from 19th century tin plates retrieved from a disused church in Manhattan and there is also a bizarre option available of booking private parties inside a 1920’s Air Stream Caravan.

I had never really intently studied the roster here but when a couple of friends invited us to a gig, I jumped at the chance to visit. So, on 26/08/22 after a quick libation at Brewdog we deliberately arrived a bit earlier to sample the Manchester Blues Kitchen Bar downstairs which is an open access area even if you are not attending a gig upstairs.

It was vibrant and busy with standing room only and had low lighting and I liked the place instantly. On stage was the Kitchen House Band modelling the smoky Amy Winehouse vibe (not her tribute band Amy House Wine!).

  

Manchester Blues Kitchen interior. Image Credit secretmanchester.com

We then traversed up the ornate stairs to the 500 capacity Manchester Blues Kitchen Venue. The band we had come to see was Smoove and Turrell who have supported the irrepressible Nile Rodgers and Chic on a previous tour. My colleague at work John Scott (I do always try to resist calling him Bon!), used to DJ with Smoove in Newcastle back in the day.

They hail from Gateshead and have been in existence since 2007 and the bedrock of the band is Jonathan Scott Watson (Smoove) and singer/songwriter John Turrell. When they tour, they expand the combo with several other members.  On the night they produced an energetic slab of Northern Funk despite them all having to cram on to quite a small stage!  

Manchester 74 Soup Kitchen – Part 2

I recall being sat in the Soup Kitchen bar in early 2017 when I knew that we would soon be relocating to Manchester, in the background I could hear the distinctive intro theme song to Marc Reilly’s 6 music show and for some odd reason that very event made the upcoming move feel infinitely more authentic!  

In Feb 2015 I unearthed a diamond when we saw Ex-Hex there, coincidentally my 550th gig. They are an all-female garage rock trio from Washington DC and had just released their terrific debut album ‘Rips’.  Uncle George’s reaction was priceless, he watched silently for the first three tracks and then spun round and exclaimed ‘where the hell did you find this lot Jim?’. The justification for his infectious enthusiasm was due to a compelling performance by the band, inciting memories of previous forbearers The Runaways and the Slits.

Ex-Hex. Image Credit The Daily Telegraph

They had supported the legendary Rocket from the Crypt and I also saw them on a later tour double billing with the Jacuzzi Boys. On this night they were supported by Princess, an arty American band who could be loosely labelled in the ‘math rock’ category.

The next band on the roster was The Cheatahs, who unusually had Canadian, American and German members but were based in London! I had first picked up on them via their excellent self-titled debut album evoking highly favourable comparisons to the seminal Sugar album ‘Copper Blue’. After releasing their second album, they sadly disbanded in 2016.

For the first half of the gig the sound was shambolic as it could not cope with their sonic attack. The second half was very enjoyable and perhaps their finest track ‘The Swan’ was especially glorious. They were supported by a Brighton psychedelic rock band called Novella.  

The Cheatahs. Image Credit Genius

In May 2016, Babeheaven were on the roster. The London duo produced introspective electronic pop music and finally issued their debut album in 2020 called ‘Home for Now’. Later that year I witnessed Trudy and the Romance, a three piece from Liverpool, previously they were simply called Trudy. They were perhaps best quantified in the country blues bracket. 

In February 2017 the weather gods did not smile on us as there was a huge storm that evening, but we just about managed to navigate into and out of Manchester on the infrequent trains left available. I am glad we did because Julia Jacklin was excellent with her uniquely soothing voice. She was brought up in the Blue Mountains outside Sydney in Australia which we have fortunately had a chance to visit. She deservingly now receives a lot of radio airplay.

I then saw Jakl (Hughie Gavin) who was a singer/songwriter from Margate. I have just read a story about him where his dad was hospitalised with a Covid coma, he wrote a specific song and played to him every day, his father woke up a week later and sang the melody of the song back to his son as it was the only thing he could recall when he was in the coma.

Next up was multi-instrumentalist Jacob Allen who was originally a bedroom recording artist from South London who plays under the stage name of Puma Blue. He was followed six months later by Fizzy Blood, an indie rock band from Leeds.

I made two further visits in 2019, the first being a six-piece synth band from Manchester called Mealtime. They were in the LCD Soundsystem mould and have been garnered quite a bit of media attention since then.

The second was a four-piece named Two Weeks in Nashville, whose sound leaned heavily into the 1970’s genre. Their moniker derived from an inspirational holiday they took in Tennessee’s capital city which reinvigorated their musical ambitions. My latest attendance was on 02/04/22 as part of the Fair Play Festival to see a local artist called Tyler Crude.