Category: Manchester

Manchester Venues 68 and 69 Gullivers NQ – Part 1

Located squarely at the top end of Oldham Street you would find the distinctive green fronted Gullivers NQ, one of the stalwart venues of the Northern Quarter. It has a fair old history dating back to 1865 and has an interesting background, at one point existing as a jazz club and a transvestite bar.

It has had several names, once a Wilsons brewery house called the Albert Hotel, then latterly The Grenadier before the ever-reliable JW Lees brewery took ownership and renamed it Gullivers sometime in the 1970’s.

Gullivers NQ. Image Credit tasteofmanchester.com

I have discovered that in Manchester there is a proliferation of small breweries, many around the back streets near Piccadilly station, however a lot of them, for example Cloudwater serve cloudy and citra beers. Though I would never turn one of these down if offered, because that would be downright foolish, I do prefer the more traditional ales and thus JW Lees served in Gullivers and a more local pub nearby me, the Parrswood hits that very spot.    

It is an archetypal grass roots venue and alongside live music, has spoken word, theatre, film screenings and comedy events. The pub has a homely traditional bar leading you into a back room and downstairs venue. The pub sits squarely across the road from another principal and sister venue the Castle.

It has regularly been utilised as a hub point for picking up tickets for multi wrist band events such as Carefully Planned, Fair Play and Off the Record festivals, these festivals accounting for many of my attendances at gigs in this establishment.

It contains two venues, the first accessed down a thin corridor at the rear of the building is the Gullivers NQ Lounge, mainly for acoustic acts with a capacity of 40, though it feels highly populated when only half that number are in residence.

I have attended there four times, the first at Dot-to-Dot Festival in 2016 to see Lyon Apprentice, a folk duo originally from Melbourne who were residing in Manchester at this time and recording in their home studio. 

Later that year, we uncovered a diamond by witnessing an early performance by Katherine Priddy, a folk musician from Birmingham. She was a captivating engaging presence with a distinctive guitar style, dark lyrics and hypnotic voice, a rare treat!

Her stock rose exponentially in the intervening years with her debut ep receiving considerable airplay on Radio 2 and 6Music with folk behemoth Richard Thompson naming it as his ‘best thing he has heard all year’ in MOJO magazine, being so singularly impressed he invited her out onto a support slot on his upcoming tour.

Katherine Priddy. Image Credit birminghamreview.net

Her first appearance at Cambridge Folk Festival garnered her with the Christian Raphael Award, a prize awarded to one deserving developing artist from the festival each year. Her debut album ‘The Eternal Rocks Beneath’ received critical acclaim and she then backed that up with a sold-out national tour.   

Eighteen months later I witnessed singer-songwriter Kate Anita, who around that time released a single called ‘Human’ accompanied by a documentary video which showcased her interpretation of the culture and community within her home city Manchester.  

My final attendance there was to see local Manchester artist Lindsay Munroe, who produced some honest unflinching music with strong vocals epitomised by her debut single ‘Split’. I heard shades of Mazzy Star and Sharon Van Etten in there, the latter I later discovered is a big fan of her output.

Manchester Venues 65 to 67

Continuing the circular route of the Sounds from the other City Festival brings us to the historic Kings Arms on Bloom Street. It is situated deep in the old industrial quarter of Salford, and it is an easy five-minute jaunt from Salford Central train station. The pub was first licensed in 1807 and the original building initially resided on the other side of the street.

Lucy Davis was a landlady there in the 19th century and after throwing her husband out for being a drunken lout, she created a profitable dance hall and den of ill repute upstairs! It has been the base for many interesting clubs, namely the North of England Irish Terrier Club, the Knitting Club and the Salford Friendly Anglers Society, the world’s oldest angling club and a sign of the final listed club is still visible on the gable end of the pub.

Many pubs fell by the wayside in this area, but the Kings continued to flourish being famously taken over in 2011 by Zena Barrie and Paul Heaton of Housemartin’s and Beautiful South fame. They embellished the artistic undertakings and a pot pourri of arts exhibitions, vaudeville, comedy, poetry nights and gigs took place under their tutelage. They were also apparently regularly heard rehearsing in the upstairs function room.

Paul Heaton. Image Credit Hull Daily Mail.

The pub has also been used as a location for music videos and TV shows like Cracker, Fresh Meat and the Hairy Bikers and was always a good gathering point to commune with like-minded souls on the SFTOC monorail, much like the other central hubs of the festival such as Islington Mill and the Old Pint Pot.

It is an olde world pub with a large main bar room area downstairs with seats dotted around the perimeter. At one of the festivals, I saw a Chinese dragon parade the room, it is that kind of quirky place. They are a renowned real ale venue and have been in the Good Beer Guide for the last decade and are a keen supporter of small local breweries. There is also a small beer garden accessed from the back of the pub.

Stairs led you up the Manchester Kings Arms Events Space.  It is a theatre style space and has a standing capacity of 120 and seating capacity of 50.  The venue even holds a wedding licence.

My first visit there was on 06/05/12 was to see Meddicine from London. An appropriate act considering the industrial history of the area as he resembled a lo-fi Death in Vegas though a single released last year sounded more like Eminem.   The other act that day was a good fun two-piece local scuzzy garage rock band called Brown Brogues. 

Five years later I witnessed Manchester electronic artist Vacuumorph and in 2018 I saw AYA, a Manchester rapper and producer who formerly recorded under the moniker LOFT.

Kings Arms. Image Credit kingsarmssalford.com

In a room adjacent to the main bar was Manchester Kings Arms Downstairs Stage where acoustic gigs occasionally took place. In 2012 an act called Yule FM played there and six years later in 2018 a local chap with the vaguely unpleasant moniker of DJ Acid Rephlux performed on that stage.

At the 2017 festival they excelled themselves by creating a third stage putting them on a par with Chorlton Irish Club and the Adelphi in Preston as the only other venues where I have attended three stages.

The only issue was that nobody could find the third stage, before we eventually realised, we had to traverse down the stairs past the kitchen and into the beer cellar. Thus, Manchester Kings Arms Basement became and remains the smallest venue I have ever attended, with about 10 people crammed in and myself outside with my head craned around the entrance peering into the dark interior. The band on the tiny stage was an act called Maeve Rendles 9 Victims, and despite an extensive search I can find no back story behind their mysterious and sinister name! 

The continuing joy for me of these festivals is the chance to visit these types of different venues that in any other context you would not normally attend.