Category: Manchester

Manchester Venue 13 – Roadhouse

When I converse with seasoned Manchester gig goers three particular older venues in my experience are remembered fondly. These are namely the International 1, Boardwalk and Manchester Roadhouse. The venue was located at Number 8 Newton Street in the Northern Quarter. The club had previously been a snack bar and nightclub in the 70’s before morphing into a music venue. The venue sadly closed in 2015.

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The Roadhouse. Image Credit NME

It was a slightly scuzzy but charming basement club with a small stage and a capacity of 200. One of my largest regrets was being aware of White Stripes playing there on a very early tour but not being able to make the gig.  

I attended 5 gigs there between 1998 and 2009. The first being Mogwai in April 1998. Now, I am not usually prone to being melodramatic, but it was one of the strangest nights of my life. The night started normally enough with me, John Dewhurst and Nick Sharp in attendance. We had only a couple of beers in the Millstone on Thomas St where I suspected afterwards that potentially our drinks were spiked.

The night then on is distinctly hazy. The support band was Aerial M who also sometimes worked under the moniker Papa M. It was the first time I had seen Mogwai and from what I remember they were excellent. Nick disappeared unannounced mid gig and headed home as he felt ropey. Me and John headed on auto pilot for some supper to kill an hour before the late train but neither of us ate much and John was not himself. I was then very unusually for me physically ill at the station.

The finale to this surreal trip occurred on the train where I was awoken from a slumber by a commotion around me. The bizarre sight that greeted me on my awakening was the train guard stood in front of me with an axe. With my heart racing, I asked him the reason and it turned out the train was blocked by a small tree that he was going to clear with the said tomahawk. I was never so glad to arrive home as I was that night!

My next visit was in May 99 to see the at the time highly touted Llama Farmers from Greenwich supported by Seafood. They had obtained some decent supports slots to the likes of Green Day and Foo Fighters, but I can honestly say they didn’t live up to the hype and sounded too much like Placebo for my liking. They released 2 albums but subsequently drifted away on the ether.

The previous year I discovered a band with the very unique name of And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead from Austin Texas who had a released a decent self-titled first album. They arrived at the Roadhouse in March 2000. Unfortunately, they attracted the most annoying heckler who directed unjustified sustained vitriol at the unfortunate support act Sleepwalker.

AYWKUBTTOD were excellent with their post hardcore scuzzy sound and I recall the drummer and guitarist trading places several times during the gig. They are still on the circuit and have just released their tenth album.

My last gig there on 12/06/09 was to see Drones a punk rock band from Perth, Australia supported by the Snowmen. We happened to be out in Manchester and fell upon this gig and it is one of those that I cannot recall much about, it just passed me by.

My penultimate show was more memorable when I went to see Asobi Seksu on 10/02/09. The gig was originally scheduled for Jilly’s Rockworld on Oxford Road however before the scheduled gig the venue closed for good and the gig rescheduled to the Roadhouse. That was my one shot at attending the Rockworld, so it remains a lost venue.

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Asobi Seksu. Image credit Allmusic

Asobi Seksu were from New York and in the shoegaze/dream pop genre and their first two albums were excellent. They could certainly cut it live as well with a periodic thunderous guitar line in there. Another endearing element to this gig was the surprisingly enlightened approach from the bouncers to allow us to stand on chairs at the back to view the stage as visibility at the venue could be impaired when busy.  

The band had a DIY ethic exemplified by them running their own merch stand. A couple of years after I heard one of their tracks booming out when in Top Shop in Southport and I would say undoubtedly, I was the only punter in the store who could name that band!

Manchester Venues 9 to 12

There was a legendary gig etched in folklore in the heady red-hot summer of 1976 at the Lesser Free Trade Hall where the Sex Pistols apparently influenced many members of the audience to head out and form their own bands. Bob Dylan also played there twice in the mid 60’s, one of those performances inciting the ‘Judas’ shout on the back of him committing the heinous crime of going ‘electric’. In 2004 the venue stopped all performances and was converted into a hotel.

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Flyer from Sex Pistols gig in 1976. Image credit herestheartwork.co.uk

My one and only foray was there on 21/05/89, just shy of my 21st birthday to see the 10000 Maniacs. George drove over and it was a busy sporting night as we listened to Lancashire CC losing a cup quarter final to Worcestershire on the radio on the way over and Blackburn were playing Crystal Palace in a play-off match before being undone in the second leg by the forward line of Wright and Bright! Additionally, Barry McGuigan was fighting Jim McDonnell at the G-Mex next to the venue, for which touts were trying to foist tickets on us. He lost that night and it subsequently turned out to be his final bout.

We visited the Friendship Inn in Prestwich and parked up near the Boardwalk. The venue was quite a classical site and was all seated and despite my best efforts we could not get anywhere nearer the stage. Maniacs were in great form and the best tracks were off their opus ‘In My Tribe’ especially ‘Hey Jack Kerouac’, ‘Don’t Talk’, What’s the Matter Here’ and a fabulous encore of ‘Verdi Cries’. A very fine gig.

Referencing the G-Mex Conference Centre above leads to recollections of my one gig there. I have visited the G-Mex several times on work events and it used to be the location of Manchester Central station. They also now have a huge annual beer festival there. Contemporary update is that as I write this they are currently converting the venue to an emergency hospital to assist in the fight against the Covid 19 pandemic.  

My one visit was in 1993 to see Madness. Gill was undertaking a Paediatric Nursing course at that stage and lodging at Hope Hospital (now Salford Royal). The tram network running past there was only a twinkle in the developer’s eye at that stage. Locally we used to periodically frequent the disreputable Inn of Good Hope (coined locally as Good Grope!) and visit a fabulous Chinese restaurant about 100 yards from the hospital grounds which was utilised around that time for a scene in Coronation Street involving Des Barnes.

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Inn of Good Hope, Eccles Road, Salford in 1990. Image credit flickr.

Gill had got pally with a lass on her course who had settled in Monton so we headed with Liz and Clive into the metropolis that night for some nutty boy action. The venue was cavernous and rather soulless and was probably at best half full. As you would expect Madness were good fun, but I struggled to connect with it that night, perhaps due to the impersonality of the venue.

On the corner of Princes St and Portland St there is a faux Irish Bar called Scruffy Murphy’s where around 1993 I saw a lad called Seamus perform acoustically.

As referenced previously Chinatown has always been a central hub for us pre and post gigs and we used to periodically visit the Chinese Jazz Restaurant. On one visit there was an inhouse band playing whilst we were devouring our supper and I recall George requesting a tune, but for the life of me I cannot recall what it was!