Category: Manchester

Manchester Venue 17 – Old Trafford Cricket Ground

I have frequented Old Trafford a few times in its original incarnation as a cricket venue. My first visit was in 1983 when I was very fortunate as a 15-year-old to attend the World Cup semi-final with my dad where England were playing India. The times were so different then as we just wandered up and got straight into the ground through a cash turnstile.

The match was a sell out on a gobsmackingly hot day and as a result we were lamping drinks down to rehydrate. My dad offered me a beer which is the first proper ale I can recall partaking. Due to the heat I gulped down as if it was Vimto resulting in being somewhat hazy for the next couple of hours.

Despite England having a promising opening partnership they summarily collapsed and lost the match by 7 wickets.

The following year we tried but failed to get in to a one-day game versus West Indies and missed out on the mercurial Viv Richards plundering an infamous 189 not out.

I attended other test matches including Day 2 of the Ashes test in the famous 2005 series after which we mercilessly ribbed a couple of placid Aussies in a nearby pub.

We have also stayed at the Old Trafford Lodge a couple of times, once to attend a family wedding in 2007 on the day England beat Australia in the Rugby World Cup quarter final.

Round about the turn of the century Old Trafford decided to utilise the venue for an annual batch of summer concerts, for a period badging it as the Mood Festival.  

I was excited to note that REM were booked to play on 13/07/03 following on from their fine Glastonbury headline performance the previous month.

It was another staggeringly hot Sunday afternoon as the five of us in attendance melted on the train on the journey over. We decided to frequent the bars on Deansgate locks, in the first bar we visited the local celebrity Tony H Wilson was rather intoxicated but like a trooper he recovered to be in fine shape on Granada Reports the following day.

At the venue they had a very commendable beer voucher process which kept the queues down.  

The support acts were Badly Drawn Boy and Idlewild as we sweltered in the tropical weather watching from the pitch. Michael Stipe was in mischievous mood as he likened the one cloud in the sky to Badly Drawn Boy. Did that suggest he wasn’t enamoured with one of the support acts?

I recall him apologising for being American due to the Gulf War, perhaps he was also prescient of a future muppet becoming President. Though pots and kettles spring to mind here with Boris the Spider in power on our shores!

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REM. Image Credit BlogSpot.com

I had grown up with REM as I discovered them when I was 16 and they were magnificent that night with ‘Strange Currencies’ and ‘End of the World’ verging on being transcendental. They were arguably at the peak of their powers and fuelled by the ale, weather and the terrific music I was over zealously dancing away. It remains one of my Top 10 gigs.

We circumnavigated the metro and the crowds successfully by going the wrong way for one stop and then returning into town.

We saw them there 2 years later but whilst still being decent it was not in the same league as the first attendance. They had also foolishly moved away from vouchers to a first come first serve resulting in waiting in a devilishly long queue which covered a fair portion of Feeder’s support set, thankfully the beer hut was located to the side of the stage. My pal Algarve Ray timed it well as I was at the top end of the queue when he unexpectedly appeared so I could add his order to mine.       

My one other attendance was to see the Pixies for the first time in 15 years on their comeback tour in 2004. It was a grey rainy day, but Pixies served to brighten the mood with me bouncing around in the oldest moshpit I have ever encountered with ‘Where is My Mind’ being the highlight.

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Pixies. Image Credit Uncut.

We caught the initial portion of the Stereophonics headline set before heading off the site. We were distracted en route by unusual activity occurring in the DJ tent where there have been a friendly coup and the DJ was only being allowed to play Pixies tracks. The opening notes of each new Pixies song resulted in rapturous applause, it was quite a sight.  

We had just had time for a cheeky one in Thirsty Scholar prior to the train and wouldn’t you just know it on our entry to the pub they were playing a Pixies song!

Manchester Venue 16 Academy 3 – Part 3

I have always preferred a venue where there is an accessible bar contained within meaning you do not miss any of the set whilst endeavouring to refuel and Academy 3 has always fully met this criterion

On 14/10/12 we went to see Nada Surf who have been ploughing their easy on the ear guitar led West Coast sound for many years. At the time of the gig they had just released ‘The Stars are Different to Astronomy’ which I think is their finest album.

They were an exceptionally tight band live and very personable chaps and their soothing sound was a rewarding experience. The highlight track was ‘When I Was Young’ It was also Gill’s 100th gig.      

We saw Nada Surf there again on 12/03/20 which remains my last gig prior to the pandemic. It was touch and go with the brewing global storm whether the gig would go ahead. The changing climate was emphasised by the fact that in a pre-gig meal in the Red Chilli the service staff were all swathed in face masks.

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Nada Surf. Image Credit myticket.de

Thus, my last pub pre-pandemic was Big Hands until 121 days later I entered the local Parrs Wood pub on 11/07/20.

The band didn’t hit the high spots of the previous appearance, the setlist choice may have been a contributing factor there.

On 06/12/12 we pottered over to see God is an Astronaut from County Wicklow. Trivia fact time – their name was taken from a quote in the 1990 movie Nightbleed based on a Clive Barker book featuring David Cronenburg and Charles Haid who also played ‘Officer Andy Renko’ in Hill Street Blues.

They sat firmly in the ‘Post-rock’ category and they had their moments but were a little bit too cocksure for me.

On 07/05/14 Hold Steady were back in the fair city of Manchester and were in good form, better than when I saw them in Leeds the previous week.

In September 2015 we went to see the Meat Puppets. This gig created a new personal best as it was a 28-year span between the first and second time I had seen them. The first being a spell binding show at Manchester International 1 in 1987 which was also their first ever British date.

I was very excited to see them again but regrettably, time had not been kind on them, and it was a bit of a limp performance. There are considerable merits in sometimes retaining and not tarnishing those original memories!

Four months later I went to see Snuff’s 30th anniversary tour and they were in cracking form and undertook an audience tombola to select some favourite tracks. They thankfully played ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’ and ‘Likely Lads’ with me tumbling joyously around the moshpit.

On 11/03/17 I finally got to see the New York based band Helmet. Helmet were formed in 1989 and fronted by Page Hamilton. He was a former member of the Band of Susan’s, a band I sadly never got to see. Helmet are quantified as ‘alternative metal’.

They had sporadic moments but overall not as enjoyable or as loud as I expected them to be.

The final great band I saw there was the Liminanas from south west France on 07/02/19. They were recommended to me by my second North East correspondent Jamie Young who was also at the gig. The band is made up of Lionel and Marie Liminana who recruited a very interactive band of around 7 musicians for live gigs.

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Liminanas. Image Credit Ouifm.fr

There is a lot of variables in their sound combining garage rock and psych whilst also being quintessentially European. There were outstanding live and highly recommended.